At times your laughter is abruptly cut by a serious chill in spoken word or movement and your emotions will pool trying to make sense of how you’re supposed to feel. - Pittsburgh in the Round
Queer, Jewish is a collection of dances and stories on the intersection of Queer and Jewish identity in diaspora. Moriah Ella Mason and collaborators explore queer and feminist themes in Jewish sacred texts, use folklore to embrace real and ideal queer bodies, and re-formulate ritual to birth a new futurist aesthetic.
The 90-minute work includes:
Original Cast and Collaborators
Direction and Choreography by Moriah Ella Mason
Dramaturgy by Olivia Devorah Tucker
Text by Olivia Devorah Tucker and Moriah Ella Mason
Performances by Ru Emmons, Sarah Friedlander, Harry J. Hawkins IV, Moriah Ella Mason, Olivia Devorah Tucker, and Amelia Reuss
Music by slowdanger, Abe Hollow, and slowgroan
Lighting Design by Paige Borak
Costumes by Claire Steiner and Moriah Ella Mason
Presented at Carnegie Stage in Carnegie PA by Off the Wall Productions in August 2019
with additional support from the Heinz Endowments Small Arts Initiative
Queer, Jewish is available and can be booked for the full 90-minute work or as 15, 30, and 60 minute excerpts. Community movement and discussion workshops on "Emobdying Jewishness" and "Emodying Queerness" are also available.
To discuss how we can work together or to book an iteration of Queer, Jewish for your venue contact me.
[review] [interview] [interview] [interview] [interview]
The 90-minute work includes:
- personal stories of growing up Jewish in a rural conservative Christian town
- an embodiment of Barbra Streisand as gay and Jewish icon
- queer, feminist re-tellings of the stories of Lillith, Lot's wife, and Jeptha's daughter
- a rebirthing ritual based on the mythology of the Golem
Original Cast and Collaborators
Direction and Choreography by Moriah Ella Mason
Dramaturgy by Olivia Devorah Tucker
Text by Olivia Devorah Tucker and Moriah Ella Mason
Performances by Ru Emmons, Sarah Friedlander, Harry J. Hawkins IV, Moriah Ella Mason, Olivia Devorah Tucker, and Amelia Reuss
Music by slowdanger, Abe Hollow, and slowgroan
Lighting Design by Paige Borak
Costumes by Claire Steiner and Moriah Ella Mason
Presented at Carnegie Stage in Carnegie PA by Off the Wall Productions in August 2019
with additional support from the Heinz Endowments Small Arts Initiative
Queer, Jewish is available and can be booked for the full 90-minute work or as 15, 30, and 60 minute excerpts. Community movement and discussion workshops on "Emobdying Jewishness" and "Emodying Queerness" are also available.
To discuss how we can work together or to book an iteration of Queer, Jewish for your venue contact me.
[review] [interview] [interview] [interview] [interview]
Rather than shirking diaspora and the more modern concept of Diasporism, Mason and creative collaborators [. . .] embrace and reconceptualize the intertwining, symbiotic relationship between queerness, Jewishness, and diasporic existence. By reconceiving myth, queer and feminist narratives in Jewish sacred texts, and the real and imagined paradigm in which queer bodies exist, Queer, Jewish seeks to create a “future aesthetic” that upholds a dynamic, non-static sense of identity. - Pittsburgh in the Round
“Tradition is an intergenerational artistic process,” says Mason. “In every generation I think we get to decide how we contribute to that artistic process. We get to look at what has been handed down, see what serves us and improve on it, carry it forward, add new things to it and reinterpret it. I find that really exciting and I see this dance work as one small way I and my cast get to engage in that artistic process.” - Pittsburgh Current