artists in residence:


artist list

2010 Season: Evening 3: Stories from the Fringe

EVE BRANDSTEIN (Director), one of Hollywood’s most prodigious workers, has made contributions to nearly every facet of the entertainment industry.  She has been a major studio executive, a producer, a director, writer/creator, casting director, talent manager and author. Brandstein was casting executive for Norman Lear’s production companies after her debut as a film maker at AFI.  Some of her credits for casting over two decades include, “Diff’rent Strokes”, “One Day At A Time”, “Facts of Life”, and “Who’s The Boss as well as the dramatic series shot in Australia, “Beastmaster”, “The Ponderosa”.  She will be forever famous for having cast the rock’n’roll parody “Spinal Tap.”.  She is presently producing and directed 2 documentaries – “The Girl In the Room “ stories from women in the comedy world and “Maybe You’ll Find Something There” Second Generation Holocaust Survivor’s journey back to her family’s life in the Carpathian Mountain.  Eve is also a poet, journalist, artist as well as licensed psychotherapist.

ABBY FREEMAN (Associate Producer/Early Career Rabbis) is a classically-trained actress who studied at the Tisch School of Arts at New York University. She is a Co-founder of AiRealistic, an aerial theatre company, and was a Captain and Performer for the hit show “De La Guarda.” She has choreographed and performed in New York and Los Angeles, as well as many international cities. She created original work for clients including The LA Philharmonic, Toyota, Johnson & Johnson, General Motors, and Red Bull. Most recently, she performed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2009 LA Philharmonic Gala. She has completed the first year of her MBA at the Anderson School of Management.  She plans on continuing to work in Arts Management.

SHELLEY GAZIN (Artist) is an award-winning artist with support from the California Council for the Humanities, Righteous Persons Foundation, and Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. Her seminal work Looking for a Rabbi, which she produced, designed and exhibited as a site-specific installation at the Skirball Cultural Center is based on her interviews and photographs of over 30 Los Angeles pioneering Rabbis. Additionally, Looking for a Rabbi has been exhibited in Arizona and along the East Coast. Most recently she presented it at the Association for Jewish Studies Conference with publication slated for 2010. Currently, she is conducting primary immersion photo-research and video documentation of the local Persian Jewish Community to be archived at UCLA.

BARI HOCHWALD (Mid-Career Rabbis) Ms. Hochwald received her BFA in acting from Syracuse University and completed graduate studies at the American Repertory Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard. She is a member of Actor’s Equity, SAG and AFTRA. In the United States she appeared in regional theatres throughout the country. In Los Angeles, Ms. Hochwald served as Associate Artistic Director and founder of fofo, a critically acclaimed post-modern theatre company.  Additionally, she has worked in the development of over 50 new plays, and was nominated and awarded for her performances with The Drama Critics Circle Award, The Garland Awards, the Maddy Awards and the L.A. Weekly Awards. Her most recent performance in L.A. in Murray Mednick’s Fedunn was called “the best performance of the year” by LA Weekly Magazine.  Ms. Hochwald has Guest Starred on productions including: “NYPD Blue”, “The Practice”, “Judging Amy”, “Desperate Housewives”, “Star Trek – Voyager, Enterprise” and “DS9”.

RABBI LYNNE A. KERN (Writer/Author) is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and is a poet and writer who has been published in magazines, newspapers, and anthologies worldwide. She teaches classes for women in synagogues and is currently working on a Jewish Memoir. As a pulpit rabbi, she created innovative women’s programming focused on excavating the women’s voice in Torah, and the creation of ritual and spiritual writing. Currently, she is working on a documentary about women rabbis, and an accompanying theater piece. She is also in the process of writing two books.

DEENA NOVAK (Associate Producer) is a consultant and has managed theatre operations. Her imagination and suggestion sparked the reinvention of the former Jewish Women’s Theatre Project, and helped turn it into the current vision of a working theatre.

CINDY PALEY (Musician) brings the joys of Jewish music to teachers, students and families through her many performances and recordings as well as her work as Music Educator at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino where she has served since 1977.

RONDA SPINAK (Producer  and Writer/Author) holds an MBA from UCLA, Masters in Professional Writing from USC and two degrees from Stanford.  She has penned plays, notably “Oscar Wilde’s Wife” (Ashland New Play Festival, Odyssey Theatre, Dayton’s FutureFest), written for the Emmy-award winning show, “Rugrats”, authored a book (“ProBodX: The Path to True Fitness”, HarperCollins Publisher) as well as written poems, short stories, and screenplays.  She is currently producing a documentary on LA women rabbis with two other JWT board members entitled, “On the Fringe”.

ROBERT TREBOR (All Male Characters and Announcer) recently finished an extended run of Peter Lefcourt’s “La Ronde de Lunch” at The Skylight Theatre and was nominated for an LA Weekly Award for his one-man show “The Return of Brother Theodore”, also at The Skylight.  He has worked extensively in film, garnering acclaim for roles directed by Oliver Stone, John Frankenheimer, Roland Emmerich, and more recently Rob Zombie.  He is perhaps best known for portraying The Son of Sam opposite Martin Sheen in the MOW “Out Of The Darkness” and Salmoneus the salesman in the “Hercules and Xena” TV series.  He has written a best selling humorous book “Dear Salmoneus: The World’s First Guide To Love and Money,” and is currently writing his first novel with the working title “Become an Actor and Scare Your Folks.”

