The New Yiddish Rep production of Crazy Meshugga Hurricane Earthquake by Amy Coleman, plays on Wednesday, January 12 through Wednesday, January 19 at Theater for the New City. The play is in English (peppered with Yiddish phrases and idiomatic expressions) and is directed by David Mandelbaum, who co-founded New Yiddish Rep with Coleman in 2007.
The actors are Andrew Hardigg (as Yossi), Amy Coleman— an award-winning actor, cabaret performer and vocalist—(as Lenora), Jacob Louchheim, Thomas Morris, Kurt Perry and Kelly Walters.
This six-character play tells the story of a recently retired music teacher named Lenora Kline who is looking for meaning in her life. She answers an ad on Craigslist for a job as a live-in caretaker for Yossi Schwartz, a paranoid schizophrenic young man from a Hasidic background. Because of the stigma of mental illness, Yossi has been isolated from his family and community and has been drifting in and out of hospitals until he meets Lenora. What emerges is a curious relationship between Jews from different worlds and important lessons on love and trust.
This play is the first in a two-part series of plays performed by New Yiddish Rep and presented by Theater for the New City that deal with identity, schizophrenia and self-empowerment in the Hasidic Jewish communities of New York. The second, playing January 22-30, is Di Froyen (The Women) by Melissa Weisz and Malky Goldman, directed by Rachel Botchan. It lifts the veil on the plight of women in abusive relationships, in this case in the Hasidic community.
For more information, performance schedule and tickets, click here.
Theater for the New City is located at 155 First Ave. (at E. 10th Street), NYC
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