L ifestyle /C ulture
‘Golem’ Considers Death, Associated Jewish Rituals
ARTS JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
AT THE OLD CITY Jewish
Arts Center, playwrights and
theater artists Logan Gabrielle
Schulman and Benjamin
Behrend are trying something
new: an art exhibition.

For Schulman and Behrend,
who met as teachers at
Congregation Rodeph Sholom
before expanding their partner-
ship, it’s a totally new experience,
one born out of calamity.

“The exhibition basically
came about because the
pandemic screwed up every-
thing else,” Behrend said.

“A Golem Sleeps and
Wakes in the Mourning,”
which opened on June 4, is
a combination of new work
and reconfigured set pieces
from previous performances of
Schulman and Behrend. The
exhibit runs through July 2 and
features images, objects, filmed
performances and interactive
spaces. On June 25 and July 2, the
pair will present live perfor-
mances called “Time, Collapsed”
— complete with live musical
From left: Logan Gabrielle Schulman and Benjamin Behrend
Photos by Noah S. Thompson
accompaniment, dance and
puppetry — alongside public
conversations with Aleida Garcia,
founder of the National Homicide
Justice Alliance; Roz Pichardo,
founder of Save Our City Philly;
and Benjamin Bass, who will
perform in “Time, Collapsed”
alongside Griffin Rowe.

“A Golem Sleeps and Wakes
in the Mourning” covers
many of the same themes
that Schulman and Behrend
explored in their virtual play,
“Welcome to the Shiva House,”
produced during last year’s
Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

In that performance, audiences
were made to participate in a
Zoom shiva, led by Schulman
and Behrend, for a fictional
character named Sam Bloom.

“Golem” grapples with
death and Jewish death ritual
in a similarly participatory way,
inviting audiences to look into
a mirror covered in lace and
tool around with an overhead
projector. Sometimes the
similarities between the show
and the exhibition are literal,
rather than thematic: Viewers
can watch clips of “Welcome
to the Shiva House” while they
flip through the program that
accompanied it.

“This is basically a retro-
spective of our partnership
over the past four years,”
Behrend said.

The exhibition, which came
about after Schulman and
Behrend answered an open call
from OCJAC, asks viewers to
think about themes like death,
abandonment, gun violence,
the pandemic and our respon-
sibilities to each other. The
names of children killed by gun
violence in 2021 are written on
butcher paper, rolled into the
shape of a megillah; images
beckoning viewers in from
off the street are displayed on
obsolete television screens. The
Golem is a frequent touchpoint
for the artists, as well.

Schulman and Behrend
have given audiences a lot to
chew on in OCJAC’s cozy,
brick-walled space.

Schulman, 26, studied
religion and performance at
the New College of Florida
before receiving training as
an actor at the Stella Adler
Studio for Actor Training.

Their work has been presented
by the Chautauqua Institution,
the Annenberg Center for
the Performing Arts, Arthur
Ross Gallery and Vox Populi
Gallery, among other institu-
tions. In addition to their work
as a theater artist, Schulman
nurses a deep love for puppetry,
which is represented in several
portions of “A Golem Sleeps
and Wakes in the Mourning.”
Behrend, 27, a Philadelphia
native and graduate of the
University of Pennsylvania,
has worked with prominent
Philadelphia theater compa-
nies like the Arden Theatre
Co., InterAct Theatre, Theatre
Exile and Act II Playhouse.

Schulman and Behrend’s
collaboration began in earnest
in the wake of the 2018 Tree of
Life shootings in Pittsburgh.

As each of them struggled
to understand how Jews as
individuals and as communi-
ties should grapple with what
had happened, they looked to
one another for ideas.

They wrote a complicated
play called “Elegy for a Lamb:
A Revival,” to which the No.

1 response was confusion.

With those notes in mind, they
reworked it into a new play
called “Now at the End, Again,”
See Golem, Page 23
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