The Jewish Theatre Creating Contemporary Theatre for Over 30 Years

I can certainly understand Ms Mortkowitz’ response to the Model Apartment. Margulies’ play is what might be easily called transgressive, a quality that many newer works in various media exhibit in relation to Shoah-connected material.

At the same time, I’m saddened that she
“Won’t be attending anymore of your plays in the future.” and will miss the enormous range of this season. Our next production, Woody Allen’s “The Floating Lightbulb” is as different from “…Apartment.” as horseradish is from charoset.

To answer Ms M’s questions:
How does this playwright get his plays produced?
- Pretty easily since winning the Pulitzer for “Dinner with Friends.” He’s considered one of the most interesting contemporary American playwrights we have and has managed to work in both a highly commercial, Broadway style (Brooklyn Boy) and in a riskier way as is clear in “…Apartment”

Why would your theatre company choose this play?

-We felt it was an unusual, penetrating and theatrically masterful treatment of its subject, namely the ongoing force of the Holocaust on the children of survivors and beyond.

We understand that each production of ours will speak to some and not to others, that’s why we present a wide range of voices. While we certainly aren’t trying to please everyone all of the time, we also feel a responsibility to present nothing dishonest, second-rate or superficial. Whether we succeed 100% of the time is another question.

One sign that a play is truly taking on important questions, that it has the emotional heft that all good theatre requires is the controversy it provokes.

We want to produce work that evokes the passion we feel about our Jewish identity and about making theatre. For that reason, we’re grateful for passionate responses like Ms. Mortkowitz’.

[Corey Fischer is a co-founder and associate artist of TJT. He had no direct involvement with the production in question.]