For the Love of Animals
Captivating stories that shed a light on the Jewish soul—and you don’t have to love animals to resonate with them!
May 14 – June 24, 2025
THE PROGRAM
Material Produced, Adapted & Curated by Ronda Spinak
Co-Directed by Susan Morgenstern & Genevieve Fowler
Additional Adaptation & Curation by Erica W. Jamieson,
Karen Agam Macarah & Deborah Silberstein Shkurovich
Dramaturge Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum
South Bay Producer Liz Altman • Managing Director Sharon Landau
Stage Managers MJ Adamson, Amanda Horowitz & Rhiannon Lewis
Eight Lives to Go
Written by Lisa Schloss Lewis. Performed by Joshua Reuben Silverstein.
Gotham is Great
Written by Penny Wolin. Performed by Lisa Robins, Joshua Reuben Silverstein, and Cherish Monique Duke.
Blue F***ker
Written by Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum. Performed by Cherish Monique Duke and Lisa Robins.
If It Looks Like a Rat, and Smells Like a Rat…
Written by Mindy Myers. Performed by Avalon Greenberg Call.
Bat Like Me
Written by Joshua Reuben Silverstein. Performed by Joshua Reuben Silverstein and ensemble.
Strange Bedfellows
Written by Judith Glass Collins. Performed by Cherish Monique Duke.
Animal Treats
Written by Vanessa Bloom, Katherine Hay, and Lauren Eric Krieger. Performed by ensemble.
Legacy
Written by Rabbi Janet Madden. Performed by Lisa Robins.
The Rat Man: A Memoir
Written by Oscar Firschein. Performed by Joshua Reuben Silverstein.
The Pigeon
Written by Jessica Cabot. Performed by Avalon Greenberg Call and ensemble.
The Awakening
Written by Julia Pascal. Performed by Lisa Robins.
The Story of a Rescue
Written by Cindy Chupack. Performed by Cherish Monique Duke.
ARTIST BIOS
MJ ADAMSON first came to The Braid as the stage and production management intern. MJ holds a BFA in stage management from USC. Their degree has allowed them to amplify voices in non-profit organizations such as The Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival, HeroTheatre,and Critical Mass Performance Group. A multidisciplinary artist, MJ has also been credited as a costume designer, producer in both film and theatre, a production manager and screenwriter.
AVALON GRENBERG CALL is a multidisciplinary performer and CalArts graduate with a degree in acting and digital arts. She was recently seen in Dream Team, co-starring Esther Garrel and R. Play, which screened at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). She also co-wrote and performed in Ballet of Bombay Beach, a film that premiered at IFC. A dedicated rock climber and dancer, Avalon brings physicality and emotional depth to every role. She is currently in production on the upcoming World War II film Light Falling Down and is thrilled to return to the stage with The Braid.
JESSICA CABOT is a writer, director, and producer originally from and currently living in Los Angeles. She is best known for her work on Shitty Boyfriends, a web series she created for Refinery29 that starred Sandra Oh and was executive produced by Lisa Kudrow in partnership with New Form Digital, receiving receiving a Webby Honoree for Comedy: Long Form or Series in 2016. Jessica also co-created, co-produced, and starred in Lifetime’s first web series, The Young Hillary Diaries. She recently earned her MFA at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in film and television production. Jessica is passionate about telling stories that reveal deep emotional truths or just make you laugh.
DAVID CHIU (Marketing/Communications Manager) is a full-time staff member at The Braid. His journey with them began as a writer for their landmark show True Colors. Alumnus of The Braid’s NEXT Emerging Artists Fellowship. Writer for numerous Salon theatre shows and served as literary curator/adapter, director, or dramaturge on various other Braid productions. Producer of The Braid’s What Do I Do with All This Heritage? about Asian Jews. Producer on The Braid’s digital content studio StoryNosh (including the Tastes of Tradition series) and The Braid’s Candlelight Storytelling series for young professionals. Wrote for Amazon Prime’s television series LORE. Vice President of Social Justice at Temple Isaiah of Los Angeles; recipient of its 2019 Emerging Leader Award. Board member of environmentalist organization California Interfaith Power and Light. Jew of Color, of Litvak and Cantonese heritage. LA Community Leader for The LUNAR Collective.
