ARTS&LIFE
THEATER
T
he young-adult play Connected by
the celebrated Israeli playwright and
television writer Ori Urian will be
performed for the first time in English at
the Sponberg Theatre at Eastern Michigan
University Campus on March 9 at 7 p.m. and
March 10 at 2 p.m.
Urian, who has
been recognized
by the Children’s
Stage Awards and
the Israeli Academy
Awards, has just been
nominated for the
ASSITEJ inspirational
playwright award.
With the assistance
of the Zelma Weisefeld
Grant for Culture and
Education from the
Jewish Federation
of Ann Arbor and a
Michigan Arts and
Culture minigrant,
Urian himself will be
an artist in residence
in Ann Arbor from
March 3-10, and will
do talkbacks with the
audience after the
performances.
Connected is a play about the way
technology has impacted the lives of young
people, and not necessarily for the better.
It’s about a group of high school students
who get lost on a field trip when they decide
to stray from the group. In the play, Urian
examines the way that an overreliance on
technology harms us, whether in the form
of trusting a GPS over what one sees with
one’s own eyes, or for the way social media
alienates people from each other, leading
people to prioritize
their number of
followers and status
online over real-life
relationships.
Such a topic is
relevant to our
contemporary moment,
oversaturated as it is by
technology.
However, in the wake
of the war between
Israel and Gaza and the
way it has reverberated
here in the U.S. in
city council meetings
and campus unrest,
this play is especially
relevant in that it
highlights the ways
we are bound up with
one another, and how
social media foments
conflict by fostering
gossip and pernicious assumptions, leading
us to withhold basic generosity from one
another.
Bob Erlewine is the director of EMU’s Center for Jewish
Studies.
Israeli playwright Ori Urian to perform
a talkback with audiences.
See the Young-Adult Play
Connected on EMU Stage
BOB ERLEWINE SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
50 | FEBRUARY 29 • 2024
J
N
Ori Urian
Ori Urian is a graduate of the
Nissan Nativ Acting Studio
in Tel Aviv (2009), The
Playwriting School (2011) and
of the Thelma Yellin High
School of Arts. In the military,
he served at the IDF Theater.
He has written extensively
for the stage and screen.
Amongst his playwrighting
credits are Behind the Door
(Habima National Theater),
Life is A Cabaret (Cameri
Theater) and The Three
Musketeers. Screenwriting
credits include The Tree
House Kids and Shakshuka.
Urian has also acted in
many Israeli plays, commer-
cials, movies and TV shows.
His acting credits include
appearances in Beit Lessin
Theater, Gesher Theater,
Haifa Theater, The Orna Porat
Children’s Theater, HaShaa
Theater, The Kibbutz Theatre,
Mofa Theater, Tzavta Theater,
Hop Channel, HOT, Yes,
Children’s Channel and more.
Urian is a member of the
Fringe Committee of the
Israeli Ministry of Culture,
and a lector of plays at
Habima National Theater
and Cameri Theater in Tel
Aviv. He is the winner of
Best Supporting Actor Award
(2017) and Best Leading
Actor Award (2021) in the
Children’s Stage Awards,
2017; Best Teen TV Series
and Best Script in the Israeli
Academy Awards for The
Tree House Kids, 2020-
2021.
DETAILS Tickets are $10 dollars for adults and $5 for seniors and students.
Tickets can be purchased here: https://emich.ludus.com/200447673. For questions,
contact jewish.studies@emich.edu.
Ori Urian