KATE ZENTALL (Rabbis Nearing Retirement) has appeared at the Public Theater and Carnegie Hall in NYC and at the Mark Taper in LA, among many other venues, and has also been seen in numerous TV series, MOWs, and films. She is now a writer and editor for the internet, magazines, and books.

2010 Season: Evening 2: You Call This Love?

SARAH ALONIM BARASH (Writer/Performer, Blessing–Hands) is the Poet-in-Residence for her beloved Lev Eshai, a jouous community of Jewish women engaged in prayer, study and spiritual growth.  She has read her work for Craig Taubman’s One Shabbat Morning, and is currently and blessedly in the process of completing her novel, Faithful Beyond Measure, a novel of love and redemption.  Although Sarah wears a bathing suit exceedingly well she still regrets that, try as she may, she remains unable to juggle three balls in the air at one time

BRYNN CHAMBLEE (Rachel, Fissshhhh) began acting at age 7 in Atlanta, performing in numerous plays and musicals, as well as a tv pilot, Girl Tech Network. Since arriving in LA, she has appeared on Nickelodeon’s Unfabulous, in many short films, and hosted Cosmo Girl magazine’s teen webisodes, Ouch! Embarrassing Stories. Additionally, she has appeared at the LA Improv with Standing Tall Comedy Kids and Teens, directed by Joey Paul Jensen. She is a trained singer and dancer. Brynn is represented by Bill Naoum at Commercial Talent Youth.

PATTY CORNELL  (Anne, Fissshhhh)most recently acted in Jennifer Maisel’s web series Faux Baby, and the indie short Cranky Puss. Indie Features include: Bob Funk (with Grace Zabriski and Rachel Leigh Cook), Happy Is Not hard to Be, and Vampire Clan (Netflix it!). Indie Shorts include: the multiple award winning short film Chekhov’s Gun directed by Matt Nix (Burn Notice) and Victor Fanucchi, Goodnight Vagina (with Cheryl Hines), and the trailer for Amreeka. LA stage credits include Ensemble Studio Theatre LA, Ghost Road Company, Overtone, Orphean Circus, Evidence Room and others.  NYC credits include The Workhouse Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Naked Angels, and the Long Wharf in New Haven.

ABBY FREEMAN (Associate Producer) is a classically-trained actress who studied at the Tisch School of Arts at New York University. She is a Co-founder of AiRealistic, an aerial theatre company, and was a Captain and Performer for the hit show “De La Guarda.” She has choreographed and performed in New York and Los Angeles, as well as many international cities. She created original work for clients including The LA Philharmonic, Toyota, Johnson & Johnson, General Motors, and Red Bull. Most recently, she performed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2009 LA Philharmonic Gala. She has completed the first year of her MBA at the Anderson School of Management.  She plans on continuing to work in Arts Management.

ILENE GRAFF (Singer) Grammy nominated for her CD, Baby’s Broadway Lullabies, is best known as the mom on the TV comedy, Mr. Belvedere.  She has starred in three musicals on Broadway and co-stars with Glenn Close in the Walt Disney Company film version of South Pacific.  She is a Life Member of Hadassah and her late mother Judy was a long-serving President of her local chapter. Find out more about her at www.Ilenegraff.com

LYNNE HIMELSTEIN (Writer/DearMetropolitan Diary—as seen in New York Times on January 17, 2010) has dedicated herself to the Jewish community, assuming leadership positions on the national boards of both United Jewish Communities and America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).  In great demand as a speaker on Jewish philanthropy, she has traveled around both the United States and Israel, inspiring people to give to Jewish organizations.  Lynne was born and raised in Los Angeles, but for the past 18 years, she and her husband have lived in Indianapolis where they raised their two children.

DEBORAH LAVINE (Guest Resident Director) has directed over 300 professional theater productions across the country including San Jose Repertory Theater, Bristol Riverside Theater, Alaska Repertory, and Alliance Stage in  Atlanta. Deborah received 14 Drama-Logue awards for outstanding direction, an Ovation award for Best Director of NAPOLI MILLIONARIA at the Road Theater Company, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award and a NAACP citation for her direction of DISTANT FIRES at Long Beach International City Theatre – along with many other honors. Deborah also serves as Co-Program Chair of the Film Directing Program at California Institute of the Arts (CALARTS) helping develop one of the fastest growing graduate level (MFA) narrative film directing programs in Southern California.

JENNIFER MAISEL (Author/Fissshhh) Is an award-winning playwright, television and film writer whose plays include The Last Seder, There or Here, Goody Fucking Two Shoes, Eden, birds, Mallbaby, Mad Love and …And the Two Romeos. Productions and workshops include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Theatre of NOTE, South Coast Repertory, San Francisco’s The Magic Theatre, New York’s Epic Theatre and Hypothetical Theatre, and Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center, Theatre J and Rorschach Theatre.  Her film Prodigal Son is being produced by Tule River Films and she is currently working on projects for ABC Family, Lifetime, M-films and Practical Pictures.

DEENA NOVAK (Associate Producer) is a consultant and has managed theatre operations. Her imagination and suggestion sparked the reinvention of the former Jewish Women’s Theatre Project, and helped turn it into the current vision of a working theatre.

