WENDY GRAF
playwright
UPCOMING PRODUCTIONs
CLOSELY RELATED KEYS
An African-American attorney with a career on the rise is shocked to discover she has an Iraqi half-sister in Closely Related Keys, a hard-hitting drama about family conflict and clashing cultures that examines the walls we erect in our current climate of racial, religious, and political polarization
WHEN:
August 25, 2021- September 12, 2021
WHERE:
International City Theatre
Long Beach Performing Arts Center
330 East Seaside Way
Long Beach, Ca. 90802
TICKETS:
LEIPZIG
Coming November 11, 2021
Bema Productions of Victoria, British Columbia
Presents Award Winning Play
Leipzig
"Leipzig" explores the journey of a three-member Catholic family when the mother descends into Alzheimer's Disease and begins praying in Hebrew, revealing her long held secret that she is Jewish and a child refugee of the Holocaust. Her adult daughter and only child, who has been raised as a devout Catholic, must deal with the devastating effects of her mother's secret past and come to terms with her religious identity. She calls on her childhood imaginary Jesus figure to help her through this religious crisis. Past and present collide in a psychological homecoming that raises deep and moving questions about religious identity, loyalty, and parental bonds
WEDNESDAY'S CHILD
Britt, a white working class Midwesterner, begins a career on the bottom rung of an industry remade by Latinos, whose population growth is fueling that of America. She and her family struggle to navigate a new and confusing terrain in America, frightened that whites seem to be losing their majority. Finally, at a crossroads, Britt is faced with adapting or succumbing to the dark forces of violence in reaction to a world that has brought her anger, frustration and disenfranchisement.
WHEN:
Workshop/concert reading
Saturday, July 17, 2021 6PM EST
WHERE:
Lab Theater Project, Tampa, Florida
INFORMATION
THE CROSS AND THE SABER
The play takes place in a not so distant future, a future one can well imagine but hopes will never occur. REVEREND ISAIAH PROFFIT has been arrested and locked up for High Treason - Fourteen Counts - by the State because he refuses to promote the political agenda and candidate slate of the Religious Right. Proffit is met in his jail cell by STONE , Head Interrogator and ardent supporter of the regime, who just happens to be a robot, part of a secret government program, as do other players in this story. Will Proffit succumb to the pressures by the State or risk his life and hold to his beliefs? That is just one of the questions asked in The Cross and The Saber.
In Development.
LESSONS
When Ben finally decides to have a Bar Mitzvah (at his age!) he hires Ruth, a Rabbi who’s lost her faith, to tutor him. The two characters forge a friendship as they each search for healing and forgiveness while wrestling with their own deep-rooted problems. “Lessons” is a touching, funny and poignant drama that asks the question: Can we find healing and forgiveness when our beliefs are questioned?
“A blend of wit and wisdom, “Lessons” questions, amuses and beguiles. Graf is in the long tradition of Jewish writers that include Neil Simon. And, very much like Simon, she mixes the angst in our lives with an overlay of humor that is both touching and tender.” – Ed Kauffman, Hollywood Reporter
“This quest for faith—in his case, a faith he’s never had, and in hers, a faith that she’s forsaken—is a poignant plea that touches everyone,” – KABC Radio
The Yiddishekeit Initiative opens their Yiddishfest 2021 with a live performance of LESSONS.
Live broadcast at 7pm EST via Facebook and YouTube on August 30.
More information and tickets: