Alliance for Jewish Theatre
Name: Alan L. Simons
Alan L. Simons is a UK-born Toronto-based author, writer, social advocate, and ghostwriter for numerous holocaust survivors. He has authored six books. As a playwright, he is currently adapting two of his Jewish works for the stage.
They are The Children of the Forest, a folktale in the European tradition. Written for both grown-ups and children grade 7+ (12ys+). The content, a fictional embellishment, is loosely based on a story by Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (1772-1810). This mystical, Kabbalistic, and esoteric story weaves around the lives of two Polish Jewish-born children, from pre-teens during 1941, to adulthood, who begin a relationship lasting throughout their lives, together with five complex and confounding klezmorim musical characters, living with disabilities. For children of grade 7+ (12y+), the focus of the story brings history to life and increases student knowledge in the field of social sciences, and offers debate in the development of social-emotional skills such as empathy.
The Village of Little Pletzl-on-the-Zump. Little Pletzl, weaves around the lives of an utterly bizarre Yiddish-speaking community of 613 people living for hundreds of years in a small village somewhere in the south of France, exclusively in their own world, without a care or a familiarity with their surroundings. They speak a distinctive Yiddish dialect called Frantsoydish. The storyline humorously with innate satire addresses cultural diversity fears that go beyond the stereotypes of our society and demonstrates that we can make fun of ourselves, irrespective of where we come from.
Simons has appeared on TV, and radio, and has written in the print media, such as The Times of Israel. He is a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, PAL Toronto chapter (Performing Arts Lodges), The Canadian Association of Journalists, and AJT. As a diplomat, he served as the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Rwanda to Canada, post-genocide era.
He has performed in several dramatic readings as Albert Einstein in Vern Theissen’s Einstein’s Gift, winner of the Canadian Jewish Playwriting Content and Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama; as Jacob Adler, widely regarded as the dean of Yiddish theatre, and as Sa’adia Gaon, 10th Century philosopher regarded as the greatest of the Gaonim.
alsimons@proton.me