MONICA PIPER (Writer & Performer/Six Pints Haagen Dazs) is an Emmy Award-winning comedy writer, stand up comedian and motivational speaker.  She was nominated for an American Comedy Award as one of the top five female comedians in the country and starred in her own Showtime Network special, No, Monica, Just You.  She has written for Roseanne, Mad About You and Veronica’s Closet and was the head writer of the beloved children’s animated series Rugrats, as well as writing shows for Disney and Cartoon Network. She is presently bringing her laugh-out-loud advice to corporate America, showing audiences everywhere how to Find the Funny in their lives.   Check her out on www.monicapiper.com

KATE RYLIE (Liz, Fissshhhh) Kate recently had the pleasure of playing Judith in Bill Cain’s Equivocation at the Geffen Playhouse. Theatre credits include the world premiere of Goldfish by John Kolvenbach at South Coast Repertory, The B.F.G at South Coast Repertory, The Catskill Sonata (dir. Paul Mazursky) at the Hayworth Theater, Taking Steps (dir. Allan Miller) at the Odyssey Theater, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (dir. Nicholas Martin) at Williamstown Theater Festival. She will play Babe in Crimes of the Heart at South Coast Repertory, opening in May. Ms. Rylie is a proud member of Actor’s Equity.

CAROL SCHLANGER (Writer/Performer/I’m in Love with Chekov) is an award-winning playwright, actress and performer._ She is an Obie (Off- Broadway) and Humanitas_(Television) nominee, a recipient of _Los Angeles Dramalogue Critics’ _award for both performance and writing (Theatre) and placed 1st in _2007 Alliance of Los Angles Play-wrights’ monologue slam. _She is currently at work on Far Out a creative non-fiction work chronicling her years on an Oregon commune. Learn more at www.Carolschlanger.com

DONI SILVER SIMONS (Artist) is a painter who integrates installation and performance. She received a Bachelor of Studio Arts degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Drawing from Wayne State University. She has taught and lecturered  at universities and museums, including California State University, Northridge; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the University of California, Irvine. Over the last thirty-five years, she has had numerous solo and group shows, most recently her solo shows include Center Justified; …lines… (Sherry Frumkin Gallery, Santa Monica, 2007 and 2009 respectively); and Marked (exhibition and performance, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles, 2009). A recipient of numerous grants and commissions, Silver Simons’ work is in many private collections and public collections. Find her at www.Donisilversimons.com

RONDA SPINAK (Producer) holds a MBA from UCLA, Masters in Professional Writing from USC and two degrees from Stanford.  She has penned plays, notably Oscar Wilde’s Wife (Ashland New Play Festival, Odyssey Theatre, Dayton’s FutureFest) written for the Emmy-award winning show, Rugrats, authored a book (ProBodX: The Path to True Fitness, HarperCollins Publisher) as well as written poems, short stories, and screenplays.  She is currently working on a documentary on LA women rabbis with two other JWT board members entitled, On the Fringe.

ROBERT TREBOR (Marcus/Fissshhhh) recently finished an extended run of Peter Lefcourt’s “La Ronde de Lunch” at The Skylight Theatre and was nominated for an LA Weekly Award for his one-man show The Return of Brother Theodore, also at The Skylight.  He is perhaps best known for portraying The Son of Sam opposite Martin Sheen in the telefilm Out Of The Darkness and Salmoneus the salesman in the Hercules and Xena TV series.  He is currently writing his first novel with the working title “Menschdevil Chases The Bitchgoddess”.  It’s about show business.

ANDREA WAGNER (Director, Hands–Blessing) holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Theatre Arts.  She has taught theatre on both the high school and college level and directed and designed for community theatres.


2010 Season: Evening 1: Hey, Gorgeous!

CAROLINE AARON (Violet/I Never Heard of Violet & Stella/Below the Waist) is an accomplished actor in film, television and stage. Directors such as Woody Allen, Mike Nichols, Robert Altman, Nora Ephron, Paul Mazursky, Don Roos, and many others keep her in demand.  Her work with Nichols includes: on Broadway in Social Security, and in films such as Heartburn (opposite Meryl Streep), Working Girl, Primary Colors, and What Planet Are You From? Film audiences perhaps best know her as Woody Allen’s sister in “Crimes and Misdemeanors”, but she has worked with Allen in Alice, Bullets Over Broadway, Husbands and Wives, and Deconstructing Harry. She has guest starred on Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, Shark, Sex and The City, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Six Feet Under, among others.  She is the recipient of a Helen Hayes and Dramalogue Awards.

MAIA DANZIGER (Diane/Below the Waist, Phaedra/Monologue from Phaedra in Delirium) is a writer and Emmy Award winning actress who has appeared extensively on and off-Broadway, on television, and in film. She is a founder and former Artistic Director of the Actor’s Company Theatre in New York, a Founding Member of Rogue Machine Theatre in Los Angeles, and the author of Relax & Write: tapping your unconscious for life and art.  A Certified Life Coach, Maia specializes in working with artists on developing their creativity and fulfilling their careers.

CESI DAVIDSON (Playwright/Below the Waist) has had her work staged at the Henry Street Settlement Abrons Arts Center, the Nicu Spoon Theatre and most recently, the National Black Theatre.  Her plays include: Chakalaka, Adagio, Garden Party, Juicy, Soap Cream & Incense, Bringing Tiny Home, Embraceable You, Duck Sauce, Scat, End Pieces, Fashionable Shoes, Con Cuidado, Silent Re-acquaintance, The Crest of Watercress, Damselfly, Faceless, Richard the Baker the Magic Cake Maker, and Below the Waist. She is a member of the Dramatist Guild.

ABBY FREEMAN (Associate Producer)is a classically-trained actress who studied at the Tisch School of Arts at New York University. She is a Co-founder of AiRealistic, an aerial theatre company, and currently performs and choreographs for events and theatrical shows in Los Angeles.   She has choreographed and performed in New York and Los Angeles, as well as many international cities. She has created original work for clients including Toyota, Johnson & Johnson, General Motors, Wal-Mart and Red Bull. Most recently, she performed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, The Edison Downtown, and the 2009 LA Philharmonic Inaugural Gala. She was a Fulbright scholarship finalist and has completed the first year of her MBA at the Anderson School of Management.  She plans on continuing to work in Arts Management.

