At a moment when difficult conversations are often avoided, Miami New Drama\u2019s latest premiere, \u201cThe Zionists: A Family Storm,\u201d is leaning into one.<\/p>\n
Three people at the center of the new play by S. Asher Gelman came to it from different perspectives. The playwright was driven to get his story out. The artistic director saw something urgent in bringing it to the stage. And the actor at its center found a role that feels unusually close to the moment.<\/p>\n
Gelman believes that learning to tolerate discomfort is now a radical act. \u201cBeing able to learn how to be uncomfortable and sit in discomfort is a skill we\u2019ve lost,\u201d Gelman says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Zionists\u201d follows a well-to-do Jewish family who are on a reunion at a luxury Caribbean resort, but what\u2019s brewing\u2014both outside and inside\u2014creates a potent mix for tensions to rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis play forces its characters to be very uncomfortable and still stay in the room and still engage with each other. And I just want to bring us back to that. I want to bring us back to discourse,\u201d Gelman says.<\/p>\n
For Miami New Drama\u2019s artistic director Michel Haussman, the play is in keeping with the company\u2019s focus on developing new work while also taking on difficult material. Where, as he says, \u201cmost theaters stay away from the third rail,\u201d Miami New Drama runs toward it. The company didn\u2019t simply pick up the play once it was finished. Haussman says they stepped in \u201cright after conception,\u201d after general manager Evan Bernandin brought Gelman\u2019s script to his attention while Haussman was developing another play, \u201cBirthright.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miami New Drama Artistic Director Michel Haussman compares \u201cThe Zionists\u201d to television hits \u201cWhite Lotus\u201d and \u201cSuccession\u201d mixed into one. (Photos courtesy of Varner Creative) <\/p>\n
In March of 2025, Gelman\u2019s company Midnight Theatricals, along with Bernandin\u2019s production company, presented a private industry New York City presentation with Chloe Treat, who is directing the MiND production.<\/p>\n
Haussman says he read the script, loved it, and committed early to producing it, helping to shepherd its development over roughly a year and a half.<\/p>\n
Haussman compares it to the two intense television cable hits \u201cWhite Lotus\u201d and \u201cSuccession\u201d mixed into one. But although the play is a satire-tinged, high-stakes family drama, he emphasizes that at its core, it\u2019s about something deeper: how families stay together when their beliefs are worlds apart.<\/p>\n
Actor Avi Hoffmann, who plays the patriarch, has spent a lifetime immersed in Jewish stories. He\u2019s lived in Israel, performed on stages across the world, and devoted a career to giving voices to characters wrestling with faith, identity, and history. But even for him, \u201cThe Zionists\u201d feels different.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are living in a world right now that is upside down. The United States is in the news every single day, all day, for everything that\u2019s happening in the world, and here comes a play called \u2018The Zionists,\u2019 which actually isn\u2019t afraid to open up a discussion about it all.\u201d<\/p>\n
The emotional engine of \u201cThe Zionists\u201d is rooted in Gelman\u2019s experience as an Israeli who grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland, lived in Tel Aviv from 2006 to 2016, and was living in New York when the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023 occurred. That\u2019s when Palestinian terrorist group Hamas launched a coordinated attack on Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an Israeli who was living in New York, October 7 really shook me\u2014not just the attack, but also the way the world received it,\u201d Gelman says. \u201cMy peers, particularly my collaborators and even friendly partners in the arts, just almost rushed to contextualize and explain and excuse why this happened to my people. And it felt really lonely. I lost many friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
That sense of fracture extended into his family.<\/p>\n
Miami New Drama Artistic Director Michel Hausmann and \u201cThe Zionists\u201d playwright S. Asher Gelman. (Photo courtesy of Varner Creative) <\/p>\n
