What A Surprise!
These stories showcase the best of how Jewish values are there for life’s most shocking curveballs.
May 7 – June 11, 2023
PRESS
The Jewish Journal
Surprises from the Heart in The Braid’s Latest Production
BroadwayWorld
New Theatre Show WHAT A SURPRISE! Tackles Surprising Moments, Jewish Values
DOWNLOAD PRESS RELEASE HERE
THE PROGRAM
Produced by Ronda Spinak & Daphna Shull
Material Adapted & Curated by Casey Adler, Dillan Cohen, Shira Gorelick,
Daphna Shull & Ronda Spinak
Directed by Jordan Herskowitz, Genevieve Fowler & Stacey Weingarten
Stage Manager MJ Adamson
This show is made possible in part by Gail Solo, Erwin Rautenberg Foundation, Los Angeles City Department of Cultural Affairs,
Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture, City of Santa Monica Department of Cultural Affairs,
and Robert Sillins Family Foundation.
WELCOME
THE PROGRAM
With Debbie It’s Forever
Written by Dillan Cohen. Performed by Michael Naishtut.
The Man on the Ship
Written by Jean Bloch Rosensaft. Adapted from an Interview by Ronda Spinak. Performed by Jeanette Horn.
The Call
Written by Kelley Aaron. Performed by Brenan Dwyer.
The Birthday Gift
Written by Miriam Kook. Performed by Jeanette Horn.
I’m Not a Doctor
Written by Izzy Salant. Performed by Joshua Silverstein and Brenan Dwyer.
A Whole Heart
Written by Gina Roitman. Performed by Brenan Dwyer and Jeanette Horn.
My Grandmother and the Beach Boy
Written by Germain Shames. Performed by Jeanette Horn.
Reveille Reveal
Written by Ellen Ancui. Performed by Brenan Dwyer and Michael Naishtut.
No One Can Do Life Alone
Written by Leslie Neale and Duc Ta. Adapted from an Interview by Ronda Spinak. Performed by Jeanette Horn and ensemble.
The Latkes
Written and performed by Joshua Silverstein.
Hotel Terme
Written by Robin Uriel Russin. Performed by Michael Naishtut.
My Story of David
Written by Ellen Ancui. Performed by Brenan Dwyer and ensemble.
POST SHOW Q & A
ARTIST BIOS
KELLEY AARON grew up in the Midwest and moved to Los Angeles the day after graduating from college. She began writing as a child, having been an elective mute. She found her voice through putting pen to paper and has written every single day since she was eight years old. She has penned a vast collection of prose, poems, short stories, and two books, which are in process. Kelley has stated that The Call is her first submission to any publication, and the acceptance of her work by The Braid is an honor that has ignited a passion to share her voice widely. A licensed psychotherapist in private practice, she also works as an engineer at a large corporation. She currently lives in Beverly Hills with her son, Zach, who inspires her in countless ways. Second to being Zach’s mom, writing is the most important thing in her life.
MJ ADAMSON is a current student of the University of Southern California. Working towards a BFA in stage management, they have devoted the last five years to performance arts. In these five years MJ has also costume-designed, produced, production-managed, and has been credited as a screenwriter. As MJ’s work continues forward, their personal mission statement is to work on productions that amplify the voices of marginalized communities.
CASEY ADLER holds a BFA in theater performance and a minor in world religions. As an actor, writer, educator, and theater producer, he has appeared on television, written for the stage and film, and organized community theater. He often mixes these varied interests with his passion for Jewish arts and culture as a creative director for TEATRON: A Festival of Jewish Theater. He enjoys reading 19th- and 20th-century history, engaging in discussion and debatearound contemporary issues, playing basketball, and practicing taekwondo.
ELLEN ANCUI (WGA) is a middlescent, neuro-diverse writer for TV, film, theater, and podcasts who hails from NY and lives in LA. Ellen writes “traumadies” and features female protagonists who feel like imposters. Her Catholic Sicilian mom converted for her German Jewish dad but would sneak ham sandwiches to the kids in the garage, so it’s no wonder Ellen loves storytelling and food. In NYC, Ellen was a private chef for Oscar-winning writer Horton Foote, who taught her that “It’s all about the characters.” She moved to LA after the success of her one-woman shows and was staffed on the sitcom Malcolm & Eddie. Most recently, Ellen wrote for the Netflix show Brown & Friends (12/22), and her one-act play, Sizzler, was published by Next Stage Press (2/23). Ellen is prepping to direct her short film Found (fall 2023), developing several narrative podcasts and an action feature film for Edie Falco.
