Past Projects at JTO
Amsterdam
An Israeli violinist. Living in her trendy canal-side Amsterdam apartment. Nine months pregnant. One day a mysterious unpaid bill from 1944 arrives. It awakens unsettling feelings of collective identity, foreignness and alienation. Stories of a devastating past are compellingly reconstructed to try and make sense of the present.
Performed April 13 & 14, 2024
Milk & Honey
A beautiful confection full of love and laughter, this musical contains the first Broadways score written by Jerry Herman. With a delightful selection that includes Shalom, There’s No Reason in the World and the buoyant title song, Milk and Honey, tells the story of a group of American widows who travel to Israel with hopes of finding new love. Set against the backdrop of the country’s struggle for recognition as an independent nation, this production is bursting with hope and humor.
Performed March 7 & 10, 2024
Meaningless
The most controversial book of the Bible is now a live show! See why Ecclesiastes has fascinated everyone from Shakespeare to Samuel Beckett in this funny and poignant stage adaptation. After struggling to find meaning in the world, The Teacher reveals his hard-learned and unexpected answers to life’s big questions. From concubines to snake charming, he’s here to explain the meaningless existence of everything under the sun. Religious or not, you’ll be intrigued by this mystifying 2222ish-year-old text.
Performed February 17 & 18, 2024
Under the Jello Mold
In this award-winning, one-woman comedy, Jennie Fahn plays her colorful character of her mother during what turned out to be the final act of her life. A former dancer with a flair for embellishing every story, Jennie’s mom was the life of the party. But while no one expects the bombshell she kept hidden, everyone can find something they relate to in this comedy about love, loss, and being of sound body and mind!
Performed November 4 & 5, 2023
Tuesdays with Morrie
Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, Tuesdays with Morrie is the autobiographical story of Mitch Albom, an accomplished journalist driven solely by his career, and Morrie Schwartz, his former college professor. Sixteen years after graduation, Mitch happens to catch Morrie’s appearance on a television news program and learns that his old professor is battling Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Mitch is reunited with Morrie, and what starts as a simple visit turns into a weekly pilgrimage and a last class in the meaning of life.
Performed September 9 & 10, 2023
I Want to go Home
When Russia invaded The Ukraine in early 2022, many people had no choice but to flee their homes with no knowledge of when or if they could go back. Eleven Ukrainian playwrights reflect on their reality in I Want To Go Home as war unfolds before them.
Including Liudmyla Tymoshenka, Elena Astaseva, Oksana Grytsenko, Lena Lagushonkowa, Tetyana Kytsenko, Olga Matsiup, Mykola Lysenkia, Iryna Harets, Bitaly Chensky, Oksana Savchenko, Andriy Bondarenko.
Translated from Ukrainian by John Freedman, Natalia Batus, and John Fandon.
This show was previously performed at The Braid Jewish Theatre in collaboration with the Museum of Jewish Heritage in July of 2022.
Performed April 29 & 30, 2023
Chagall in School
New play by playwright James Sherman based on the the real life story of Jewish artist Marc Chagall and his dream of a free art school in his hometown of Vitebsk, Russia. After the Bolshevik Revolution in the early part of the 20th Century, Chagall gathers noted artists and friends to help him form the People’s Art School. However, it isn’t long before his dreams are complicated by conflicting ideas on the future of art and clashing personalities in the staff. When the man behind the most popular art movement of the time, Kazimir Malevich, arrives to join the faculty, Chagall’s abilities as administrator are tested in a fight for the artistic soul of the school.
Performed February 18 & 19, 2023
A Radical Friendship
In this moving two-man show, Jane Marla Robbins imagines conversation between two real life friends and revolutionaries, Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, through series of phone calls and letters within the heart of the Civil Rights Movement. Join Jewish Theatre of Oklahoma along with Temple B’nai Israel, The Jewish Federation of Greater OKC, Respect Diversity Foundation, and the Oklahoma NAACP for an evening of theatre in memory of two men who’s fight for justice and equity reshaped the world.
Performed January 15, 2023
Jerry’s Girls
Jewish Theatre of Oklahoma’s first musical! With classic songs from Hello, Dolly!, Mame, La Cage aux Folles, and many more, this tremendous musical cabaret showcased the large breadth of work from one of the best Jewish songwriters of our time.
