Canadian dispatches from Israel at wartime: Lauren Stein explains how her improv classes became a balm for war-weary souls
The CJN is publishing dispatches from Canadians currently in Israel. Submissions can be sent for consideration to Lila Sarick at [email protected]. Two days after the massacre on Oct. 7, my regular Monday night class was scheduled to resume after the break for the holidays. I didn’t know whether it would be in bad taste to continue. […]
Vancouver’s PuSh festival cancels ‘The Runner’ play after a Palestinian artist in the same festival threatened to withdraw his work
Vancouver’s PuSh Festival announced on Jan. 11 that it was not going ahead with a planned showing of The Runner after objections from a Palestinian presenter at the festival. A work by Canadian playwright Christopher Morris about a member of the Israeli rescue operation ZAKA who saves the life of a Palestinian woman, it had […]
What I learned about my Jewish identity while performing in the musical ‘Parade’ during a war in Israel
For the last five months, I’ve been stepping into the shoes of a Jewish woman whose husband was lynched for a murder he did not commit. Parade, a musical written and performed on Broadway in the late 1990s, tells the devastating and true story of Leo Frank, a Jewish New Yorker who lived and worked […]
Treasure Trove: David Matlow remembers Stephen Sondheim, who reinvented the American musical
Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021) was a composer and lyricist, credited with reinventing the American musical. He was born to Jewish parents in New York City but was raised without any formal Jewish background. Leonard Bernstein (whom Sondheim collaborated with on West Side Story when he was 27) had to tell him how to pronounce “Yom Kippur.” In addition […]
Winnipeg’s Ben Baader saw his life pass before his eyes, when his journey as a trans Orthodox Jew was made into a play
Ben Baader found it wonderful to see a play based on his own extremely unique experiences. “The actors did an outstanding job,” he said about Narrow Bridge, which chronicles the transitioning of the main character from female to male—and from being a secular Jew to living in the framework of Orthodox observance and practice. Written […]
A Holocaust survivor’s story is finally told by her grandson in Montreal musician Roger White’s avant-garde show, ‘Because You Never Asked’
Roger White got his start in Montreal’s underground music scene, and he bears the tattoos from bands like Dead Messenger and Rhythm Mercenaries to prove it. White is 42 now and his artistic expression has matured, along with a deeper understanding of his obscured Jewish heritage. He was almost 20 when he became aware that […]
Montreal playwright Alice Abracen tackles the dangers of hateful ideas and political divides with ‘What Rough Beast’
Montreal playwright Alice Abracen’s latest production, What Rough Beast, is a politically charged piece that explores how opposing political beliefs divide families and communities. The play, which is being presented at the Centaur Theatre in March, looks at what happens when two college students with radically different political beliefs collaborate on a guest lecture series—which […]
The long theatre intermission is about to end at Montreal’s Segal Centre
After one and a half years in the dark due to the pandemic, the Segal Centre for Performing Arts is presenting an in-person theatre season—with a bark. These extraordinary times call for a reset that is a bit different, a little bolder, said artistic and executive director Lisa Rubin at the virtual 2021-2022 season unveiling. […]
For progressive Zionists, Canada’s arts community is no safe space
“No Jewish artist should have to choose between their personal beliefs and professional passions.”
A gripping tale about split-second decisions
Dorothy Lichtblau reviews The Runner, now playing at the Tarragon Theatre until March 29.