LEAH KOMFELD FRIEDMAN (Playwright/I Never Heard of Violet) is the recipient of New York Foundation for the Arts Playwrights Fellowship, National Foundation for Jewish Culture Playwrights Award, three Yaddo Fellowships, Finalist Shenandoah International Playwrights Retreat Festival and the Francesca Primus Prize for Playwrighting, Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Her work was included in the recent New Play Festival at The Cherry Lane Theatre, New York City (members of League of Professional Theatre Women).  Her honors include:  nomination for Obie, New York, Jefferson Award, Chicago, Ill., The Dramalogue Award, Los Angeles. Her name is found in the Oxford Companion to Women’s Writing in the United States. She holds an MFA and is an adjunct lecturer, Brooklyn College.

SHELLEY GAZIN (Artist) is an award-winning artist with support from the California Council for the Humanities, Righteous Persons Foundation, and Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. Her seminal work Looking for a Rabbi, which she produced, designed and exhibited as a site-specific installation at the Skirball Cultural Center is based on her interviews and photographs of over 30 Los Angeles pioneering Rabbis. Additionally, Looking for a Rabbi has been exhibited in Arizona and along the East Coast. Most recently she presented it at the Association for Jewish Studies Conference with publication slated for 2010. Currently, she is conducting primary immersion photo-research and video documentation of the local Persian Jewish Community to be archived at UCLA.

KAYLA GORDON (Visiting Resident Director) was the Artistic Director for Winnipeg Jewish Theatre for 11 years, where she directed and produced over 30 productions as well as commissioned and produced 10 new Canadian plays.  For the last three years, she has taken on the role of Executive Director for the Association for Jewish Theatre – an International Jewish Theatre organization.  Her honors include: the Governor General’s award, a nomination for the John Hirsch young director’s award and numerous awards from The Canada Council and Manitoba Arts Council.  She holds a master’s degree in theatre and also teaches acting and musical theatre at the University of Winnipeg.  Currently she works as a freelance director.

RABBI LYNNE KERN (Blessing) is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and is a poet and writer who has been published in magazines, newspapers, and anthologies worldwide. She teaches classes for women in synagogues and is currently working on a Jewish Memoir. As a pulpit rabbi, she created innovative women’s programming focused on excavating the women’s voice in Torah, and the creation of ritual and spiritual writing. Currently, she is working on a documentary about women rabbis, and an accompanying theater piece. She is also in the process of writing two books.

DEENA NOVAK (Associate Producer) is a consultant and has managed theatre operations. Her imagination and suggestion sparked the reinvention of the former Jewish Women’s Theatre Project, and helped turn it into the current vision of a working theatre.

DEBORAH PEARL (Singing Benny Carter) is a screenwriter/playwright, singer and actress. She was a writer/producer on DesigningWomen and has performed her one-woman show Chick Singers at the Cinegrill in Hollywood, as well as at the Odyssey Theatre. She does a monthly jazz service at Temple Isaiah with Cantor Evan Kent; and sings at High Holiday Services at Cedars Sinai Medical Center.

MONICA PIPER (Author/Performer, A Shayna Meydele) is an Emmy Award-winning comedy writer, stand up comedian and motivational speaker.  She was nominated for an American Comedy Award as one of the top five female comedians in the country and starred in her own Showtime Network special, No, Monica, Just You. She has written for Roseanne, Mad About You and Veronica’s Closet and was the head writer of the beloved children’s animated series Rugrats, as well as writing shows for Disney and Cartoon Network. She is presently bringing her laugh-out-loud advice to corporate America, showing audiences everywhere how to Find the Funny in their lives.

RONDA SPINAK (Producing Artistic Director) holds an MBA from UCLA and two degrees from Stanford. She has penned plays (produced in festivals from Ashland, Or. to Dayton, Ohio), written for the Emmy Award winning children’s show, Rugrats, authored a book (Probodx: The Path to True Fitness, HarperCollins publisher) as well as written poems, short stories and yet to be produced screenplays.

ANDREA WAGNER (Associate Producer) holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Theatre Arts.  She has taught theatre on both the high school and college level and directed and designed for community theatres.

RUTH WEISBERG (Artist) Dean of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California, is the recipient of the Art Leadership Award from the National Council of Art Administrators and the Women’s Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award, 2009. Weisberg has had over seventy solo and 170 group exhibitions, recently a major exhibition at the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena and a retrospective, at the Skirball Museum, Los Angeles.  Her work is included in sixty major Museum collections including The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; The Biblioteque Nationale of France, Paris, France; Istituto Nationale per la Grafica, Rome, Italy; The Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The National Gallery, Washington, D.C. and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

SUSAN YANKOWITZ (Playwright/Phaedra in Delirium) is a playwright, novelist and librettist.  Among her plays are Night Sky(produced off-Broadway and internationally); Phaedra in Delirium(winner QRL poetic play competition); Terminal and 1969Terminal1996, collaborations with Joseph Chaikin’s Open Theatre (Drama Desk Award); A Knife in the Heart (Sledgehammer Theatre 2002); and Foreign Bodies (finalist, O’Neill Conference 2008.)  Her novel, Silent Witness, was published by Knopf and Avon.  Her work has been translated into ten languages, and is widely published and anthologized. www.susanyankowitz.com


2009 Fall Launch Party

ILENE GRAFF, (Singer, How Do You Keep The Music Playing?) Grammy nominated for her CD, Baby’s Broadway Lullabies, is best known as the mom on the TV comedy, Mr. Belvedere. She has starred in numerous musical comedies on Broadway and co-stars with Glenn Close in the new film version of South Pacific. She is a life member of Hadassah and her late mother Judy was a long-serving president of her local chapter.

