Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Listening to uncomfortable theatre conversations

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations against systemic racism and police brutality, San Diego Repertory Theatre decided to ask itself a hard question. How can we do better? Theatre folk are generally progressive, but we all have cultural blind spots. And there’s always room for improvement. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Two Women of Valor building trust and community

The plague of 2020 still hangs heavily in the air, shuttering our theatres and concert halls. But thanks to the miracle of YouTube, the 27th Annual Lipinsky Family San Diego Jewish Arts Festival goes on. Highlighting the lives and contributions of hard-working women, two of this year’s Women of Valor are Heidi Gantwerk, Board Chair of San Diego Jewish Academy, and Sharleen Wollach of the Jewish Community Foundation. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, Judaism, Lifestyles, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

‘Unorthodox’ draws critical response from Chabad women

The Netflix miniseries Unorthodox, about a woman who leaves her husband, casts off the ways of the Satmar Hasidim, and seeks to rebuild her life in the secular world, drew Zoomcast rebuttals on Monday night from a first cousin of the author upon whose 2012 memoir the series was based, as well as from educators and rebbetzins of the Lubavitcher Hasidim, better known as Chabadniks, here in San Diego County. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Sounding Alarms Through the Centuries

Most of us have been glued to our television sets watching protesters marching on our streets and around the world. They are  responding to the murder of George Floyd.  In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “Riots are the language of the unheard.” [Vocal and story by Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel]

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Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel, z"l, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

My mother’s and Frank Sinatra’s address books

She did it her way By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — The June/July 2020 issue of The Wall Street Journal Magazine contains a fascinating story by Will Friedwald with photography by Henry Leutwyler — “Sinatra’s Little Brown Book.” The article heralds Leutwyler’s just published Hi There!, a collection of 69 photographs of the address

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International, Jewish History, Lifestyles, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Oliver Pollak, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

European Jewish Civil War volunteers flocked to the North’s cause

Born in Hungary;  living in Portsmouth, United Kingdom; spending many hours of research at the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati, Ohio; and even boasting a cousin (Judit Sipos-Szabo) here in San Diego, Peter Kovacs Rosenbluth understands  links between European Jewish history and American Jewish history about which most of us, including yours truly, have been unaware. [By Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Finding Jewish Women of Valor in San Diego

Thursday night’s Woman of Valor was Tammy Gillies, Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League played by Sarah Price-Keating. Gillies is the first woman to hold this post and there were a few members of the board who voted against her for this reason. They just couldn’t picture this soft-spoken woman shouting down a hater with a bullhorn. Yet she still got the job and she has shown them. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Zoom in to Beachtown

During Passover, 2018, The San Diego REP premiered Beachtown, a fun, interactive town hall-style theatrical experience. Inspired by Pittsburgh’s Beertown, Playwright-in-Residence Herb Siguenza filled Beachtown with a cast of funny, relatable characters like the hip, surfing mayor, Steve Novak (Jason Heil) and an outspoken right-wing “journalist” Damon Haynes (TJ Johnson). Interactive by nature, I can’t think of a better show to transition to today’s Zoom format.  Hungry for some live theatre, over 130 “Beachtonians” zoomed in to participate. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Videos

Finding a stronger desire to live

PEN America Prison and Justice Writing Programs, in conjunction with Haymarket Books, created a podcast featuring the literary and visual arts of prison inmates currently doing time. The virtual presentation included the music of Kenyatta Emmanuel, himself an ex-con, whose work has been heard from Sing Sing to Carnegie Hall. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, Lifestyles, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

‘Total Baloney’ and the secrets of the German kitchen

The CD with the title (in German and Hebrew) Total Baloney was given to me some time ago by the Association of Former Residents of Central Europe, and when I finally got round to watching it I found myself taken back to the kitchen of my mother and other ‘Yekke’ relatives, back to the enchanted land of nostalgia, to the tastes and aromas of yesteryear, and to a time of innocence and memories (though not always fond). [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food