L ifestyle /C ulture
Theatre Ariel Debuts ‘Leaves from the Garden’
T H EATER
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
haunted trees, wise women, and
Rabbis, and discover the Story of
Us,” according to a press release.
“Our hope is that families will
gather around their computers
to enjoy the wisdom embedded
in these classic tales. After all,
who doesn’t like to be told a great
story?” said Mozes, founding
artistic director of Theatre Ariel.
For Theatre Ariel’s 30th
anniversary season, Mozes
was keen on returning to the
roots of Jewish storytelling. As
she was planning the season a
few weeks into the pandemic,
she turned to her collection of
Jewish folktales and fairy tales.
Mozes was struck anew by
the anthologies of Schwartz,
a professor of English at the
University of Missouri-St.
Louis whose collections of
Jewish folktales have won
three National Jewish Book
Awards. Mozes, who saw
Schwartz speak at an Alliance
for Jewish Theatre conference
through the stories collected
in Schwartz’s 2008 book,
“Leaves From the Garden
of Eden,” Bernstein came to
mind as a potential collabo-
rator. Bernstein, a well-known
member of the Philadelphia
theater community, previously
worked with Theatre Ariel as a
director, writer and performer;
his original show, “Ethics of
the Fathers (aka The Gangster
and Grandpa)” debuted with
Theatre Ariel in 2019.
UPPE R DU BLI N
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BE V
2 TS A
I UN
N M OW
OD L
EL EA
S SIN
OP G
EN !
IN A YEAR MARKED by
upheaval, Deborah Baer Mozes
and the artistic team at Theatre
Ariel turned to tradition
for inspiration. The result is
“Leaves from the Garden,” a
collection of nine classic Jewish
folk tales that were adapted for
Zoom performances.
Working with stories
collected in the past by story-
teller and folklorist Howard
Schwartz, Mozes and Theatre
Ariel associate artistic director
Jesse Bernstein created a show
for audiences 12 and up.
Cast members Lois
Abdelmalek, Marissa Barnathan,
Hanlon Smith-Dorsey, Nathan
Foley and Abul Sesay tell stories
that take place in Palestine (as in
pre-state Israel), Morocco, Egypt,
Turkey and Europe. The charac-
ters they play “encounter demons,
Our hope is that families will gather around
their computers to enjoy the wisdom
embedded in these classic tales. After all,
who doesn’t like to be told a great story?”
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years before, reached out to
the professor with a request:
Could she have permission to
adapt some of the stories he’d
collected for the digital stage?
Schwartz was only too
happy to agree to the arrange-
ment, and is pleased with
the stories that Mozes and
Bernstein selected.
“If done well, they should
be very impressive,” Schwartz
said. Though that was the extent
of his involvement, Mozes
and Bernstein both praised
Schwartz’s eye for Jewish
stories as key to the success of
“Leaves from the Garden.”
As Mozes made her way
Bernstein agreed to work
on the show with Mozes, and
they each pored over the same
collection of stories, whittling
down the list to their favor-
ites and consulting with one
another. In the end, they
picked nine stories that they
felt represented the four catego-
ries of Jewish stories Schwartz
described: folktales, fairy
tales, supernatural tales and
mystical tales.
“There’s a sort of journey
that emerged from what we’ve
picked,” Bernstein said. “I don’t
know that it was conscious. But
we do sort of start in this world
of these familiar kind of love
stories, and it slowly evolves
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20 APRIL 22, 2021
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L ifestyle /C ulture
shtetl, so to speak, to embrace
the fullness of Jewish experi-
ence in a way that would be
recognizable to audiences
without being too inward-
looking or familiar.
“We tend to forget that
there are Jews and were Jews
in just about every corner of
the world,” Mozes said, and
representing that diversity
“was a big objective. And that’s
something I’m really excited
about, because we fulfilled that
objective really well.”
The show runs until April
25, and performances on
April 24-25 are part of Theatre
Philadelphia’s Philly Theatre
Week. For more information and
to purchase tickets, go to
A still from “The Wonder Child,” a story from the Egyptian-Jewish oral tradition. Top row, left to right: Lois Abdelmalek and Abdul Sesay. Bottom row, from theatreariel.org.
left: Marissa Barnathan and Nathan Foley
Courtesy of Theatre Ariel
Editor’s note: Jesse Bernstein
the playwright and Jesse
Bernstein the Jewish Exponent
into more exciting, more
Bernstein, who joined Naftali’s Trance,” included in is rivaled by the variety of reporter are different people. l
adventurous tales, and then Theatre Ariel in his new “Leaves from the Garden.”
the settings. It was important
moves into a mystical, almost capacity in January, is particu-
The tonal and thematic to Mozes and Bernstein to jbernstein@jewishexponent.com;
Kabbalistic-inspired ending.”
larly excited by the story “Rabbi variation of the selected stories explore stories outside of the 215-832-0740
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