Purim 2017: No One Mourns The Wicked/The Wizard of Shushan

Sunday March 12th, 7-10PM at William Way LGBT Center
Benefit for JVP Philadelphia, co-sponsored by Tikkun Olam Chavurah
in partnership with Dancing for Justice Philadelphia: Black Lives Matter

Special thanks to Spiral Q Puppets, Eric Joselyn and the The Folk Arts – Cultural Treasures Charter School, Vaudevillians NYB, and Donna Oblongata for loaning key props and costumes!

Read about it in thINKingDANCE  “Killer Sideburns’ Stochastic Stars” (Nicole Bindler, March 2017)
Photos by Karen Kirchoff
Video by Suzy Subways

▼ WHAT IS THIS EVENT?
 The Jewish holiday of Purim celebrates the events of the biblical Scroll (Book) of Esther (aka “the whole megillah”) in which Jews are saved from genocidal tyranny by Esther’s bravery to out herself as a Jew (+ there is much more to this story). Purim occurs in the Jewish month of Adar, when we are commanded to increase JOY and welcome a season of miracles!

A Purim-shpil (“play” in Yiddish) is a centuries-old annual ritual performance of topsy-turvy, upside-down, carnivalesque weirdness – it’s in the Talmud! A time to re-read and re-interpret the Book of Esther and the daily news while wearing costumes, gayly eating triangular yonic cookies, and reveling in our surreal disorientation.

▼ WHAT IS THIS SHOW ABOUT?
This year’s shpil (play) is a re-mix of The Wizard of Oz, the Megillah, characters from Narnia, modern political questions, and more! Frogs, beavers, migratory and domesticated birds populate the landscape. Esther and her rooster traveling companion Toto are on the move. A giant baby spews tyrannical noise pollution. May this be the year that the Witch Against White Supremacy conquers the Wicked Snitch!