ELIZABETH HANN (Synchronized Swimmer) is 17 and entering her 7th competitive season with Los Angeles Synchro team. She practices from 11 to 15 hours during the school week; over the summer she was in the pool 9 times a week. This summer, she and her 7 teammates earned 7th in the country at Age Group Nationals in Gainsville, Florida. Currently, she is captain of the 18-19 team, preparing for Junior National Competition in March.

RABBI LYNNE KERN (Blessing) is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and is a poet and writer who has been published in magazines, newspapers, and anthologies worldwide. She teaches classes for women in synagogues and is currently working on a Jewish Memoir. As a pulpit rabbi, she created innovative women’s programming focused on excavating the women’s voice in Torah, and the creation of ritual and spiritual writing. Currently, she is working on a documentary about women rabbis, and an accompanying theater piece. She is also in the process of writing two books.

JOY KRAUTHAMMER is an artist, poet, sound healer and passionate percussionist usually seen with a timbrel in her hand.  She performs regularly with Cindy Paley at Lev Eisha at Adat Shalom, and N’Shama Minyan at Valley Beth Shalom.

JENNIFER MAISEL (Author, Seen and Not Seen) Is an award-winning playwright, television and film writer whose plays include The Last Seder, There or Here, Goody Fucking Two Shoes, Eden, birds, Mallbaby, Mad Love and …And the Two Romeos. Productions and workshops include Actors Theatre of Louisville, South Coast Repertory, San Francisco’s The Magic Theatre, New York’s Epic Theatre and Hypothetical Theatre, and DC’s Theatre J. Her film Prodigal Son is being produced by Tule River Films and is currently working on projects for Lifetime, M-films and Practical Pictures.

ANNIKA MARKS (Marilyn, Seen and Not Seen) appeared in The Last Seder at Greenway, Pipeman on the Moon at Hudson, and Early Decision at Edgemar. She was featured in the Julia Robert’s film Mona Lisa Smile and she co-wrote and produced Me, You, a Bag and Bamboo which premiered at the Nashville Film Festival in April.

DEENA NOVAK (Associate Producer) is a consultant and has managed theatre operations. Her imagination and suggestion sparked the reinvention of the former Jewish Women’s Theatre Project, and helped turn it into the current vision of a working theatre.

JONAS OPPENHEIM (Waiter, Seen and Not Seen)is a decorated playwright with over 30 productions in 10 states. This fall, his silent comedy adaptation of “Hamlet” (“Hamlet Shut Up”) will premiere at Sacred Fools Theater in Hollywood (sacredfools.org). The LA Times called his 2008 alien rock musical “Earth Sucks,” “sweet,  infectious…daft, smart and energized,” and many more adjectives. Be sure to look up his original web series “Pirate Ninja Adventure Go!” starting on Halloween.

CINDY PALEY brings the joys of Jewish music to teachers, students and families through her many performances and recordings as well as her work as Music Educator at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino where she has served since 1977.

MONICA PIPER (Author/Performer, Baggage) is an Emmy Award-winning comedy writer, stand up comedian and motivational speaker.  She was nominated for an American Comedy Award as one of the top five female comedians in the country and starred in her own Showtime Network special, No, Monica, Just You. She has written for Roseanne, Mad About You and Veronica’s Closet and was the head writer of the beloved children’s animated series Rugrats, as well as writing shows for Disney and Cartoon Network. She is presently bringing her laugh-out-loud advice to corporate America, showing audiences everywhere how to Find the Funny in their lives.

ARVA ROSE (Monologue, Eliis Island; Songs Rozhinkes mit Mandlen, Family) has guest starred on numerous television series including Hill Street Blues, LA Law, Cheers, Night Court, and Beverly Hills 90210. She is the MC of all the events for the California Institute of Yiddish Culture and Language.

RONDA SPINAK (Producing Artistic Director) holds an MBA from UCLA and two degrees from Stanford. She has penned plays (produced in festivals from Ashland, Or. to Dayton, Ohio), written for the Emmy Award winning children’s show, Rugrats, authored a book (Probodx: The Path to True Fitness, HarperCollins publisher) as well as written poems, short stories and yet to be produced screenplays.

ANDREA WAGNER (Associate Producer) holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Theatre Arts.  She has taught theatre on both the high school and college level and directed and designed for community theatres.

JULIE WOLFSON (Director, Seen and Not Seen) After graduating from the UCLA Department of Theatre, Julie worked at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Mark Taper Forum. Mostly focusing on new work, Julie has directed productions throughout California and in many non-traditional spaces including a production of Iphigenia on a MTA bus at the Geffen Contemporary for Cornerstone Theater Company, Jewish and Arabic Folktails at the Santa Monica Mall, and Woyzeck on the rook of Dickson Art Center at UCLA. For sixteen years she has directed plays, taught acting, and mentored kids at The Virginia Avenue Project.

KATE ZENTALL (Sara, Seen and Not Seen) has appeared at the Public Theater and Carnegie Hall in NYC, and the Mark Taper in LA.  She has also been seen in numerous TV series, MOWs, and films.


