About Face

About Face is a surreal drama about a Soviet Jewish immigrant family in America. After years of living in fear, the Berezovsky family fled the Soviet Union to start a new life in America. Nine years later, 16-year-old Lina struggles to stake her claim on an elusive American identity, while her grandmother remains tormented by […]

Essie Martsinkovsky Essie Martsinkovsky

Arlekino Theatre

Arlekino Theater Troupe cultivates interest for cultural arts in Russian-speaking Jewish children, while instilling an appreciation for their Jewish heritage. This project has been flourishing as part of the Generation R programming at the JCC Manhattan since 2011, nurturing children’s self-expression, inquiry, and exploration, and promotes Russian language development. The program includes dramatic play, music, dance, […]

Jane Tuv Jane Tuv

Blender Bodies

Our bodies are live blenders of heritage, history, family, rituals and beliefs. Blender Bodies is a multimedia art installation that offers a different view that reflects the multicultural nature of Jewish communities around the world and exposes the common ground we all share collectively as human beings. The project is driven by an exploration of […]

Ronit Levin Delgado Ronit Levin Delgado

Central Park: An Original Musical Story

A musical, performed by talented children from the Russian Jewish community, with songs composed by BluePrint Fellow Dina Pruzhansky based on poems by masters like Samuil Marshak, Renata Mucha and others. Two performances of the Musical (one in Russian and one in English) took place on March 17, 2014 at JCC Manhattan.  Both of the shows […]

Dina Pruzhansky Dina Pruzhansky

Crossing Boundaries

“Crossing Boundaries” was an Improv Show at The Playback Theatre – a project dedicated to stories of immigration. The performance addressed issues and problems related to immigration and how people’s traditions, beliefs, and views are affected through acculturation into this country. Playback Theatre used a talented cast of actors and musicians (including our own Alex […]

Alexander Alabin Alexander Alabin

GOGA

Multidisciplinary performance, a play with music and live readings based on a memoir book about coming to American in 1988 as a young Soviet girl.

Olia Toporovsky Gomez-Delgado Olia Toporovsky Gomez-Delgado

Jewish Fairy-tales

The project will create original theatrical performances for families with children based on famous Jewish children’s books drawing from Yiddish culture and the wealth of the Russian-Jewish literary heritage.

Alex Notkin Alex Notkin

Le Grand Voyage

The project will focus on the creation of a theatrical piece about immigration with a Clown troupe. Clown form is a perfect way to express complex life experiences and will become an engaging performance to adults and children alike.

Letter to God – A Staged Reading

An English language adaptation of a theater play by a Jewish-Ukrainian playwright Anatoli Krim, that will begin with a staged reading with a goal of a full staged play.

Magic Streetcar

A Children’s Immersive Theater Project Based on the poetry of R. Mykha and other Jewish authors in Russian An immersive theatrical project for kids (ages 2-5 yo) in Russian. On this interactive journey kids are able to use all their senses and get to know their favorite characters from famous children’s poems. The show premiered with four […]

Alya Adelman Alya Adelman

Man is Not a Rock

Man is Not a Rock is a reenactment of the first interview given in the West by Joseph Brodsky, Jewish poet and Soviet dissident, after he was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1972 for “social parasitism.” The first English translation of the interview was recently published in The Baffler magazine, which gave me permission […]

Anna Khalamayzer Anna Khalamayzer

Marlo: Jewish [En]Lightning

Marlo: Book One: Jewish [En]Lightning is the second book in Chicago-headquartered Urban Pop Art Projects’ publishing imprint Urban Pop Art Books. New York artist/ videographer/ author Aleks Degtyarev expertly navigates his id to deconstruct a complicated identity: that of the post-Soviet child immigrant all grown up. Navigating questions about identity often sidelined by urges to just […]

Aleks Degtyarev Aleks Degtyarev

Me and Ethel Rosenberg

Staged reading of a one-woman show, created, written, and performed by Yelena Shmulenson. April 16, 2013 at Stage Left Studio, 214 West 30th Street

Yelena Shmulenson Yelena Shmulenson

Moscow to Manhattan

Young Russian Jews Take Over 92YTribeca! An evening of stories, humor, music, video, and a giant interactive hand. July 17, 2012 at 92Y Tribeca Dive headfirst into the raucous, unhinged, exuberant world that is your Russian-Jewish identity, or someone else’s. Chanteuse Mira Stroika and storyteller Ilya Khodosh take over 92YTribeca for one night only to […]

Mira Stroika Mira Stroika
Ilya Khodosh Ilya Khodosh

Queen Esther

Queen Esther: Children’s Purim Shpiel Opera Russian-born Soprano Nika Leoni founded of the performance company Classical Presentations, which created a number of versatile productions, including Albert Markov’s new opera for children Queen Esther, in which she also sang the title role. Queen Esther had its world premiere in New York in 2010 with encore performances in […]

Nika Leoni Nika Leoni