CINDY CHUPACK has won two Emmys and three Golden Globes as a writer/producer of shows including Sex and the City, Modern Family, Everybody Loves Raymond, and most recently Fleishman is in Trouble. She made her feature directing debut with Otherhood (starring Angela Bassett, Patricia Arquette, and Felicity Huffman), now available on Netflix. She’s performed stories for The Moth; been published in the NYT’s Modern Love column; and authored two comic memoirs: the NYT bestseller The Between Boyfriends Book: A Collection of Cautiously Hopeful Essays, and The Longest Date: Life as a Wife (in which this story originally appeared). Her first children’s picture book, We Waited for You, was released in 2023. Cindy lives in Marina del Rey, California, with her 14-year-old daughter. For more about Cindy visit cindychupack.net.
CHERISH MONIQUE DUKE’s favorite LA theater credits include Medea Comes to Our Town (Lightning Rod Theater), Beloved, At the Table, Friends with Guns, Through the Eye of a Needle (The Road Theater Company), Everybody (Antaeus Theater Company), August Wilson’s Seven Guitars (A Noise Within), and The Mountaintop (Garry Marshall Theater). TV’s Black-ish, Jane the Virgin, Pearson, Criminal Minds, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! Cherish graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London. She serves on the artistic board of The Road Theater Company and is a proud member of the Antaeus Theater Company and Interact Theater Company. (SAG-AFTRA/AEA) http://www.cherishmoniqueduke.net.
ANDREW FROMER (Digital Manager) a Los Angeles native, attended Windward School in Mar Vista where his career as an actor began in the school plays and musicals. After completing his BFA in theater at UC Santa Barbara and an exciting year of living in Israel, Andrew returned to LA for acting and producing. His TV credits include Never Have I Ever (Netflix) and Anger Management (FX); feature film credits include Highway to Havasu (Billy/Producer) and The Sweet Life (Mike/Assistant to Production). Theater credits include Pledge (Sherman u/s), Bad Jews (Jonah), and The Braid’s Stories from the Violins of Hope. Andrew also edits, directs, and runs youth engagement at Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, and he hopes you will check out some of the stories he has edited/directed in the Braid’s wonderful digital storytelling series, StoryNosh.
LISA ROBINS’s show Committed?, which she wrote and performed in, recently premiered with Rogue Machine at the Matrix, garnishing standing ovations and stellar reviews and which she looks forward to sharing with you. The Blessing of a Broken Heart, a solo show she starred in, had its LA premiere with The Braid (dir. Todd Salovey). Other LA appearances include Doll’s House 2 (BH Playhouse), River Time (Strasberg), Love, Loss and What I Wore (Geffen), Catskill Sonata (dir. Paul Mazursky), Cornerstone’s Long Bridge (dir. Bill Rausch), and Yehuda Hyman’s Center of the Star. A lifetime member of the Actors Studio, Lisa worked with the late Martin Landau, Mark Rydell, and Asaad Kelada, among others. Film/TV includes Rum Diary (opposite Johnny Depp) and James Dean (dir. Mark Rydell). Lisa’s finest work of art is her kid, Ren. Lisa is proud to be an Artist-in-Residence with The Braid. She appeared in the very first salon in Ronda’s living room and remains grateful for her Braid community.
JODI MARCUS (Community Partnership Lead) vividly remembers that day in second grade when she tucked herself into a corner to read Swimmy by Leo Lionni, and was struck by the desire to write stories when she grew up. After writing “everything but” — grants, marketing materials, website copy — she decided she was “grown up” and embarked on her creative journey. Thankfully, this included joining The Braid team in 2021, where she is surrounded by incredible talent. Jodi helps to share The Braid experience with others by booking shows across the country. In a much younger iteration of her life, Jodi saw half the world as a dancer.
