Ali Viterbi play hits hot button issues

By Eileen Wingard

SAN DIEGO — Playwright Ali Viterbi , judging by In Every Generation, is a fresh young voice with much to say.  The play, presented Thursday evening, June 6, as part of the 26^th Annual Lipinsky Family San Diego Jewish Arts Festival, is in four parts. It zig-zags between eras, managing to deal with many issues of contemporary Jewish family life, most of which have universal resonance.

It touches upon intergenerational expectations, care for aging parents, divorce, intermarriage, homosexuality, interracial adoption, sibling rivalry, and tensions over religious practice.

All are deftly woven into an engaging tapestry, beginning with a three generational family celebrating a Passover seder in the present. The next part shifts to the past, where the grandparents, recently liberated Italian-Jewish survivors, are celebrating their first seder as newlyweds in the US. The third part brings us a segment of the family at a seder in the future. The grandparents are dead, the mother, like her father in the first scene, is in a wheelchair and cannot speak, but now, can transmit her thoughts to a smart phone. The adopted daughter from China has become a prominent Los Angeles rabbi, married to her wife. The younger sister, a Yale graduate, is married to Miguel, a non-Jew, and they have twin teenaged daughters. The rabbi tries to convince her sister to have the twins prepare for Bat Mitzvahs.

The final scene is at a celebration of the exodus in the Sinai desert during Biblical times. It ends with a mythical blooming of cherry blossoms as the family sings, Mi Chomocha (Who Is Like Unto Thee, O God?].

The cast of In Every Generation was outstanding. Judith Scarpone played the grandmother, speaking authentic-sounding Italian, Marco Barricelli was the grandfather, Lisa Robins portrayed the mother, Nicole Javier was the adopted daughter and Rebecca Meyers was the Yale-educated, younger sibling.

Those of us who know Ali Viterbi recognized some of her own life experiences reflected in the play: her Italian-Jewish roots, her study at Yale University, her San Diego Jewish Academy education, her experiences in JCompany, and her many years of writing Women of Valor sketches under The San Diego Jewish Arts Festival’s Artistic Director, Todd Salovey’s tutelage. He also served as the director of the evening’s staged reading.

The large audience and standing ovation reflected the strong, positive reaction to the excellent presentation.

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Wingard is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts.  She may be contacted via eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com