Hester Street Stage Adaptation Sets Premiere at Theater J
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A theatrical adaptation of the 1975 film Hester Street will have its world premiere March 27-April 21 at Theater J in Washington, DC.
Adapted from the screenplay by Joan Micklin Silver, Hester Street is written by Sharyn Rothstein, with songs by Joel Waggoner. Oliver Butler directs. Like the film, the play with music follows Jewish immigrant Gitl, who arrives on the Lower East Side from Eastern Europe and reunites with her husband Jake, who has fully embraced his new American life.
Sara Kapner and Jake Horowitz head the cast as Gitl and Jake, alongside Katie Angell as Joey, Jason Cohen as Rabbi and others, Eden Epstein as Mamie, Morgan Morse as Joe, Michael Perrie Jr. as Bernstein, Dani Stoller as Mrs. Kavarsky, Lauren Jeanne Thomas as Rabbi’s Wife and others, and Alexandra Moore as the understudy for Joey.
Hester Street has choreography by Nikki Mizra, sets by Wilson Chin, costumes by Frank Labovitz, lighting by Colin K. Bills, projections by Patrick W. Lord, sound by Justin Schmitz, and props by Jason Dearing.
The film, which Silver also directed, is inspired by Abraham Cahan’s 1896 book Yekl: A Tale of teh New York Ghetto. The stars were Steven Keats and Carol Kane, who earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance.