JOSHUA REUBEN SILVERSTEIN is an award-winning actor, comic, writer, beatboxer, educator and DEI consultant whose performances, productions and presentations throughout the country have prompted admiration from creative greats ranging from Norman Lear to Prince. For more than 25 years, Joshua has provided and facilitated theater, improvisation and creative writing workshops and in-school residencies designed to create a safe and open space for students of all ages to experience the freedom of creative expression. Joshua brings passion, play, and persuasion to make words, thinking, and expression infectiously fun. His DEI work has provided transformative dialogue and opened the bridges of challenging conversations for countless individuals. He has served as the co-host and co-producer of Emmy Award–winning Downbeat 720 for 22 years and is the executive director of Cazadero Performing Arts Family Camp, a nonprofit arts organization based in the Bay Area. He is currently writing his forthcoming solo show produced by The Braid.
DAPHNA SHULL (Creative Producer) is honored to be co- producing events for Jewish young professionals with her colleague, David Chiu. Outside of The Braid, Daphna is a writer, visual artist, musician, and photographer based in Bakersfield, CA. She was named a “Rising Star” by VoyageLA; her artwork has been displayed by the Los Angeles Art Association, and her op-ed was recently published by JNS. Daphna is a huge believer in the power of language to reveal truth and heal broken things.
JUDITH GLASS COLLINS comes to the role of writer through her early years as an actor, her more recent work as a drama therapist and psychodramatist, and her doctoral studies in clinical psychology. She received a bachelor of speech degree from Northwestern University and a master’s in drama therapy from New York University. Her one-act, Veterans’ Day, was selected for a staged reading at the Baltimore Playwright’s Festival. She is a 6-time winner of Key City Public Theatre’s Annual Playwright’s Festival (Port Townsend, Washington). Of Poisoned Pens and Palates was a finalist in the KNOCK International Play Contest and was given a staged reading at the Freehold Theatre in Seattle. Her full-length play, Tribe, was a finalist for the Seven Devils Conference. Three of her one-acts and three of her short stories have been published. She lives on Marrowstone Island on the Olympic Peninsula with her husband and cat, Demelza.
OSCAR FIRSCHEIN Z”L pioneered research in the early field of artificial intelligence. Along with the founders of AI, he had influence in the development of key AI technologies, and published multiple articles and books, including a leading textbook on AI, Intelligence: the Eye, the Brain and the Computer. Devoted to studying, to the synagogue, to Talmud classes, and great books, Oscar’s intellectual curiosity led him, in his 70s, after a full career in engineering, to earn an M.L.A. in liberal arts from Stanford University in 2000 and then to edit the program’s literary magazine, Tangents, for almost a decade thereafter.
LISA SCHLOSS LEWIS has a background in theatre and has spent the last 45 years as both a music booking agent and talent rep. With her father making Disney animal/nature films for over twenty years, she had the unique opportunity as a young person to be around many exotic animals, from leopards to monkeys, hawks, elephants, and everything in between. Having always enjoyed writing for fun, she recently had two poems published in the Altadena Poetry Review. She is proud to be the mom of two professional musician/singer/composer/writer kids.
RABBI JANET MADDEN received rabbinic ordination from the Academy for Jewish Religion-CA and earned her PhD from the National University of Ireland. A Fulbright scholar and three-time fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, she is a widely-published writer and ritualist. She is the rabbi of Avocet Playa Vista, and serves as rabbi of Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica and visiting rabbi of the Oahu Jewish O’hana (Honolulu). She is also an ordained animal chaplain. One of her great joys is leading the Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue’s weekly Torah study. She and her husband share their home with a dog and a cat and their backyard with thirteen chickens.
MINDY MYERS grew up in NYC where her love of theater originated. Always a sucker for a good story, Mindy tried her hand at storytelling, enjoyed finessing life stories for the storytelling mode, and ended up winning 11 out of 16 times at The Moth. She has performed at Oakland’s Storyslam, The Lark Theater in Larkspur and Mechanics Institute in San Francisco. Most recently her play, Apparently, was featured as one of eight winning plays at Playwright Center of San Francisco. She is currently writing a play called Mangos for Dinner, a virtually unknown historic and dramatic account of her mother’s Holocaust internment in Trinidad. Mindy wishes to thank her friends and family for believing in her and encouraging her to pursue her craft.
