I am pleased to announce that my wife Lauri Donahue's play "Alexandra of
Judea" won the 2003 Dorothy Silver Playwriting Award for works that
provide "fresh and significant perspective on the range of Jewish
experience." (This is the leading Jewish playwriting award in the US.)
The play is being published by
Baker's Plays.
Copies of the script and info on
performance rights are available from Baker's Plays at http://bakersplays.net/alofju.html
Alexandra of Judea, aka Shlomtzion
haMalka was the only good queen ever to rule over the Jews. As it
is set in the Hasmonean period, it's a very appropriate play for around
Chanuka time as a follow up to what happened after the events we retell
every year. The play is very accurate historically--it is based on
Josephus and the Talmud (my
contribution to the endeavor was looking up Talmudic references).
A description from the Baker's Plays web site follows:
"Civil war and foreign invasions...
Courtesans, cannibalism, and mass crucifixions... And an unfortunate
incident with a citrus fruit...
Alexandra of Judea is an epic true story of the Hasmonean Dynasty - the
house of Maccabee. A woman of faith and courage, Alexandra survives
political intrigues and two murderous husbands to rule as the last queen
of the independent kingdom of Judea, with the help of her ally -
Cleopatra III of Egypt. The conflicts of their time echo down to the
present-day crisis in the Middle East in this fast-moving, action-packed
tale of an important - and little known - period of history."
Please forward this to anyone you know involved in theatre (Jewish or
otherwise, professional or amateur, and especially synagogue,
school and community groups looking for large-cast plays).
For those of you in the Cleveland
area, Lauri will be in Cleveland to accept the award (with
me in tow if we can work out the logistics) and
attend a reading of the play on September 13, at:
JCC Halle Theatre
3505 Mayfield Road
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118
Lauri is also preparing a guide to
the play which includes more information on sources, etc. For
further information on the guide or other questions, Lauri can be
contacted directly at
lauri@tek-law.com.
Thanks!
Rabbi Barry Leff