Possibility Theater Performances

(with appreciation to Yaakov Agam)

As you walk through the hallway leading to the theater, you notice the posters that indicate various aspects of tonight’s theme. Upon taking your seat, you sense the seat has the ability to swivel around and you notice that there are multiple platforms or stage areas around the theater. 

As the lights dim, you are suddenly aware of multiple languages being spoken by numerous actors on these stages, and you also hear songs sung in multiple languages. You begin to appreciate the swivel chairs as your attention moves from the Biblical depiction of Isaac and Rebekah at the well to the Spanish language celebration of a contemporary Seder in Cuba, then to a Venice scene of a Sabbath meal in the Ghetto. Each platform with its own theme, location, and language. Two other elevated stages depict respectively,  a Torah chanting class in a concentration camp, and Israeli soldiers in a tank hearing “Hatikvah” on their radio.

The theme of this evening’s experience is a broadly designed “Varieties of Jewish Life” and is intended as an introduction to the Possibility Theater. In the program booklet is the announcement of an upcoming event, “Giving Voice to the Women of the Bible” with a description of the stages that will be dedicated to depicting: Sarah responding to the binding of Isaac, Bathsheba and her son Solomon, Deborah mustering her troops, Naomi and Ruth plotting the seduction of Boaz.

Yet another future event for the Possibility Theater is set to explore the biblical “Binding of Isaac” in its biblical account, in its treatment in the rabbinical commentaries, as Christianity treats the sacrifice of Jesus and Isaac in Islamic tradition. Yet another stage will explore the binding of Isaac in contemporary Israeli culture as related to service and sacrifice in the military defense of the modern state.

Possibility Theater Scenarios

Another of the Possibility Theater’s offerings are the Possibility Theater Scenarios