JULIA PASCAL, a London-based playwright/theatre director, was the first woman to direct at the National Theatre. Her dramas include The Holocaust Trilogy, Crossing Jerusalem, The Yiddish Queen Lear, The Shylock Play, Nineveh, Year Zero, St. Joan, Broken English, and Honeypot. Julia is the granddaughter of Romanian Jewish immigrants to Manchester, England, and often writes about exile and displacement. Julia was a writer-in-residence at the Holocaust Archive, The Wiener Library. After completing her PhD in 2016, she became a visiting research fellow at King’s College, London University. Her next play, As Happy as God in France, explores the incarceration of Hannah Arendt, Charlotte Salomon, and other German Jewish women, in Gurs, France, in the weeks before the Nazi occupation.
PENNY WOLIN is a portrait photographer and visual anthropologist who studies multiple cultures in the American West. She has exhibited solo at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her works are held in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the New York Public Library, and the Layton Art Collection at the Milwaukee Art Museum. She is the author of four photographic monographs, including The Jews of Wyoming: Fringe of the Diaspora, and Descendants of Light: American Photographers of Jewish Ancestry. She has been commissioned to photograph respected thinkers, activists, and artists, including Annie Leibovitz, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Robert Frank. Her clients include Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and Esquire magazines. She privately instructs visual literacy to aspiring career photographers.
LIZ ALTMAN wrote Almost a Sacrifice, previously performed at the JWT/Braid salon Unknown Stories of Biblical Proportions. Other credits include song lyrics for activities at the University of Michigan and the Dallas Bar Follies; and co-directing, co-writing, and performing in the annual SMU law school follies. The Braid: Advisory board member and South Bay producer. Professional: president of a real estate company. Hobbies: tennis, art, and travel. Special love to her muse, Louis.
AMANDA HOROWITZ (Stage Manager) is a Jewish theater artist from Los Angeles and an Abby Freeman Artist-in-Residence with The Braid. She earned her B.A. in theater and B.S. in mathematics from The University of Alabama. She has since stage managed plays, Zoom events, religious services, and educational courses with companies including The Braid, Theatre Ariel, Young Actor’s Studio, Lab/Shul, Bayit Shelanu, and Maple Counseling. She’d like to thank The Braid for all of the love and opportunities to work with such wonderful people.
ERICA W. JAMIESON fiction, essays, and spoken word memoirs. Her writing has appeared in Self Magazine, Lilith, and in various online journals. Most recently, Erica is a recipient of the 2024-2025 Next+ Literary Fellowship from The Braid. Erica teaches generative writing classes, including a cohort of multi-aged adults who use writing as inspiration to foster meaningful conversations between generations.
KAREN AGAM MACARAH (NEXT+ Fellow) is a writer and performer from Los Angeles. She’s written and produced a one-woman show, Wine Time with Roni, for Hollywood Fringe and United Solo in NYC, as well as co-written a musical/song cycle entitled Five, themed around the five stages of grief, which she and others also performed at Fringe (Encore Award winner). Favorite past roles include Mama Rose in Gypsy, Mary in Merrily We Roll Along, the Witch in Into the Woods, and Edith/Young Edie in Grey Gardens.
DEBORAH SILBERSTEIN SHKUROVICH (NEXT+ Fellow) was born and raised in Mexico City where she graduated from the Universidad Iberoamericana with a BA in communications. She worked as copywriter at Foote, Cone and Belding in Mexico City, and then moved to the US to pursue a MSJ from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Deborah worked as managing editor at Cahners Publishing, as a freelance English-Spanish translator and currently works as Development and Executive Administrator at Shalom Institute.