2009 Season: Evening 3: Generations

BARBARA NEEL BEERY (Author, On the Same Wavelength) Is an award-winning, published playwright whose works have appeared locally, regionally, New York and London. Her drama, The Socialization of Ruthie Shapiro recently produced in Theatre West Fest, was awarded Women in Theatre’s New Play Grant and included in Woodstock’s Women Speak Festival. Other honors: AFI’s Film Historian Grant, LA Playwrights at Mark Taper Forum. Her essay, On The Same Wavelength (which she dedicates to her mother, Nell Kaufman) is published in the anthology, Around And About LA.

SHIRA FOX (Poems, Sugar Spoon, Kitchen as Destination; Songs, Distant Melody, Family) is the daughter of two Los Angeles Cantors. Shira has served as Cantor of Temple Rodeph Shalom and at Temple Beth El. Her theatrical credits include lead roles in Lil Abner and Joseph’s Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. She is an alumnus of Brandeis University, and currently acts as Bnai Mitzvah Teacher and Program Coordinator at Kehillat Israel, Reconstructionist Congregation.

RABBI MIRIYAM GLAZER (Blessing) is Prof. of Literature at American Jewish University, her newest book is Psalms of the Jewish Liturgy: A Guide to their Beauty, Power & Meaning.

ILENE GRAFF, (Mama, A Rainbow) Grammy nominated for her CD, Baby’s Broadway Lullabies, is best known as the mom on the TV comedy, Mr. Belvedere. She has starred in numerous musical comedies on Broadway and co-stars with Glenn Close in the new film version of South Pacific. She is a life member of Hadassah and her late mother Judy was a long-serving president of her local chapter.

RABBI LYNNE KERN (Generational Commentary about Grandmothers, Mothers, Children, and the Whole Mischpocha) is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and is a poet and writer who has been published in magazines, newspapers, and anthologies worldwide. She teaches classes for women in synagogues and is currently working on a Jewish Memoir. As a pulpit rabbi, she created innovative women’s programming focused on excavating the women’s voice in Torah, and the creation of ritual and spiritual writing. Currently, she is working on a documentary about women rabbis, and an accompanying theater piece. She is also in the process of writing two books.

MARLENE ADLER MARKS (Author, Ellis Island, My Mother’s Refrigerator) was a nationally syndicated columnist based in the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, where she was managing editor for more than a decade. She authored several books including A Woman’s Voice from which her pieces performed this evening were adapted.

SUSAN MERSON (Dreaming in Daylight), reading from her new novel Dreaming in Daylight (on Amazon), is a longtime theatre professional with acting credits on Broadway, Off , Off Off Bway, regional theatre, TV and film. She teaches playwriting at Cal State Fullerton and her play, Bounty of Lace (a commission of the Jewish Women’s Theatre Project) will be done at the Halcyon/ALcyone Theatre Festival this summer in Chicago. The Marriage Suite is slated for a possible September production at Theatricum Botanicum.

ARVA ROSE (Monologue, Eliis Island; Songs Rozhinkes mit Mandlen, Family) has guest starred on numerous television series including Hill Street Blues, LA Law, Cheers, Night Court, and Beverly Hills 90210. She is the MC of all the events for the California Institute of Yiddish Culture and Language.

ALAN DUNCAN ROSS (Musical Director) is an author of several books, but also composer in his own right having worked on Broadway, for rock bands and as composer in residence for the Joffrey Ballet under Gerald Arpino.

ELLEN SANDLER (Director) was nominated for an Emmy for her work as a writer /producer on Everybody Loves Raymond. She has directed theatre productions at The Mark Taper Forum, LA; The McCarter Theatre, Princeton NJ; and in NY at HB Playwrights Theatre, The Public Theatre and Ensemble Studio Theatre.

ARLENE SCHINDLER (Author, Ode to Joy) originated the comedy review column for The New York Post, featuring show reviews and profiles of comedy club headliners. She was AOL’s Love-on-Line Relationship Guru doling out answers to America’s lovelorn. A former contributing editor for WOMAN Magazine and Playgirl, her writing credits include publications such as Daily Variety, The Los Angeles Times, and Creative Screenwriting. Currently she appears in Los Angeles performing segments from her book Performance Anxiety a raucous romp through the hidden sex lives of today’s “mature” woman.

CAROL SCHLANGER (Author, Redemption Song) is an award-winning playwright, actress and performer.
 She is an Obie (Off- Broadway) and Humanitas
(Television) nominee, a recipient of 
Los Angeles Dramalogue Critics’ 
award for both performance and writing (Theatre) and placed 1st in 
2007 Alliance of Los Angles Play-wrights’ monologue slam. 
She is currently at work on Far Out a creative non-fiction work chronicling her years on an Oregon commune.

RONDA SPINAK (Producing Artistic Director) holds an MBA from UCLA and two degrees from Stanford. She has penned plays (produced in festivals from Ashland, Or. to Dayton, Ohio), written for the Emmy Award winning children’s show, Rugrats, authored a book (Probodx: The Path to True Fitness, HarperCollins publisher) as well as written poems, short stories and yet to be produced screenplays.

ANDREA WAGNER (Director, On the Same Wavelength) holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Theatre Arts.  She has taught theatre on both the high school and college level and directed and designed for community theatres.













CAMERON VAN HOY (Waiter, Seen and Not Seen)













KATE ZENTALL (Sara, Seen and Not Seen) has appeared at the Public Theater and Carnegie Hall in NYC, and the Mark Taper in LA.  She has also been seen in numerous TV series, MOWs, and films.