JASMINE CURRY trained at New York University, Experimental Theatre Wing, and was a resident actor at Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley, PA. She studied improv and sketch writing with The Groundlings Theatre and iO West. Jasmine has worked in educational theatre with Writers Room Productions, California Weekly Explorer, and The Imagination Machine. Jasmine has appeared in The Braid salons Sex, Love and Addiction in the 21st Century, Living After, The Way Home, and Family Matters.
DILLAN COHEN (Writer/NEXT Fellow) is originally from Boca Raton, Florida, but one visit to Los Angeles three years ago led to Dillan realizing “West Coast Best Coast” was more than just a catchy rhyme, and he’s been lucky to call this creative outlet of a city home ever since. From teaching theater in Shanghai to learning Muay Thai in Thailand to studying Torah in the holy city of Jerusalem, Dillan is passionate about immersive experiences, self-growth, and capturing the poetry hidden in the small moments all around us. Having danced between tech and the arts for most of his career, Dillan is finally diving headfirst into the literary world. A big believer in the power of the stage and the journey one can take an on with nothing more than the right words spoken at the right time, Dillan couldn’t be more excited and honored to be rolling up his playwriting sleeves and joining The Braid as a NEXT literary fellow.
BRENAN DWYER is an actor, writer, and director for stage and screen, where she specializes in creating new work and reinventing old stories. She holds an MFA in acting from CalArts, where she was honored as the School of Theater Princess Grace Award nominee, and she has a BA in theater from Occidental College. She focuses on developing new work; she recently workshopped a performance adaptation of the 1960s game show Queen for a Day at the Catswalk Residency in Hudson, NY; wrote and acted in a short film that explores child loss through a ghost story in the woods; and premiered the modern adaptation of Hamlet, Here Comes the Tide /There Goes the Girl at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (directed by one of The Braid’s NEXT emerging artists, Genevieve Fowler). In addition, Brenan is a performing arts educator, graphic designer, improviser, visual artist, and amateur pie baker. www.brenandwyer.com.
JENNIE FAHN is a writer/actor. Her solo comedy Under the Jello Mold premiered at the Hollywood Fringe Festival and won Best Solo Performance, a Producer’s Encore, and was named Pick of the Fringe. The show was a sequel to You Mutha! A One-Mother Show (which had a two-year run in Los Angeles and was featured in the 2005 N.Y. Fringe Festival). Other playwriting credits: Broads! The Musical (book – El Portal Theater), Does It Make a Sound? (one of the Four Tree Plays – Hollywood Fringe), 12 Items or Less (Friends and Artists Theater, LA), and Cracker Jack Day (Friends and Artists Theater). Screenwriting credits: web series 5-Star Weekend and short films Jerry, Break, and Tea with Grandma (in which Jennie co-starred with Tippi Hedren). Currently in development: As Long as You’re Happy (a full-length play co-written with Maxine Rosenberg) and Bris Amiss! The Musical (librettist).
GENEVIEVE FOWLER is a Chicago- and LA-based director whose multidisciplinary performance works act as a liminal space, weaving together memories of the past, present, and future to discover ways in which our current reality is questioned and sanguine futures are dreamed on. This practice revolves around radically inclusive community-based work and socially minded critiques of the classics for a contemporary audience. She has worked with the Kennedy Center, REDCAT Theater, the Tank Center for Sonic Arts, the Center for New Performance, California Institute for the Arts, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Lookingglass Theater, Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theater, Chicago Dramatists, Big Bridge Consortium, Heritage Arts Company, the Special Olympics of Illinois, and the senior-citizen musical theater troupe Still Acting Up. Genevieve is a company member of Collaboraction Theater Company and artistic associate with Medina Theater Collective. As part of her social justice work, Genevieve holds the position of program associate with ArtChangeUS. Genevieve holds an MFA in directing from the CalArts School of Theater and a BA from Vassar College.
SHIRA GORELICK is a writer, producer, and educator who grew up in New York and New Jersey. She values injecting vulnerability and authenticity into storytelling as a way to explore perspectives, heighten consciousness, and expand empathy. She has worked in writers’ rooms for TV shows on HBO, HBOMax, Showtime, and Amazon Studios. This past year, she associate-produced the documentary A Feminist Lens: The Art of Activism of Photographer Joan Roth. She writes for the Jewish feminist Lilith magazine and teaches 1st graders at Nefesh’s spiritual education program Makom. She loves photography, nature, naps, and psychobabble.
