INTERVIEW: LABA explores theme of ‘other’ with dance, theater, literature

LABAlive will combine the ancient and the modern for their program Thursday, March 16 in the Theater at the 14th Street Y in New York City. LABAlive Two: Others will bring the creative efforts of several artists together for an evening that explores the theme of “other” in ancient Jewish texts and their modern interpretation.

On the program will be Gordon Haber, reading from his new collection of short stories; Hadar Ahuvia, presenting a new dance piece on identity and folk tradition; and Abigail Katz, who will showcase a play about Jewish spiritual leaders meeting the Dalai Lama. Scholar Ruby Namdar will also offer a teaching.

LABA is a laboratory for Jewish culture, and the company’s March 16 event is the result of an ongoing fellowship program. Each of the artists has been working on their individual pieces, all built around a common theme. Previous topics have included paradise, Eros, blueprint, eat, mother and time. There to support their efforts and curate the evening is Ronit Muszkatblit, artistic director of LABA.

Muszkatblit said the evening should be surprising and entertaining for audience members as the artists respond to classical Hebrew texts. “Every year the fellowship is proposed with a theme,” Muszkatblit said in a recent phone interview. “This year our theme is other. We chose it in January not imagining a theme so, so current and strong in the political world around us, so in the year, we study texts whether it’s about gender or physical disabilities.”

The dance piece for LABAlive Two: Others has been in development for years, and the choreographer and dancers have been rehearsing on a biweekly basis since September. For the theater piece, Muszkatblit said the narrative explores when “the leaders of the Jewish community went to visit the Dalai Lama, and actually in that journey discovered the differences and the sameness in their different ways of thinking about Judaism.”

She added: “My goal is really for the artists to challenge themselves and to work on something that they can then take with them and to continue developing outside of the world. We say that we’re an incubator for new work, but I also always challenge them to really try to do something that is new and a bit different because they have the space. They have the support. They have a budget really, so this is kind of a little bit of a vacation for the art world just to have time to think and to create and to be supportive.”

Muszkatblit, who has presented theatrical works at PS122 and 59E59 Theaters, said some of the audience members at LABA events are trying to reconnect with their Jewish culture and background. LABA is a secular house of study, open to all audience members, and the artists examine these texts from a literary perspective.

“All the questions, all the narratives are part of the conversation,” she said. “We really believe these texts are so powerful, like many philosophical texts in other religions. It’s so powerful just to study them, that it really opens you up and reconnects you through your heritage.”

Muszkatblit, who founded woken’glaicer theater company and Operatzia, actually came to New York City as a fellow in the LABA program. She never thought that she would be leading the company as the artistic director.

“As a theater director, this is really perfect,” said the graduate of the Actors Studio Drama School. “I would study, and I would have access to a theater because we have a beautiful black box. And I got seduced, enchanted, and here I am many years later as the artistic director of the fellowship. And I really believe actually in this meeting point between these strong texts and a place where artists can go and discover, but it might speak to my upbringing and heritage because I grew up in Germany and Israel. Now I’m here. Maybe it’s a through-line or my search in connecting my cultural background and my artistic desires, and making them speak to each other.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

LABAlive Two: Others will be presented Thursday, March 16 at 7 p.m. at the Theater at the 14th Street Y in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.