L ifestyle /C ulture
Playwright Watches His Work Come to Life
T H EATER
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
WHILE IN HIGH SCHOOL
in Leonia, New Jersey, Cary
Gitter won a young playwright’s
contest, then got to watch his
show on a stage, performed by
professional actors.

The experience inspired
him to become a playwright.

It still motivates Gitter, now
34, to write. And on Dec. 11
at Temple Beth Hillel-Beth
El in Wynnewood, he got to
live that experience for the
first time since the pandemic
began. A team of actors performed
Gitter’s romantic comedy
“The Sabbath Girl” as part of
Theatre Ariel’s new season.

Theatre Ariel is a Main Line
nonprofit that puts on intimate
Cary Gitter
Photo by Michele Maloney Photography
productions of Jewish-themed
plays, usually in people’s living
rooms. But this season is playing
out in public locations due to
the pandemic and a desire to
maintain distance, according
to Founding Director Deborah
Baer Mozes. Virtual perfor-
mances are also part of the
2021-22 schedule.

Gitter’s play drew an
audience of 30-50 people for its
first Philadelphia-area appear-
ance. The playwright himself
was one of them. He came in
from Ann Arbor, Michigan, for
the show and, after it ended, he
joined the actors at the front of
the room for a Q&A.

“I was pleased,” Gitter said.

“The actors did a great job.”
Audience members, most
of them seniors, were pleased,
too. Laughter was frequent
throughout the 80-minute
show, which featured an
Orthodox Jewish man and an
Italian woman, both in their
early 30s, falling in love.

“The play was well-written,”
said Marilyn Fogel of Bala
Cynwyd. “It sounded real.”
Gitter first wrote the play
in the summer of 2017. He was
inspired by his Jewish heritage
on his father’s side and his
Italian heritage on his mother’s
side. Artistically, he wanted to
create a story that took place in
New York City.

“Like the movies I love,
‘Crossing Delancey’ and Nora
Ephron films,” he said. “Both
funny but also heartfelt and
romantic. It’s rarer on stage
than in film.”
The playwright pitched
the script to the Penguin Rep
Theatre in Stony Point, New
York, and got it produced there
in the summer of 2019. By
February 2020, it was debuting
off-Broadway. After a month-long run
in which “The Sabbath Girl”
sold out a 100-seat house, the
pandemic hit and New York
locked down. Gitter and his
wife, who were dividing their
time between New York and
Ann Arbor, moved to Michigan
full time, and the playwright
started focusing on nonstage
projects. During the pandemic, he
adapted a play into a film
script, started novelizing
“The Sabbath Girl” and got
into television writing. But he
still loves the experience that
convinced him to try writing
professionally in the first place.

And on Dec. 11, he got to
enjoy it again.

“It feels great to have a play
have a further life and different
theaters pick it up,” Gitter said. l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
‘The Sabbath Girl’ Offers Relatable Story
T H EATER
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
“THE SABBATH GIRL” by
Cary Gitter, which debuted
at Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El
on Dec. 11 as part of Theatre
Ariel’s new season, is somehow
both timeless and modern.

Gitter balances those
two qualities in a love story
between the two main charac-
ters, both in their early 30s:
Seth, a divorced Orthodox
Jewish man who has moved
out of his insular community,
and Angie, an Italian woman
who runs a hip New York City
art gallery.

In doing so, the playwright
crafts a story that is not only
timeless and modern but
relatable. “The Sabbath Girl” has two
more Theatre Ariel shows this
weekend. Even though both are
virtual, you shouldn’t miss them.

As one audience member,
18 DECEMBER 16, 2021
Alan Fogel of Bala Cynwyd,
explained after the perfor-
mance, “The Sabbath Girl”
portrays a common experi-
ence. Two people making an
unexpected connection.

It also features a conflict
that often arises after such a
connection is made. The two
people are from different
backgrounds and, as Fogel put
it, “How do they bridge that?”
Seth lives in the Upper West
Side apartment building that
Angie has just moved into.

They meet when Seth knocks
on the door to ask his shabbos
goy, who used to live there, to
help him out.

As Angie becomes Seth’s
new Shabbos goy, their connec-
tion sparks.

But the art curator, at least
for a while, can’t bring herself
to choose the Orthodox Jew
who runs a knish store over the
hot new artist she’s courting for
her gallery. Seth, on the other
hand, has trouble convincing
his sister, who runs the knish
store with him and is trying to
set him up with an Orthodox
girl, that Angie would be an
acceptable partner.

“It’s a depiction of people’s
humanity,” Gitter said.

At the same time, in a
Q&A after the show, Gitter
reminded the mostly senior
audience that Seth and Angie
are both millennials. It’s an
important detail because
their burgeoning relationship
captures a millennial conflict.

We want both the freedom
to be ourselves and the
connection that comes with
community. But how do we
balance those desires?
Seth wants to maintain
Orthodox Jewish practices
yet expand beyond his insular
community. Angie wants to
keep moving forward in her
successful career but also,
unlike in her past relationships,
find a good, reliable and rooted
man. JEWISH EXPONENT
Actors wait for the audience to file in before starting their performance
of “The Sabbath Girl” in Wynnewood Dec. 11.

Photo by Jarrad Saffren
Seth represents tradition
and the desire for more moder-
nity, while Angie represents
modernity and the desire for
more tradition. Together, they
symbolize the urge to balance
the two, and both can sense
that, in each other, they may
have found that balance.

There’s nothing more timeless
than a relationship rooted in
the spark of connection. And
modern relationships, increas-
ingly so, are vessels of stability in
stormy seas.

Gitter’s characters have the
spark. And by the end, when
they finally agree to go on a
date, you get the strong sense
they may have started building
the vessel, too. l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
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