JORDAN HERSKOWITZ is a comedy writer, director, and educator. Born and raised in Texas, Jordan received his BA in theatre with a minor in Judaic studies from the University of Tulsa. Following graduation, Jordan toured with his award-winning autobiographical one-man show, Growing Up Jordy Pordy, across the US, UK, and South Africa. While on tour, Jordan founded Richie’s Spirit Foundation, a nonprofit promoting organ donation in memory of his younger brother and double-lung transplant recipient, Richie. After his tour, Jordan taught theatre at Golda Och Academy, a Jewish day school in NJ. What was supposed to be a one-year gig turned into 11 incredible years with a variety of leadership roles, including Arts Department chair, dean of students, and upper school principal. In 2021, Jordan moved to Los Angeles with his dreams and a cardigan to pursue screenwriting. He is an avid yogi, ice cream enthusiast, and Kelly Clarkson’s #1 fan.
AMANDA HOROWITZ (Stage Manager) is a Jewish theater artist born and raised in Los Angeles and an Abby Freeman Artist-in-Residence with The Braid. She grew up performing in musicals and plays before turning her attention to behind-the-scenes work. After attending The University of Alabama to earn bachelor’s degrees in math and theater, she returned to LA to work as a stage manager for organizations including The Braid, Theatre Ariel, Young Actor’s Studio, and Bayit Shelanu. She runs the box office for Echo Theater Company and has run the box office for the Los Angeles Ballet. She’d like to thank The Braid for all of the love and opportunities to work with such wonderful people.
JEANETTE HORN is an actor, writer, and educator. Born and raised in New York City, she has appeared onstage off-Broadway, off-off Broadway, and across California. She toured in South America with The Actor’s Gang production of The New Colossus, an original piece created by the company and artistic director Tim Robbins, who directed it. During the pandemic, Jeanette worked on a zoom production of We Live On, an adaptation of Studs Terkel’s Hard Times, soon to be released as a film. Since 2010 she has worked as a TA with The Actors Gang Prison Project. She is proud of her work in the community and with the International Theatre with the Theatre & Literacy Project, creating original theatre pieces in rural African, Balinese, and Indian villages. Jeanette joined The Braid in 2014 and has had the enormous pleasure of appearing in The Art of Forgiveness and in many salons, community centers, and synagogues throughout California, as well as on The Braid’s StoryNosh. She is honored to be an Abby Freeman Artist-in-Residence.
MIRIAM KOOK is a playwright, composer, lyricist, music director, accompanist, and actor who lives in Maryland. Most recently, she produced a staged reading of her full-length musical, Joy Comes in the Mourning, for which she wrote the book, music, and lyrics. She collaborated as composer and music director with playwright and lyricist Steffi Rubin on a play about adoption, My Other Mother, which enjoyed two staged readings in the Maryland area. She also collaborated as composer and music director for a staged reading of writer and lyricist Ben Kintisch’s hospice musical, Life Review. She has music-directed and band-directed for high schools and community theaters and played numerous roles in musical productions in New York City, Maryland, Israel, and Egypt. Credits include West Side Story, Chicago, Guys and Dolls, Hairspray, Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast. She has seven grandchildren and a grand-dog named Waffles.
SHARON LANDAU 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 previously 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.
LESLIE NEALE has more than 30 years of experience in the entertainment industry, both behind and in front of the camera. After a successful career as an actress in commercials, television, and film, she turned her talents toward documentary film production. Her films are recognized for their
emotionally gripping look into the world of prisons and criminal justice and for stories that promote understanding and instigate positive change within the system. She has produced, directed, and written several documentaries that have won awards and have been shown worldwide through such organizations as the United Nations and the Human Rights Watch, as well as achieving national broadcasts on television and cable-TV networks including PBS, Discovery, and HBO. Most recently she has completed a half-hour documentary on the negative effect the criminal justice system has on correctional officers.
