For Immediate Release: December 4, 2006
Media Contact: Diane Eacret, for Theatre Ariel, 215.636.0601

Theatre Ariel, Pennsylvania’s longest-running professional Jewish theater, celebrates its sweet 16th season and the third night of Hanukkah with a one-off holiday entertainment, “A Time to Laugh,” on Sunday, December 17, 7:30 p.m. at the Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St.

Presented in the style of a 1940s radio vaudeville show, this is Theatre Ariel’s biennial fund-raising event. Gloria Spitz, of Wynnewood, chairs the committee.

“This time of year, you need to laugh,” Spitz said. “This is Theatre Ariel’s way of bringing a little light to the darkness.”

The evening intersperses sketches from OY!, a comedy by Rich Orloff, with musical numbers, variety acts, and that sine qua non of broadcasting, messages from our sponsor – in this case, tributes to Theatre Ariel’s honorees, Jerome and Lori Lowenthal Marcus, of Penn Valley, and Congregation Tiferet Bet Israel (TBI) and its spiritual leader, Rabbi David M. Ackerman. TBI, a Conservative synagogue in Blue Bell, presented Theatre Ariel’s first touring productions and is considered the itinerant company’s “home away from home.”

The acclaimed Klingon Klez band, led by Jack Kessler, melding a musical tradition that spans half a millennium with avant-garde impulses, and MIRAJ, an a cappella trio of two rabbis and a cantor, named for its members, Margo L. Stein, Rayzel Raphael and Juliet I. Spitzer, are the featured music makers. Each of the principals has composed music for Theatre Ariel productions.

From its first performances in 1991 in the studio theater of the Walnut Street Theatre, to its development into a touring company that has produced some 50 new works of its own for nearly 200 presenting organizations throughout Greater Philadelphia, in central and western Pennsylvania and along the Northeast Corridor, Theatre Ariel has held true to Founding Artistic Director Deborah Baer Mozes’ belief in employing Philadelphia-based talent.

All of the artists contributing to “A Time to Laugh” are active in the local arts community; many have longstanding relationships with Theatre Ariel. Veteran ensemble member Jennifer Blaine, in the persona of her alter ego, “Ruth Warshovsky,” a wisecracker familiar to Philadelphia audiences from annual Fringe appearances, emcees “A Time to Laugh.” Sharing the stage are such other Theatre Ariel favorites as Robb Hutter, Deborah Seif, Leah Walton and Eric Van Wie. Sara Felder, a juggler with a feminist edge, and actor Seth Reichgott, will make their Theatre Ariel debut at the fund-raiser.

OY!, first produced in New York in 1999 by Melting Pot Theater Company, has been developed in collaboration with Theatre Ariel, among others. Playwright Orloff, whose work has been published in four Best American Short Plays anthologies, became involved with Theatre Ariel through the Association for Jewish Theatre, an international organization of which Baer Mozes is the recent past president. She recognized the potential of the script, which abounds in wordplay, as audio theater. Orloff gave his blessing.

“From some of the sketches you could kvell,” according a New York Times review of OY! Adena Potok, of Merion, a member of Theatre Ariel’s board of directors and fund-raising committee, served as OY! sketch comedy curator for the Dec. 17 adaptation.

Tickets for “A Time to Laugh” are $54. VIP tickets, which include a post-show dessert reception catered by Betty the Caterer, start at $125. For reservations, call Theatre Ariel at 215-735-9481.

Through innovative productions for audiences of all ages, Theatre Ariel gives voice and form to the multifaceted heritage of the Jewish people. Theatre Ariel strengthens Jewish identity and makes connections between peoples of many cultures. Since its inception in 1990, Theatre Ariel has reached more than 67,000 people directly through live performance. In addition, Theatre Ariel’s plays have been published by Dramatic Publishing and produced by professional and educational theaters from Salt Lake City to Westchester County to Jerusalem. For further information: www.theatreariel.org.

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