The witty cultural drama: New Jerusalem, The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656, will be performed as a free staged reading at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company on Tuesday evening, July 27, 2010.

Guest directed by Ari Roth of Washington, DC’s Theater J, the staged reading of New Jerusalem is free and open to the public, and will be held as part of the Posen Foundation National Teachers’ Seminar, a five-day conference for middle school and high school teachers that explores creative ways of teaching secular Jewish cultures, literature, and history. 

“This terrific production illustrates how theatrical works can be studied and experienced as a way to examine secular Jewish history and culture,” said Dr. Mark Raider of UC’s History Department and project director of the Teachers’ Seminar who added: “Any medium—including theatre—can serve as a springboard for important questions about the place of Jews and other minorities in the lives of our students.” 

 The evening is sponsored by the Posen Foundation, which works internationally to support secular Jewish education, in collaboration with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, Theater J, the University of Cincinnati’s Center for Studies in Jewish Education and Culture, and the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives.  The program is part of the Posen Foundation National Teachers’ Seminar conducted by UC’s Center for Studies in Jewish Education and Culture in partnership with the American Jewish Archives.  Dr. Mark A. Raider of UC’s History Department will lead a special discussion with Roth following the staged reading. Seating is limited and advance reservations are required.

The play comes to Cincinnati after its recent successful run at Washington, DC’s Theater J and after premiering Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company in 2008. In a rave review, the Washington Post called the play “edifying” and exclaimed: “How refreshing: a play of ideas in which you actually learn something.” 

New Jerusalem follows young philosopher Baruch de Spinoza as he faces excommunication from the Jewish community for his provocative, subversive new ideas. With his special blend of cerebral language and wry humor, critically-acclaimed playwright David Ives gives Spinoza a chance to defend himself in front of a community of critics in a courtroom clash between religion and rationalism. 

The play speculates on the events preceding the real-life excommunication of the legendary Baruch de Spinoza. Spinoza, often called the “absolute philosopher” of the 17th century, was a passionate advocate of rationalism, the idea that a man’s intellect is superior to his senses. Spinoza was a Portuguese Jew living in Amsterdam whose allegedly atheist beliefs not only shocked the Jewish community, but jeopardized their comfortable relationship with the surrounding Dutch society.  The drama opens with Abraham van Valkenburgh, a wealthy patron of Amsterdam, as he demands, “Spinoza must be silenced, and the Jews must do the silencing.”  When Spinoza is summoned to the congregation, he has no idea that he will be forced to defend his beliefs, his relationships, and his very freedom of speech, or else be banished from the Jewish community forever.

Dr. Miriam Raider-Roth, director of the UC’s Center for Studies in Jewish Education and Culture, remarks, “New Jerusalem is a wonderfully rich text and a superb opportunity for learning about Jewish culture, history, and identity.  It introduces us to the complexity of Spinoza’s work and times and brings to life many of the key ideas, themes, and tensions that ushered in the modern age.”

The trademark humor of playwright David Ives has made him one of the most renowned contemporary dramatists in America. Ives most recently made headlines with his acclaimed new adaptation of The Liar at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. He also enjoyed great success Off-Broadway with Venus in Fur (2010). The Washington Post recently quoted director Walter Bobbie deeming Ives "one of America's great wits" and a writer with "extraordinary range and intellectual muscle.”

“A master practitioner of the one-act form,” notes Theater J artistic director Ari Roth, “Ives has written perhaps his most successful full-length play in New Jersualem; a play loaded with relevance as it applies to religious politics in our own day where dissidents who disagree with the prevailing norm are often labeled heretics and are then silenced—whether they’re right or wrong.”  Roth will direct members of Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s resident acting company in the reading.  Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is the city’s only professional theater dedicated to bringing Shakespeare and the classics to life for audiences of all ages.

ONE NIGHT ONLY: July 27th, 2010