MICHAEL NAISHTUT appeared in NYC at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, Theatre for the New City, and the NY Public Theatre. In Florida he performed at EPCOT as well as in Scapino at the Riverside Theatre and in Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Florida Shakespeare Festival. In Japan, Michael performed regularly on television, radio, narration, and theater, including the soloshow Defending the Caveman. In Los Angeles, he performed in Romeo and Juliet at the Met and in Lyman-The Musical at the El Portal. He was nominated for an acting ensemble Ovation award for the musical Memphis, has performed with The Second City, toured with Old Jews Telling Jokes, and can be heard narrating the novel The Arrow Catcher on Audibles.com. He has appeared in the TV shows Gene Simmons Family Jewels, Operation Repo, and 1000 Ways to Die. He is ecstatic to be performing with The Braid again. Michael also loves Japanese Taiko drumming and performs regularly with his group, Akaoni Daiko. ABC’s This Is Us, Amazon’s Bosch, CBS’s Criminal Minds, and HBO’s Treme. He lives in Los Angeles with his talented wife, Braid alum Natasha McCrea.
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. In Los Angeles, Susan has directed numerous shows, and has also worked as a consultant show director at Disneyland Parks and Resorts, working with Mickey, Minnie, and friends. She has directed many Braid salon shows, as well as Annie Korzen: Famous Actress, and Ovation Recommended, Sacred Resistance. Her position at The Braid has become the most meaningful, working with amazing actors, writers, and Braid leadership, while also informing and illuminating her Jewish life.
GINA ROITMAN is a short-story writer, biographer, and memoir writing coach. She is the author of the literary novel Don’t Ask (Guernica/Miroland) and the critically acclaimed collection Tell Me a Story, Tell Me the Truth. Her work has appeared in carte-blanche, Poetica, JewishFiction.net, Moment,
and in numerous anthologies and poetry chapbooks. She is also the co-writer and subject of the award-winning film My Mother, the Nazi Midwife, and Me and is currently working on a novel about the father of abstract expressionism, Chaim Soutine.
JEAN BLOCH ROSENSAFT is senior advisor to the president and director of the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She curated the exhibitions Chagall and the Bible and Justice in Jerusalem Revisited: The Eichmann Trial at the Jewish Museum in New
York, and she previously coordinated educational publications and school programs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She was a founder and vice-president of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and vice president of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants. She serves on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Education Committee and her exhibition Rebirth After the Holocaust: The Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp, 1945-1950 is permanently installed at the Bergen-Belsen Memorial Museum in Germany. She served as vice president of Park Avenue Synagogue and chairs the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture’s Panel on Art and Photography.
ROBIN URIEL RUSSIN was born and raised in Wyoming and Italy and is a professor of screen-writing and playwriting at the University of California, Riverside. A Rhodes Scholar and WGA member, Robin has written, produced, and directed for film, TV, and the theater; a feature he co-wrote, 2 Hearts, received a wide theatrical release in 2020 and currently streams on Netflix. Robinalso directed an independent feature about the humor and challenges of disability, The Anxiety of Laughing, which premiered its festival run at the Dances with Films festival in 2022 and concluded at the Socially Relevant Film Festival in Manhattan in 2023. His play The Face in the Reeds premiered in a four-month run at the Ruskin Group Theatre in LA. Robin is co-author of the books Naked Playwriting and Screenplay: Writing the Picture, both in their second editions.
IZZY SALANT is a Los Angeles-based playwright, actor, and magician who got tired of freezing to death and being allergic to going outside and relocated to LA from Maryland. He is a proud member of the Alliance of Jewish Theater, the Playwrights Center, and the Dramatists Guild. Selected works: Rite of Passage (Punctuate4, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Theater); Peace Talks (Bema Productions, Arena Civic Theater); Maryland Is the F#CKING South (The Braid). Selected acting credits: Frank N Furter (Rocky Horror Picture Show), Mr. Applegate (Damn Yankees), Hamlet (Hamlet). History and training: BA in theater (University of Massachusetts Amherst); BA in journalism (University of Massachusetts Amherst); Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive (Class of 2019, 2021); NEXT at the Braid fellow (2019, 2021); AJT TheaterMacher (2022-present).
GERMAINE SHAMES, a Kilroys List playwright and recipient of her state’s Literary Fellowship in Fiction, is author of the award-winning novels Between Two Deserts and You, Fascinating You. Writing under the pen name Casper Silk (Hotel Noir, Echo Year), she has been compared to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Graham Greene, and P.D. James “on steroids.” After covering the first Palestinian Uprising for two winters as a correspondent and witnessing firsthand the gamut of senselesstragedies behind the headlines, Shames realized that hard news could never convey an iota of thedeeper story. She turned to fiction writing and learned that she can find light in the most horrific situations and leave readers (and now an audience) with hope. Having earned a master’s degree in intercultural studies, Shames writes from a global perspective with the conscious aim of fostering intercultural, interracial, and cross-gender understanding and healing. Over the past half dozen years, her plays, musicals, and operas have premiered in such cities as NYC, London, and Chicago. It’s all about love.