2009 Season: Evening 2: Say Yes

MICHELE GENDELMAN (Writer, Oy to the World) is a writer of features, sitcom, animation, and hour long drama. She has been published in the Los Angeles Times and is a contributing writer to the anthology, What Was I Thinking? 58 Bad Boyfriend Stories, recently published by St. Martin’s Press.

VICKI JUDITZ (Writer, Performer, Independence Day) has performed her stories at festivals and theaters across the United States and has been a featured storyteller at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. She is also a television actress and has appeared on Coach; Everybody Loves Raymond; Yes, Dear; My Name is Earl and is featured in the PBS Series Storytime.

RABBI LYNNE KERN (Blessing) is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and is a poet and writer who has been published in magazines, newspapers, and anthologies worldwide. She teaches classes for women in synagogues and is currently working on a Jewish Memoir. As a pulpit rabbi, she created innovative women’s programming focused on excavating the women’s voice in Torah, and the creation of ritual and spiritual writing. Currently, she is working on a documentary about women rabbis, and an accompanying theater piece. She is also in the process of writing two books.

DEBORAH PEARL (Writer, Performer, Frankie Olin, Chick Singer) is a screenwriter/playwright, singer and actress. She was a writer/producer on DesigningWomen and has performed her one-woman show Chick Singers at the Cinegrill in Hollywood, as well as at the Odyssey Theatre. She does a monthly jazz service at Temple Isaiah with Cantor Evan Kent; and sings at High Holiday Services at Cedars Sinai Medical Center.

PATRICIA RICHARDSON (Martie) has appeared on Broadway, in feature films and many TV shows, but she is best known for starring as Jill Taylor for 8 seasons on Home Improvement, for which she was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, and four Emmys. She also starred as Sheila Brooks on The West Wing and as Dr. Andy Campbell on Lifetime’s Strong Medicine.

ALLA RUBIN (Writer, Performer, PI Tchikovsky Did Not Die of Cholera in 1893) writes both poetry and short stories. Her book of poems, Don’t Include Me in Salvation, was published in 2008. She is also a D.D.S., an acupuncturist, and a dancer.

BETSY SALKIND (Performer, Squirrel) is a stand-up comic who performs and produces Offensive Women, a monthly show of women comics at the M-Bar in Hollywood and has appeared The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She was a staff writer forSaturday Night Special and Roseanne.

ELLEN SANDLER (Director) was nominated for an Emmy for her work as a writer /producer on Everybody Loves Raymond. She has directed theatre productions at The Mark Taper Forum, LA; The McCarter Theatre, Princeton NJ; and in NY at HB Playwrights Theatre, The Public Theatre and Ensemble Studio Theatre.

RONDA SPINAK (Producing Artistic Director) holds an MBA from UCLA and two degrees from Stanford. She has penned plays (produced in festivals from Ashland, Or. to Dayton, Ohio), written for the Emmy Award winning children’s show, Rugrats, authored a book (Probodx: The Path to True Fitness, HarperCollins publisher) as well as written poems, short stories and yet to be produced screenplays.

BRAD STEVENSON (Dez) has appeared on Arrested Development and Boston Legal as well as in independent films, commercials and print work. He attends a Performing Arts Magnet school and currently studies with Marcie Smolin at The Actors Circle.

ROBERT TREBOR (Irv) played The Son of Sam opposite Martin Sheen in the MOW Out Of The Darkness and has guest starred in over 30 films and TV shows, including Miami Vice, Murphy Brown and recurring on Hercules and Xena as Salmoneus, the world’s first salesman. He was acclaimed by The Jewish Journal, and The LA Weekly for his one man show The Return of Brother Theodore. He has played a Rabbi 4 times, most recently in Wedding Daze(Hallmark Channel) where he married 3 pairs of goyim at the same time.


2009 Season: Evening 1: Pass The Salt

PHIL ABRAMS (Multiple Roles) has appeared on over 25 TV series. This season he’s been seen on Lost , 24, and has just completed shooting a guest star turn on Grey’s Anatomy.

ANITA BARONE (Mimi) starred as Vicky Gold in the War at Home on Fox and has just finished shooting an episode for the upcoming season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. She has guest starred on more than 35 television shows including Friends and Seinfeld.

PETER BASCH (Rabbi) performed at The Manhattan Punch Line Comedy Theatre in NY and can be seen in the film Paulie. He is also a writer whose plays have been produced by Ensemble Studio Theatre in both LA and NY, and he writes a tech column for the on-line magazine LA2DAY.

SUZANNE BRESSLER (Author, Smashing Idols)

MARK GLINSKI, (Dialogue Coach, Bialy Eaters) is a playwright currently working on a play about Polish anti-semitism.

RABBI MIRIYAM GLAZER (Blessing) is Prof. of Literature at American Jewish University, her newest book is Psalms of the Jewish Liturgy: A Guide to their Beauty, Power & Meaning.

RABBI LYNNE KERN (Blessing) is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and is a poet and writer who has been published in magazines, newspapers, and anthologies worldwide. She teaches classes for women in synagogues and is currently working on a Jewish Memoir. As a pulpit rabbi, she created innovative women’s programming focused on excavating the women’s voice in Torah, and the creation of ritual and spiritual writing. Currently, she is working on a documentary about women rabbis, and an accompanying theater piece. She is also in the process of writing two books.

MICHAEL NAULT (Composer/pianist) plays with the alternative rock group Hollow.

