“For me, it started with the first verses of the Torah–the ancient stuff of light and words and oceans and skies–and everything followed for me as a woman and a Jew. What creation and recreation looks like today… the struggles for power and faith, moving in and out of love and through magic and ritual.”
– Liba Vaynberg, Playwright/Ida
The Gett—a play CBE co-commissioned with Rattlestick Theater—is opening for its world premiere in the West Village. Previews begin November 9, and the show will run until December 11, with opportunities to see the play in person and virtually.
Written by emerging playwright Liba Vaynberg, the play follows a young Jewish woman as she navigates her relationships with her community, her religion, and herself in the wake of divorce from her husband. It takes a bold, authentic look at complex issues in contemporary American Judaism by reimagining sacred texts in personal and poetic ways. Vaynberg offers audiences a deeply personal story that raises big questions about love, loss, and personal regeneration post-crisis. You can read more about the play here.
Previews begin November 9, and the show will run until December 11, with opportunities to see the play in person and virtually. We are organizing groups from CBE to attend in person at Rattlestick Theater on Thursday, November 17 and Saturday, December 10. If you plan to attend during previews on November 17, you can mark that you are a CBE member at checkout (it’s one of the last questions as you are checking out). If you would like to attend the December 10 performance, please use the promo code CBE30 on the same page where you select your seats. Click here to buy tickets.
Play’s Commissioning
In 2018, CBE member and trustee Rosalee Lovett z”l introduced Rabbi Matt Green to Daniella Topol, the artistic director of Rattlestick Theater in the West Village. After a long conversation about CBE’s commitment to serious Jewish culture in our programming, they made a plan to commission a new play about the American Jewish experience. They put out a call for submissions and over one hundred playwrights applied with their ideas for a play they wanted to write. A committee of Jewish theater professionals chose Liba Vaynberg for the commission, which included a small stipend for the playwright, thanks to the generosity of Rosalee and a handful of other members of the CBE and Brooklyn Jews communities.
CBE hosted the first reading of The Gett in our chapel in February 2020, and two dozen CBE members participated in focus groups and one-on-one conversations with the playwright as part of the play’s development. We are extremely excited to share The Gett with audiences.