Do You Want to Help Fight Food Insecurity?
This year, there are two easy ways you
can help nourish families in need:
$ $
High Holiday Grocery
Gift Card Drive 2022
1. Purchase ShopRite, ACME and Giant gift cards for Mitzvah
Food Program clients to use at their local stores. Gift cards up
to $50 are preferred.

2. Purchase food through the Mitzvah Food Program Amazon
Wish List so that products are shipped directly to a pantry.

Check with your synagogue for more information, or mail gift
cards directly to the Mitzvah Food Program –
345 Montgomery Avenue, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004
Visit jewishphilly.org/hhgiftcards
for more information.

Are You in
Need of Food
Assistance? The Jewish Federation's Mitzvah Food
Program believes healthy food shouldn't
come at a cost. This kosher food service is
available for all who are in need, regardless
of race, income, gender, age or religion.

Free nutritious food –
jewishphilly.org/enroll 12
SEPTEMBER 22, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



YOU SHOULD KNOW ...

Hadar McNeill
“In Victorian times, women didn’t
have much of a say,” McNeill said.

“I felt as a woman it was something
important to bring to light.”
McNeill, who goes by the stage name
Hadar, was born and raised in Israel
and served in the Israel Defense Forces.

After her service, she immigrated
to the United States and settled in
Philadelphia to pursue a music career.

She wrote, recorded and released songs
and albums as an independent solo artist.

She also performed with bands up and
down the East Coast at clubs, casinos
and weddings, among other venues and
events. All in all, Hadar was making a
living, but she was also frustrated.

The artist felt like industry gate-
keepers judged her only for her looks
The cast of “The Bisley Boy,” set to
open Sept. 23 at The Ritz Theatre in
Haddon Township, New Jersey
Courtesy of “The Bisley Boy” musical
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
Photo by Ryan Powell
I n the new play “The Bisley Boy” about Irish author Bram Stoker,
writer of “Dracula,” it is Stoker’s wife Florence who finds her voice,
according to Hadar McNeill, the Jewish actress playing her.

Florence Stoker becomes fed up with her husband’s infidelity with
other men and calls out the author. McNeill explains that, in doing so, the
character is “using her voice, standing up for herself and saying her piece.”
It’s a feeling that McNeill, a Cherry Hill, New Jersey, resident,
understands well.

Now 34, the actress spent her 20s navigating what she described as
a “male-dominated” music industry. She had to learn how to speak up
for herself while alone in a studio with a male producer.

It was that experience that attracted the singer to this part, her first
on a stage.

“The Bisley Boy,” written by Joshua Bessinger, premieres at The
Ritz Theatre in Haddon Township, New Jersey on Sept. 23. It will
run through Oct. 2. Find tickets on the theater’s website: tix.com/
ticket-sales/RitzTheatreCo/6520. and marketability, instead of her voice.

Often, they would not even listen to
her sing first, she said. They definitely
didn’t listen to her lyrics, she added.

This was her experience in her early
20s, and, while it got a little better with
age, it did not really change. The singer
had to learn to speak her mind and turn
down studio sessions if she didn’t feel
comfortable. It was not until her 30s that
Hadar got confident enough to do both.

“When you enter your 30s, you are
more of a fully formed person,” she
said. “I feel more empowered these
days as a woman.”
By September of 2021, she felt confi-
dent enough to pursue another dream
that she had been putting off: acting.

Hadar got a call from Bessinger about
reading for a part in his Stoker play.

The playwright knew about the
actress because he had asked her to
audition before, three years ago when
he was directing “Shout” at The Ritz
Theatre, a show featuring 1960s music.

He found her on Backstage, a trade
publication that allows actors to list
their profiles, and then he listened to
her demos. Bessinger loved Hadar’s
ability to transition from rock to R&B
to other genres, too.

But at the time, and for a reason she
does not remember, Hadar did not
respond. After he wrote “The Bisley Boy,”
though, Bessinger thought of her again
and decided to reach back out. This time,
she answered. And when they met, the
duo “clicked on a social and artistic level,”
Bessinger said. The playwright will also
act in his show, as Bram Stoker, opposite
Hadar in her role as Florence.

Bessinger informed Hadar that he con-
tacted her in the past. She claimed she
didn’t realize and said she would have
responded. Then Bram Stoker showed his
stage wife the proof on his phone.

“I forgave her,” he said, laughing.

Naturally, the duo will play an
unhappy couple with a big, verbal fight
scene. But Bessinger says this works
because “we like each other enough
off-stage to be mean to each other
on-stage.” He also thinks that the
power ballad at the end of the scene is
made for Hadar’s voice.

“There’s an emotional quality about
it,” he said of her voice. “When she
sings a big note, you feel it.”
Hadar wanted to act from the time she
saw “The Sound of Music” in Jerusalem as
an 8-year-old with her mother. But since
her school did not have a theater pro-
gram, she joined the choir and focused
on singing. Then her passion for R&B and
pop pushed her to pursue a singing career
after her military stint.

The singer considered making the
jump to the stage earlier in her career.

But nothing ever came of her Backstage
listing ... until now.

“The story was fascinating to me
when it was presented,” she said.

Hadar has taken acting and vocal
lessons to prepare for the show.

“I’m extremely anxious but mostly
excited,” she said. JE
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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