Plays
Jenna Zark, Playwright
If You Don't Weaken
IF YOU DON’T WEAKEN
Combining a pole dancer, crumbling synagogue, feisty friends, 1930s porn videos, a local Jewish day school, religious awakening…and a ghost, If You Don’t Weaken centers on a young woman’s quest to observe a year-long ritual of mourning for her grandfather.
Produced by Freshwater Theatre, Minneapolis. Can be performed by a cast of six; three men, three women.
A BODY OF WATER
An impressionistic piece made up of three playlets following the lives of nine people who become involved with sacred Jewish rituals in unexpectedly intimate ways.
Foreign Bodies: A “tahara” (washing) is performed as the members of the Jewish Sacred Burial Society join in this loving, personal ritual which is as much as affirmation of life as it is an evocation of how we let go.
White Days: A hairdresser tries to save the passion in her marriage by going to a “mikveh” (ritual bath.) The consequences are both humorous and powerful as the ritual affects her and her husband in unexpected ways.
Shooting Souls: Devoutly observant Devi finds herself unhappily pregnant for the sixth time and learns about sin, expectation and forgiveness through “tashlich,” a penitential rite performed on the Jewish New Year.
Produced by Circle Repertory Company and published by Dramatists Play Service. Can be performed by a cast of six; four women, two men.
ALYESKA
After celebrating his graduation from high school, a young man is hit by a train. In the three days after his death when the soul is said to be leaving the body, he meets a young suicide, and the two try to apprehend what might be next. A ghost story in two acts.
Produced by Blank Slate Theater, St. Paul. Can be performed by a cast of four: two men, two women.
THE MAGIC DREIDELS
A young boy, a cold night and the start of a holiday in an 18th century village are just a few of the ingredients mixing up this tale of spinning dreidels and naughty neighbors. When young Jakob meets a goblin who offers him dreidels that work miracles, the town busybody becomes jealous and Jakob’s father lays down the law. Luckily, the holiday works its own magic as the boy and others learn the true meaning of Hanukkah.
Originally commissioned by the Minnesota Jewish Theatre. Adapted from a book by Eric Kimmel.
Can be performed by a cast of four; Jakob, his father, neighbor-woman and goblin (any gender.)
THE WORLD TO COME
Four young women in an ultra-orthodox family gather to celebrate the wedding of one, little knowing it will result in her leaving the community.
Originally commissioned as a one-act by the Jewish Women’s Theatre Project and work-shopped as a full length at The Producer’s Club Theater in New York. Can be performed by a cast of five; four women, two men.
THE CHANUKAH GUEST
A grandmother named Bubba Brayna makes latkes so delicious, most of the people in her village line up to eat at her home on the first night of Chanukah. On one particular night, the delicious smell of latkes wakes a slumbering bear. He arrives at Bubba Brayna’s home, but due to her poor eyesight, she mistakes the bear for the village Rabbi. The result is confusion for Brayna, the bear and her family—but ends happily with a happy holiday for all characters, human and animal.
Originally commissioned by the Minnesota Jewish Theatre. Adapted from a book by Eric Kimmel. May be produced with a cast of three; one woman, one man and one boy.
MOTHER OF EXILES
A one-woman play about a female Russian émigré who works in the men’s room of a prestigious New York hotel, trying to persuade a young man to leave the stall on the day of his bar-mitzvah.
Part of the Salon Series readings at The Jewish Women’s Theatre Project, Los Angeles. Cast of one.
IN COYA’S HOUSE
The career of Coya Knutson, first Midwestern woman elected to Congress in 1954, was cut short by jealous politicians who persuaded her husband to write a letter saying “Coya, come home.”
Produced by The Great American History Theatre, St. Paul. Can be performed by a cast of seven: four men, two women, one eleven-year old boy.
I WOULDN’T BE HERE (short)
During the 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, a woman remembers her father, who was to land in Japan for an invasion before the Bomb was dropped.
Ten minute play, produced by The Great American History Theatre, St. Paul. Cast of four, two men, two women.
BURNT HOUSE
While uncovering the ruins of a priestly family in ancient Jerusalem, archaeologist Abby Friedman is confronted by her own past and ex-fiancé from the Hasidic community she left behind.
Winner, Jane Chambers Playwriting Award. Can be performed by a cast of eight: three women, five men.
SOLIDARITY
A musical chronicle of the events in 1980 leading up to the famous strike that resulted in the beginning of a new era for Poland.
Developed by Musical Theatre Workshop, New York. Can be performed with a cast of ten and a pianist: four women, six men.