arts&life
theater
Sukkot Embodied
Immersive theater
experience will provide
a new way of connecting
to the holiday.
SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
I
t won’t be in a sukkah, but the sur-
roundings will give the sense of being
in one with indoor-outdoor access.
It won’t serve home-cooked holiday
foods, but the catered dinner menu will
offer variety and the essence of special
tastes. And it won’t focus on familiar tra-
ditions, but there will be a dramatic pres-
ence to take participants into what has
been a storied tradition.
Ultimately, it will introduce a brand-
new Sukkot-centered happening to young
adults attending an innovative theater
experience created by The Well in col-
laboration with The In[heir]itance Project,
based in New York.
It’s called Embodied: Séance–Kabbalah–
Sukkah and invites young adults to join
imaginative festivities in any one of three
sessions scheduled Thursday-Saturday,
Sept. 27-29, and divided between Temple
Israel in West Bloomfield and the Next
Space Gallery in Ferndale.
“I’m hoping participants will connect
with the holiday of Sukkot in a different
way using a medium that we don’t see
all that frequently in Metro Detroit — an
immersive theater experience,” says Rabbi
Dan Horwitz, founding director of The
Well, who is developing ways to build a
sense of community among people in
their 20s and 30s.
“Jon Adam Ross and Chantal
Pavageaux, who are creating this event,
are part of an avant-garde theater com-
pany, and they have received significant
national recognition for their work. They
push boundaries and facilitate conversa-
tions,” Horwitz says. “The theater com-
pany is featured as one of the 50 most
innovative and impactful Jewish organiza-
tions in the country, alongside The Well,
in the 2018 Slingshot Guide.”
While Slingshot initiatives have to do
42
September 20 • 2018
jn
Jewish and Muslim communities, the
troupe explored with both of those com-
munities their own inherited versions of
the story of Sarah and Hagar, Abraham’s
wives, one the mother of Isaac and one
the mother of Ishmael.
“In each community we go to, we do a
similar process of pairing a
sacred text with the narrative
of what’s happening or has
happened in that commu-
nity,” Ross says. “We also do
projects that are not biblical.
“We have a broad defini-
tion of sacred texts. They do
not have to be religious, but
each has to be sacred to the
community involved. When
we engage in smaller proj-
ects, like the one in Detroit,
sacred texts can be traditions
of a holiday that we turn into
experiences for that com-
TOP: The In[heir]itance Project performance of the Sarah-Hagar
munity.”
story from Genesis in Kanas City. ABOVE: Jon Adam Ross with a
For Embodied, the tradi-
group of kids in Austin, Texas .
tion at the center of the pre-
sentation is Ushpizin.
“Ushpizin, a Jewish mystical tradition,
that engages communities by devising
is the closest thing the Jewish tradition
theater in different ways,” explains Ross,
has to a séance, where we welcome back
managing director and founding artist.
deceased ancestors among our honored
“We have received a very generous
guests in the sukkah,” explains Horwitz,
grant from the {New York City-based]
who suggests the concept could involve
Covenant Foundation [which supports
speaking about someone represented by
innovative programming for Jewish edu-
an empty chair or using costumed charac-
cation] to create a national theater series
ters engaged in bibliodrama techniques.
of plays inspired by the Book of Genesis.
Local actors will be featured in the pre-
“From the start to the end of 2017, we
devised plays in five different cities explor- sentation with contributions from volun-
ing stories from Genesis and putting those teering participants attending the events.
“In this instance, we started with
stories in conversation with the experi-
research into the ritual of the holiday
ences of the people in the communities
overall,” says Pavageaux, artistic director
where we were making theater.”
and founding artist. “Next, we go through
In Kansas, for example, where there
a process of absorption and classification,
were white supremacist shootings in the
with nurturing the talents of young adult
members of the Jewish community, The
In[heir]itance Project works with commu-
nities beyond those that are Jewish.
“Our organization got started in 2015,
although Chantal and I had been working
together for about 15 years doing work
looking for patterns in the research.
“Also, in this instance, it became break-
ing down the pattern of the way ancestors
are called upon and breaking down the
patterns of the dinner party to find con-
nections. We shape the material to be
more linear or more narrative depending
on what the piece calls for in shaping the
material,” she adds.
“The final stages usually are design and
presentation, finding ways to tell the story
through the other activities happening
in the room. It’s a little more immersive
because there’s more than what’s just
happening [among the actors]. We like to
think of it as being responsive. The works
that we make acknowledge that it’s hap-
pening in this moment in this room.”
Horwitz commissioned the New York
company and has been working with
Ross since the two met at a Connecticut
retreat hosted months ago by the Kenissa
Network, which aims to bring innovative
approaches to Jewish life.
“One goal of The Well is to create expe-
riences easily replicable in other Jewish
communities around the country,” says
Horwitz, who has been successful in
achieving this goal with the development
of a Passover-inspired escape room.
“We’re excited to do research and devel-
opment in Detroit that is then exported
nationally.” •
Details
Embodied: Séance-Kabbalah-Sukkah will
be presented 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept.
27, at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield and
8:30-10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Sept.
28-29, at the Next Space Gallery in Ferndale.
$34. Visit thewellembodied.
eventbrite.com.