Donald Freed is a rarity among playwrights: He is primarily an ideologue who, instead of producing documentary films or constructing journalistic accounts of the \”truth\” behind the news headlines, writes plays.
While it may be true that if you ask two Jews a question, you\’re likely to get three different opinions, it appears that thousands were in agreement last Sunday: The Israel Independence Day Festival at Hansen Dam was the place to be to celebrate the Jewish State\’s 49th birthday. Festival organizers said that attendance reached 10,000 for the daylong event, which featured food, live entertainment, cultural exhibits, picnic areas and a children\’s amusement park.
Marcia Seligson is the prime mover and shaker behind Reprise, a new theater organization determined to mount local, first-class revival productions of Broadway musicals.
Josh Henkin will read from his new book, \”Swimming Across the Hudson,\” Mon., May 12, 7 p.m. at Dutton\’s on San Vivente. Josh Henkin\’s paternal grandfather was an Orthodox rabbi who lived in the United States for 50 years without ever learning to speak English. Still, the author was able to forge a strong connection with the old man, the kind of bond that transcended language and linked Henkin to a people and a past.\n
Remember that great scene in \”Inherit the Wind,\” when Clarence Darrow asks William Jennings Bryan if a book that details rape, incest, slaughter, nudity and sodomy should be banned? The fundamentalist Bryan answers, \”Of course!\” and Darrow, with a flourish, whips out a copy of the Bible and declares, \”Then you must ban this book!\”
In its five years of existence, A Noise Within, the classical-theater company, has given audiences many of the most enjoyable performances to be offered anywhere in Los Angeles.
Shortly after the Oslo peace process got underway, composer Nabil Azzam met with Yasser Arafat and offered the Palestinian leader a new national anthem for his nascent Palestinian Authority.\n
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