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JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
Winnipeg Jewish Theatre\u2019s (WJT) artistic director, Dan Petrenko, is gearing up for his fifth season at the helm.<\/p>\n
Since the Israeli-born, Toronto-raised artist took over for former artistic director Ari Weinberg \u2014 now the casting director for the Stratford Festival \u2014 in 2022, Petrenko has been tasked with revitalizing the company by incorporating younger theatre-going audiences while remaining faithful to the stock of productions that keep the WJT\u2019s established subscriber base engaged.<\/p>\n
From the outset, Petrenko has said that his aim was to create bridges to new audiences \u2014 both Jewish and non-Jewish \u2014 through programming that challenges binary thinking and monolithic estimations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in a time when Jewish stories are too often oversimplified and misunderstood,\u201d says Petrenko, who has programmed such challenging fare as Max Wolf Friedlich\u2019s psychodrama Job and Kathrine Kressmann Taylor\u2019s epistolary warning call Address Unknown.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the company\u2019s responsibility to showcase Jewish life not as one voice, \u201cbut as a chorus of voices,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
In recent seasons, that\u2019s been best exemplified through the WJT\u2019s leanings into musical theatre, a form that Petrenko knew would be key to reaching across the aisle to draw audiences; recent successes include extended runs of both The Band\u2019s Visit and Ride, a dynamic tandem performance about women\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n
This season, the company is producing the longest run in its post-pandemic era with a three-week stand of Dear Evan Hansen (March 30-April 18, 2027) \u2014 the first professional local production of the six-time Tony winner in Manitoba.<\/p>\n
With a book by Steven Levenson and music and lyrics by La La Land\u2019s Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the musical will be presented by Rainbow Stage, continuing the companies\u2019 fruitful partnership.<\/p>\n
That show is the buzziest on offer next season, but hardly the most cutting.<\/p>\n
From Toronto writer Jordi Mand, The Cut is a two-hander about a couple in their unborn child\u2019s room whose discussion about circumcision opens up deeper, challenging conversations about religious differences and fundamental values. A co-production with Toronto\u2019s Harold Green Jewish Theatre, the season-opening production (Oct. 15-25) will be directed by Philip Akin.<\/p>\n
Can the Jewish story be summarized in an hour or less? Steven Schipper was intrigued to try. The playwright and director has been at work on The History of the Jewish People \u2026 in 54 Minutes since leaving his post as the artistic director of the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in 2018.<\/p>\n
Relying on three actors to trace the complex arc of the narrative \u2014 all the way from Abraham\u2019s open tent to Zabar\u2019s tantalizing deli counter \u2014 History\u2026 has been workshopped twice in the past year and audience-tested with high school students in Toronto, Petrenko says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is really a way for Stephen to say that Jewish artists should tell our own stories before somebody tells them for us,\u201d the artistic director says of the show, which will run Dec. 10-13.<\/p>\n
Petrenko\u2019s own creative contribution to the season is an experiment in audio immersion called Anne\u2019s Attic.<\/p>\n
Using binaural sound technology, Petrenko \u2014 who conceived of the idea, but will partner with Tracey Erin Smith on the writing \u2014 says the show will take place completely in the dark, with audience members sitting among the onstage actors as they recreate the hidden domestic experiences of the Frank family as they hope to evade discovery by the Nazis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought, Anne\u2019s story has been told so many times, and now we\u2019re asking to experience her world in a totally different way,\u201d Petrenko says.<\/p>\n
Closing out the season is a staged reading of a more contemporary drama of human conflict.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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Developed by Tel Aviv LGBTTQ+ theatre HaMeshulash (the Triangle), Border is a story told entirely through messages exchanged on the dating app Grindr between two men \u2014 one an Israeli soldier and the other a man living in Lebanon amid ongoing international trauma.<\/p>\n
\u201cI programmed this because it\u2019s important that the Jewish theatre shares Israeli stories in all their complexity,\u201d says Petrenko, who saw a staging by HaMeshulash director Nimrod Danishman in November in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n
The staged reading will be directed by Winnipeg\u2019s Chase Winnicky, who will also direct the world premi\u00e8re of Ottawa playwright Lawrence Aronovitch\u2019s Dancing With the Past \u2014 a queer drama reflecting on the campaign to \u201cclean up\u201d gay bars and bathhouses ahead of the 1976 Montreal Olympics \u2014 in October at the Gargoyle Theatre in association with International Day of Pink.<\/p>\n
For more information on the upcoming WJT season, visit wjt.ca.<\/p>\n
winnipegfreepress.com\/benwaldman<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t Ben Waldman Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University\u2019s (now Toronto Metropolitan University\u2019s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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