\u201cThere were also tensions that brewed within my own family. And then it became clear that I was like, \u2018Oh, this is, this is\u2014I need a home for all of this, this frustration and this pain,\u2019 and I threw it into a play.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Gelman, who shifted to playwriting after a career as an actor and choreographer, playwriting is a way for him to put \u201cdifferent truths in the mouths of different characters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLive theater truly becomes like the last bastion when it comes to being able to sit in a room and experience a thing, and not have the ability to press pause or go into your device or get distracted. The audience is there and present.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoffmann believes that \u201cThe Zionists\u201d does something rare in today\u2019s polarized climate: it allows every side to see itself represented.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe beauty of this show is that every side of this conversation is well and honestly and fairly represented\u2026 There are characters that will reinforce your thoughts on the subject, but you\u2019re going to have to hear what the other side has to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the heart of the story, Hoffmann says, is the father trying to hold his family together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s basically the story of a very wealthy, incredibly wealthy Jewish family who has given millions, tens of millions of dollars to Israel and Zionist causes. There are three children, each having a massive trust fund, which they control,\u201d Hoffmann says.<\/p>\n
The rupture comes when one of the younger siblings quietly redirects funds to support the pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University.<\/p>\n
The patriarch attempts to repair the damage in dramatic fashion by renting a giant villa in Turks and Caicos.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a hurricane and we get to fight it out, physically, emotionally, spiritually. My job as the father is to desperately try to keep the family together even if we disagree. You can disagree with your brother or sister\u2026 but you can still be a family.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Gelman, the title itself carries an intentional irony. \u201cI do think that the play is called \u2018The Zionists\u2019 because of the irony of it all,\u201d he says. \u201cThe play itself asks us not to reduce people to a single position, but that is what is going on. So, the idea is, \u2018Oh, these are actually fully fledged humans. They\u2019re not just a single position.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Zionists\u201d was born in a moment of crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, he basically wrote this in response to October 7,\u201d Hoffmann says. Since then, the world has become even more charged. \u201cIt\u2019s more relevant now than it was even two months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Miami, Haussman says part of his theater\u2019s success with new plays is knowing and meeting his audience where they are.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know exactly who we are. We represent our community. We know who our audience is, and we are a fair representation of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
That clarity is part of why he believes \u201cThe Zionists\u201d will resonate so strongly in Miami and why it\u2019s already gaining momentum beyond it.<\/p>\n
Dani Stoller and Avi Hoffman are a family trapped in a room where they can\u2019t escape their disagreements in \u201cThe Zionists.\u201d (Photos courtesy of Varner Creative) <\/p>\n
Already, Barrington Stage Company in the Berkshires in Massachusetts is going to be producing the play.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are transferring our production, and they open it in June. It is built to travel, so hopefully it\u2019ll find a space in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is the second production of Miami New Drama\u2019s Y6K Project, launched in partnership with Wasserman Projects to amplify Jewish narratives and address the rise in antisemitism.<\/p>\n
In June, another play from Miami New Drama\u2019s Y6K Project is premiering in New York. Jonathan Spector\u2019s \u201cBirthright\u201d opens June 5 at MCC Theater off Broadway.<\/p>\n
That is the radical promise of \u201cThe Zionists\u201d for Haussman\u2014that it refuses to offer simple answers or handy slogans. Instead, it locks a family in a room while a hurricane batters the world outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a play that tries to change your mind,\u201d Haussman says. \u201cI don\u2019t think that this is a play that\u2019s going to try to change your mind, but it\u2019s a play about listening to one another and how families remain together when what certain members of the family believe might be in complete opposition to what others feel is completely sacred.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you go:<\/p>\n
WHAT: \u201cThe Zionists: A Family Storm\u201d<\/p>\n
WHERE: Miami New Drama, The Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach<\/p>\n
WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday. Through May 3.<\/p>\n
COST: $40, $70, and $85 Thursday and Friday; $45, $75, and $90 Saturday and Sunday, including fees<\/p>\n
INFORMATION: 305-674-1040 and miaminewdrama.org<\/p>\n
ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don\u2019t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published April 9, 2026 at 1:34 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At a moment when difficult conversations are often avoided, Miami New Drama\u2019s latest premiere, \u201cThe Zionists: A Family…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-225226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}