Performed December 3 & 4, 2022
Oklahoma Samovar
in 1887, two Latvian teenagers, Jake and Hattie, free the Russian Army and become the only Jews in the Oklahoma Land Run. 100 years later, their ninety-year-old daughter Sylvia reinvents their story of five generations in a Jewish pioneer family, traveling East to West and then West to East, staking their claims in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Coney Island, putting down roots and digging graves, embodying their own Jewish variations on the mythologized and turbulent American Dream — an utterly human and absolutely unique American story, based on real events.
Performed November 12 & 13, 2022.
Becoming Dr. Ruth
Dr. Ruth Westheimer is most famously known for her pioneering career as a radio and television sex therapist. Fewer, however, know the incredible story of her life before public fame. Becoming Dr. Ruth by Mark St. Germain tells the true story of Karola Ruth Siegel. From fleeing the Nazis in the Kindertransport and joining the Haganah as a scout and sniper, to struggling as a single mother in America, this one-woman show is imbued with humor, honesty, and the life-affirming spirit we have come to love from Dr. Ruth over all these years.
Performed September 10 & 11, 2022.
Mother’s in the Bible:
Smart Women, Tough Choices
As we ushered in Mothers’ Day 2022, Jewish Theatre of Oklahoma invited playwrights to take a reverent but realistic view of some of the greater and lesser-known mothers in the Hebrew Bible. While it’s simple to see mothers as beacons of goodness, nurturers, and dedicated followers of God, sometimes mothers need to break bonds, commit sins, and even rebel against God.
In our first “Mother’s in the Bible” festival, “Smart Women, Tough Choices,” JTO asked playwrights to explore the complexities of motherhood through stories about the strengths, weaknesses, successes, and failures of mothers that fill the pages of the Hebrew Bible.
We were delighted present 10-minute plays from the winning contestants:
James Sherman
Lawrence Aronovitch
William Newkirk
Bridget Grace Sheaff
Sharon Forman
Heidi Handelsman
Susan Josephs
Mara Dresner
Debra Rich Gettleman
Performed April 30 & May 1, 2022
The Scribe
How did “In the Beginning” really begin? Jesse Bernstein presented “The Scribe,” the untold (and maybe truthful) story of how the first Torah in ancient Jerusalem was put together.
Performed December 4 & 5, 2021
Oh, God
A depressed God walks into a psychologist's office ready to destroy His creation, and his new therapist — a single mom of a son with autism — has one hour to change His mind.
Performed October 23 & 24, 2021
The Matzo Ball Diaries
THE MATZO BALL DIARIES explores the special meanings that Jewish people give to food. The stories feature original works by an international cast of writers sharing personal histories about the meaning of food in their lives; stories ranging from a reminiscence of childhood obesity caused by over indulgence in the dreaded K-foods (kreplach, kishka, knishes) to Jewish struggles with anorexia, cultural glimpses into food tradition, and more.
Performed June 3, 2021
True Colors
Humorous, revealing, and inspiring stories from Jews of Color exploring identity, community, and being a Jew in modern times.
Performed March 14, 2021
The Ethics of the Fathers: AKA the Gangster and the Grandpa
“So poignant, meaningful and JEWISH.”
“…A tour de force. Really enjoyed the story…and Jesse’s telling of it.”
“Impressive one-man show!”
“That was terrific…Damn good show!”
Performed February 7 & 28, 2021
Latkes and Applesauce, Dreidels and Gelt, Mike Nicholas and Elaine May
Jewish Theatre of Oklahoma celebrates Chanukah with some of the funniest sketches in comedy history from this Jewish dynamic duo (played by Debra Rich Gettleman and Mike Waugh)! The evening was met with rave reviews with one audience member writing, ““I’m glad we have something like this,” recognizing the beginning of JTO’s contributions to the arts and Jewish culture in OKC. Many commented on the high-caliber theatrical experience presented, writing, “What a talented group of people!” The audience agreed that the show was “just delightful” and a “great show,” worthy of a hearty “Mazel Tov! Well Done!” By the end of the evening, many shared the sentiment that they were “…looking forward to the next production” and that this was “an excellent beginning.”
Performed December 10, 2020