LAWRENCE PRESSMAN (Multiple Roles)has a long and distinguished career having appeared as a guest star or regular in over 150 movies and television series including The Man in the Glass Booth, West Wing, Boston Legal, The Practice, Without a Trace, Judging Amy and as Dr. Benjamin Canfield, head of the hospital on Doogie HowserM.D.

ARVA ROSE (Singer, Yontiff Pesach) has guest starred on numerous television series including Hill Street Blues, LA Law, Cheers, Night Court, and Beverly Hills 90210. She is the MC of all the events for the California Institute of Yiddish Culture and Language.

ELLEN SANDLER (Director) was nominated for an Emmy for her work as a writer /producer on Everybody Loves Raymond. She has directed theatre productions at The Mark Taper Forum, LA; The McCarter Theatre, Princeton NJ; and in NY at HB Playwrights Theatre, The Public Theatre and Ensemble Studio Theatre.

MIMI SHERATON (Author, The Bialy Eaters) was a restaurant critic for the New York Times and is one of the country’s foremost food writers having also worked for The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Time, Vanity Fair, Conde Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure and Slate. She is the author of numerous books and cookbooks, including From My Mother’s Kitchen and The Whole World Loves Chicken Soup (IACP Julia Child Award; James Beard Award) as well as her recent memoir, Eating My Words: An Appetite for Life (Wm.Morrow).

RONDA SPINAK (Producing Artistic Director) holds an MBA from UCLA and two degrees from Stanford. She has penned plays (produced in festivals from Ashland, Or. to Dayton, Ohio), written for the Emmy Award winning children’s show, Rugrats, authored a book (Probodx: The Path to True Fitness, HarperCollins publisher) as well as written poems, short stories and yet to be produced screenplays.

ANDREA WAGNER (Director) holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Theatre Arts.  She has taught theatre on both the high school and college level and directed and designed for community theatres.

2008 Debut Party

SUSAN GRACE (Older Alter Ego in Jewish Roots) was most recently seen in the hit film You Don’t Mess with the Zohan and on TV in the Emmy winning series, Mad Men.

RABBI MIRIYAM GLAZER (Blessing) is Prof. of Literature at American Jewish University, her newest book is Psalms of the Jewish Liturgy: A Guide to their Beauty, Power & Meaning.

RABBI LYNNE KERN (Blessing) is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and is a poet and writer who has been published in magazines, newspapers, and anthologies worldwide. She teaches classes for women in synagogues and is currently working on a Jewish Memoir. As a pulpit rabbi, she created innovative women’s programming focused on excavating the women’s voice in Torah, and the creation of ritual and spiritual writing. Currently, she is working on a documentary about women rabbis, and an accompanying theater piece. She is also in the process of writing two books.

JOY KRAUTHAMMER is an artist, poet, sound healer and passionate percussionist usually seen with a timbrel in her hand.  She performs regularly with Cindy Paley at Lev Eisha at Adat Shalom, and N’Shama Minyan at Valley Beth Shalom.

VALERIE LANDSBURG (Elena in Jewish Roots) has been a guest star on dozens of TV shows and movies. Two recent ones are Nip/Tuck and The Unit. The show she is indelibly linked with is Fame where she played most memorably the feisty dynamo Doris Schwartz.

ANNIKA MARKS (Jewish Roots) appeared in The Last Seder at Greenway, Pipeman on the Moon at Hudson, and Early Decision at Edgemar. She was featured in the Julia Robert’s film Mona Lisa Smile and she co-wrote and produced Me, You, a Bag and Bamboo which premiered at the Nashville Film Festival in April.

SUSAN MERSON (Rahel), reading from her new novel Dreaming in Daylight (on Amazon), is a longtime theatre professional with acting credits on Broadway, Off , Off Off Bway, regional theatre, TV and film. She teaches playwriting at Cal State Fullerton and her play, Bounty of Lace (a commission of the Jewish Women’s Theatre Project) will be done at the Halcyon/ALcyone Theatre Festival this summer in Chicago. The Marriage Suite is slated for a possible September production at Theatricum Botanicum.

CINDY PALEY brings the joys of Jewish music to teachers, students and families through her many performances and recordings as well as her work as Music Educator at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino where she has served since 1977.

ALLA RUBIN (Leningrad 1942 and Retired) writes both poetry and short stories. Her book of poems, Don’t Include Me in Salvation, was published in 2008. She is also a D.D.S., an acupuncturist, and a dancer.

ELLEN SANDLER (Director) was nominated for an Emmy for her work as a writer /producer on Everybody Loves Raymond. She has directed theatre productions at The Mark Taper Forum, LA; The McCarter Theatre, Princeton NJ; and in NY at HB Playwrights Theatre, The Public Theatre and Ensemble Studio Theatre.

CAROL SCHLANGER (Author, Redemption Song) is an award-winning playwright, actress and performer.
 She is an Obie (Off- Broadway) and Humanitas
(Television) nominee, a recipient of 
Los Angeles Dramalogue Critics’ 
award for both performance and writing (Theatre) and placed 1st in 
2007 Alliance of Los Angles Play-wrights’ monologue slam. 
She is currently at work on Far Out a creative non-fiction work chronicling her years on an Oregon commune.

RONDA SPINAK (Producing Artistic Director) holds an MBA from UCLA and two degrees from Stanford. She has penned plays (produced in festivals from Ashland, Or. to Dayton, Ohio), written for the Emmy Award winning children’s show, Rugrats, authored a book (Probodx: The Path to True Fitness, HarperCollins publisher) as well as written poems, short stories and yet to be produced screenplays.