Purim Shows — Ezra Berkley Nepon

PURIM VIDEOS

I have been making Purim shows in various forms since 2002 – these are a few created as videos in recent years in collaboration with Philadelphia’s Kol Tzedek Synagogue.

2023 WE’RE HERE: SHUSHAN
WATCH (24 MINS)

Three Drag Mothers arrive in Shushan and meet their drag children who need support to express their genuine selves. Each pair works together to develop a performance, culminating in a one-night only drag show. In this show, Drag Mother Barbra Streisand (as Yentl the Yeshiva Boy) works with Queen Esther to access the power of ancestral reparenting. Drag Mother Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz works with the dethroned Queen Vashti to embrace Radical Diasporism. Drag Mother Rambam Bamideez works with Mordechai to repair his role in the story.

2022 A SHMITA PURIM GOES INTO THE WOODS
WATCH (38 MINS)

The town of Shushan is in a shmita year, when all the debts are supposed to be wiped away, but that’s not what the King has planned. A couple of Bakers yearn to dethrone the King and redistribute his wealth, but find themselves blocked at every turn until they receive a surprise visit from the neighboring witch. Cinderesther dreams that dancing with the King will save the Jews, Haman lusts for power, Jack is drowning in student debt, and Little Red can’t keep up with her granny’s medical bills. And then a giant problem appears. Join the people of Shushan on this journey into the woods and out of the woods and into the woods again…and happy ever after? A Sondheim tribute.

2021 OLAM HADASH/A WHOLE NEW WORLD
A VERY HOWARD ASHMAN PURIM SPECIAL
WATCH (19 MINS)

Howard Ashman was a gay Jewish playwright and the beloved lyricist to Little Shop of Horrors and a treasure trove of Disney musicals. In this year of Ashman’s 30th yahrzeit, characters from his musicals make up the townspeople of Shushan, gathered to demand the liberation of Vashti (Ursula) and an end to all prisons. The people of Shushan reach for Olam Hadash (a whole new world) through political praxis, the magic of a dybbuk that lives in a gragger, the radical tactics of a flying hamantaschen, and the power of song.

2020 IN THE SINKHOLE: A TRIUMPHANT CREATURE CABARET
WATCH (34 MINS)

A giant sinkhole opened up in Philadelphia, and our rabbi fell in! After falling for a long time, he lands in a floating cabaret called “The Hole”! In the Hole, emcee Vashti welcomes magical misfits arriving from all directions and times to tell their stories, regenerate, rejuvenate, and gather strength to continue on through the portal of history. The sinkhole is a safezone, unsanitized and ripe for fermentation of all that needs to emerge, come out, bubble up, and break through.

This show was canceled due to the COVID-19 quarantine, and shifted to be a video shared during Yom Kippur.