50 | MARCH 25 • 2021 

L

ast year at Passover, Udi 
Kapen was thinking 
about ideas for a script 
to be submitted in participation 
with a playwriting group he had 
joined. As the holiday also was 
on his mind, Kapen imagined a 
seder plotline.
The sometime writer came 
up with a seriocomedy based 
on Elijah and what it would be 
like if Elijah introduced him-
self at the family’s front door. 
Beyond the group, he shared 
his idea with members of 
B’nai Israel Synagogue in West 
Bloomfield, and they decided to 
host a Zoom presentation with 
Kapen as producer/director.
Kapen, a pediatrician by 
vocation and a community 
theater participant by avoca-
tion, brings considerable per-
formance experience to Elijah’s 
Cup, which will be debuted at 
8:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 30. 
“It’s a short play about a 
family sitting down to a seder,
” 
Kapen said. “The teenage son 
is moody and not into it at all. 
His mother and grandfather are 
going off on tangents. 
“It’s not going the way the 
father wants it. It’s his favorite 
holiday, and he wants to do 

everything by the book, the 
Haggadah, and the action takes 
off after the father opens the 
door because there is Elijah.
” 
Appearing in the cast are 
Kapen as the father, Stacy 
Gittleman as the mother, Toby 
Gittleman as the son, Lou 
Severinsky as the grandfather, 
Mechelle Bernard as Officer 
Martin and Mark Robbins as 
Elijah.
“Most of the cast I’ve worked 
with before in community the-
ater productions,
” Kapen, 52, 
said. “I knew they had some 
background in theater, and I 
knew what they could do. I 
made an email blast to the con-
gregation saying that this was 
coming up, and anybody inter-
ested should contact me.
”

ACTING BACKGROUND
Kapen, interested in theater 
since school days in West 
Virginia and later Andover 
High School here, put theater 
on hold during medical studies 
at the University of Michigan 
and his residency. While raising 
two daughters, he won parts 
with the Bloomfield Players 
and the Village Players of 
Birmingham.
Leading roles placed him in 
The Music Man, Oklahoma and 
Oliver! among some 30 produc-
tions. While he never had sing-
ing lessons, many directors felt 
comfortable choosing him for 
parts that featured him in song. 
During the pandemic, Kapen 
has immersed himself in the 
Zoom platform with playwrit-
ing experiences, auditions and 
rehearsals. 
“I belong to Playwrights@
Work through the Village 
Players,
” Kapen said. 

“Playwriting has really filled a 
void for me during this time 
that I haven’t been able to act 
on stage. It’s a wonderful cre-
ative outlet, allowing me to 
express thoughts, feelings, even 
opinions.
“I’ve gotten to write semi-au-
tobiographical plays and plays 
about things I love, like coun-
try music and Star Trek. It’s an 
incredibly fulfilling feeling to 
hear my words spoken and per-
formed by others.
“Elijah’s Cup lends itself to 
the Zoom format because the 
whole thing takes place in one 
scene around a dinner table.
”
While offstage, Kapen still is 
a bit of a performer. To ease the 
tensions of his young patients, 
he juggles three small rubber 
balls kept in his lab coat pocket.
“The Passover play is a come-
dy, so I want people to be enter-
tained,
” he said. “But there is a 
message in the show that I hope 
comes through. It’s about the 
importance of family and real-
izing the things in life that are 
important can be right there in 
front of us but may not be rec-
ognized unless we know to take 
a beat and look for them.
” 

ARTS&LIFE
THEATER

New play examines what might happen if Elijah really came to the seder.
Look Who’s Coming to Dinner

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

“THERE IS A 
MESSAGE IN 
THE SHOW 
THAT I HOPE 
COMES 

THROUGH.”

— UDI KAPEN

Details
Elijah’s Cup can be seen 
at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, 
March 30, by going to 
bnaiisraelwb.org.

The cast of
Elijah’s Cup
rehearses over 
Zoom.