DAPHNA SHULL (Producer) is the Braid’s Creative Producer and NEXT Emerging Artists Fellowship Coordinator. She herself is a six-time NEXT fellow and has been featured as a writer, songwriter, and visual artist in multiple Braid productions. She is also very proud to be producing StoryNosh, The Braid’s digital storytelling series. Along with working at The Braid, Daphna is a screenwriter, artist, musician, and photographer who runs her own photography business, Happy Life Kids Photography. www.happylifekidsphotography.com.
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 cohost and co-producer of Emmy Award–winning Downbeat 720 for 21 years and currently cohosts The Silversteins’ Trivia Show, a weekly trivia-game podcast covering a wide range of topics with his wife, Cinthya Silverstein, their 3 children and hosted by Jacob Rubin.
RONDA SPINAK created The Braid’s Salon Theatre Series and has since curated and produced more than 70 original Jewish-themed salon shows, as well as adapted many of the pieces performed. Spinak developed and produced Ovation-recommended Not That Jewish, which ran for 16 months, garnered an LA Drama Critics Circle nomination, and then moved to a successful run off-Broadway. She also re-developed and produced Rain Pryor’s hit show Fried Chicken & Latkes and Vicki Juditz’s Ovation-recommended Sacred Resistance. In January 2021, Spinak developed and produced Stories from the Violins of Hope, which was shared in 30 countries by the United Nations Program on the Holocaust. Additionally, it was translated into Spanish and Portuguese and streamed to Latin America. In 2022, the film will be in the Greenwich International Film Festival. Spinak also co-wrote Stories from the Fringe, putting the stories of women rabbis on stage for the first time. Since then, she and her team have interviewed on videotape 185 national and international women rabbis, and in partnership with Jewish Women’s Archive have made many of the interviews available online at www.jwa. org. In 2022/23, an art exhibition, “Holy Sparks,” will feature 24 Jewish women artists — each has been paired with one pioneering woman rabbi to create a work of art based on the rabbi’s words and life. The exhibition will open in New York in April and will travel afterwards. Spinak is on the board of the Alliance for Jewish Theatres and is a member of the Dramatists Guild. She feels blessed to be working with so many creative people who work with The Braid.
DUC TA at age 16 was charged as an adult and sent to adult prison. He was convicted under gun and gang enhancement laws for attempted murder and sentenced to 35 years to life. He is the co-founder of API RISE (Asian Pacific Islander Through Re-Entry and Inclusion Through Support and Empowerment), a Los Angeles nonprofit serving the AAPI formerly incarcerated community. Duc decided to pursue his culinary dreams and enrolled in LA Kitchen, a culinary program empowering at-risk community members and returning veterans. He has worked for numerous celebrity chefs and became a culinary instructor for impacted community members. He is now pursuing his technical ambitions as a junior data scientist in the tech industry. If he’s not in the kitchen or office, you’ll find him in search of that perfect wave somewhere on the coastline or setting upcamp somewhere in the mountains. www.api-rise.org.
STACEY WEINGARTEN is an Emmy-winning director, writer, producer, and puppet artist who’s worked everywhere from Sesame Street to Avenue Q, with everyone from the Muppets to Julie Andrews. Through Chinese Mother-Jewish Daughter LLC she develops projects that explore social awareness through entertainment, and was represented off-Broadway last season as writer-director of Rescue Rue, a musical fairytale inspired by her dog’s adoption. Stacey is a consulting creative producer, series director, and contributing writer for Reading Buddies (PBS), co-creator of Monica’s Mixing Bowl (Independent) and Cone of Shame (Handmade Puppet Dreams). Other favorites include LUDOʼs Broken Bride, a time-travelinʼ sci-fi rock opera; 5th Republic, a chanson-infused historical fiction; Madame, a 1890s gender-affirming Storyville tale; and spirits – the bar plays, a shorts series based on real life. A former Dramatist Guild fellow, Stacey teaches puppetry at Pace University, serves as the LA Chapter president of the Children’s Media Association, and promises not to put puppets in anything unless it’s appropriate.
GALLERY