SHARON LANDAU (Managing Director) brings to The Braid 20 years of non-profit leadership experience helping programs and organizations scale and thrive. As a non-profit director and consultant, she engaged multidisciplinary stakeholders to design, pilot, scale, and evaluate innovative programs improving contraceptive access at local, state, and national levels that became replicable models. She launched Pharmacy Forward, the nation’s first leadership program for pharmacists in reproductive health. She worked in management consulting for Kaiser Permanente and as clinic manager for Planned Parenthood Los Angeles. She holds a masters in public health from UCLA and is an alumna of CA Women’s Policy Institute and Center for Collaborative Planning’s Leadership Institute.
RHIANNON LEWIS (Stage Manager) is a singer-songwriter, composer, musical director, actor, and animation voice actor born and raised in the heart of LA. Rhiannon got their start in theatre from a very young age, performing in plays at summer camp and their local temple. As an adult, they love bringing all aspects of performance into their art-making, with a focus on storytelling. Rhiannon is a recent graduate of CalArts with a BFA in the performer-composer program. At CalArts Rhiannon delved into producing student projects. Outside of music and theatre (but not that far outside) Rhiannon is engaged at Temple Beth Israel of Highland Park and Eagle Rock, helping lead Friday night services.
SUSAN MORGENSTERN began directing in college by staging musical-theatre concert readings while co-teaching American musical comedy with Tom Lehrer at UC Santa Cruz. She’s directed numerous Los Angeles plays and musicals. Susan worked as a consultant show director at Disneyland Parks and Resorts, Anaheim, where she had the privilege of working with Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and all their pals. She has directed over 40 Braid Salon shows and is especially proud to be its producing director, working closely with a tremendous group of inspiring and passionately creative people.
LISA PEARL ROSENBAUM (Writer/Dramaturge) is the author of the novel A Day of Small Beginnings (Little, Brown & Co, 2006). Her play, Stories from the Violins of Hope, is about the remarkable violin maker who brought the voices of stringed instruments that survived the Holocaust back to life and to the world. A fully staged production of the play, written with Ronda Spinak, was produced in Sydney, Australia in 2023. A new production, now titled The Violin Maker, had its American premiere in Long Beach, this spring.
RONDA SPINAK (Producer/Artistic Director) founded The Braid and created the innovative theatrical art-form, Salon Theatre. She feels privileged to have edited, curated and produced nearly 80 original Jewish-themed Salon Theatre shows, amplifying the voices of a varied and diverse Jewish people. Additionally, she has developed and produced six successful one-person shows, including Not That Jewish, which ran 16 months in LA before a successful Off Broadway run. And now producing it again in The Braid’s new space. Spinak developed and produced Stories from the Violins of Hope,lauded by the United Nations Programme on the Holocaust and broadcast to 30 countries. Her plays have appeared in many festivals throughout the US, including the Ashland New Play festival. The Violin Maker, a new play Spinak co-wrote, opened in Sydney, Australia in May 2023 and was produced at International City Theatre in Long Beach, CA in spring 2025. Spinak is on the board of the Alliance for Jewish Theatres and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
SUSIE YURÉ (Associate Producer/Director of Community Engagement) has proudly worked with The Braid for fourteen years. Susie has produced musical theatre productions, classical concerts, and cabaret performances. She has volunteered in nonprofit organizations in which she has held leadership roles in fundraising, event planning, facilities coordinating, programming, membership, marketing, and administration. She holds a BA and MA in elementary education from USC (where she met her husband), along with her California lifetime teaching credential.
ROSE ZIFF (Associate Producer/Special Projects Manager) came out of retirement to work for The Braid after working at UCLA Medical Center for 33 years, where she functioned as “den mother” to more than 1000 interns, residents, and clinical fellows at UCLA, the VA, and Olive View-UCLA Medical Centers, providing resources and support. Rose is currently serving on the board of directors for Lev Eisha, a Jewish women’s non-profit religious organization and spiritual community. Her hobbies include gardening, volunteering at Providence St. John’s Hospital with her therapy dog, and hosting a monthly book club.
