April 3-6, 2016
St. Louis, Missouri

The Association for Jewish Theatre’s 2016 conference — Redefining Jewish Theatre in an Age of Multi-Culturalism – was April 3rd through 6th, hosted by The New Jewish Theatre, in St. Louis, Missouri.

In a world with more and more emphasis on multi-culturalism, it is time for the Association for Jewish Theatre to rethink issues of race, ethnicity, and other societal issues vis-a-vis the notion of “Jewish theatre.” The goal is to broaden the concept of Jewish theatre to become much more inclusive and to expose the universality of what we do by bringing in ideas of inclusivity, identity, multi-culturalism, etc. and to broaden the idea of identity and what it means to do or to be a Jewish theatre today.

Check out the full conference schedule!

There were multiple workshops, panel discussions, etc. that shed light on these important issues, in addition to some very exciting events, including:

• A tribute to the late Theodore Bikel, celebrating his life and his devotion to our cause.
• Exciting keynote speaker — Broadway director Kimberly Senior, who recently directed Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer-winning play Disgraced, as well as The Whipping Man, My Name is Asher Lev, The Diary of Anne Frank, and many others.
  Read the Keynote Address.
• Playwright and Solo Performers Showcase.
• Special workshop using the Ferguson incidents to learn what the arts can do for areas like Ferguson, how theatre portrays these incidents, situations and people and how the residents of these areas want us as arts organizations to respond. Facilitators will be local activist Rabbi Susan Talve and African-American activist Pastor Traci Blackmon.