The Play’s the Thing

I’ve written a play, “ULPAN: The Musical,” about how we become Israeli, seen through the lens of an Ulpan class. It’s hilarious and poignant, but while I’m waiting for a producer, I recognize it can be fine tuned. Several European playwriting courses were available, but the thought of reading my uber-Israeli work to a group of “woke” European artists was a deal breaker.

Now an online course, “Troubleshooting Your Complete Draft” is being offered by the Minneapolis-based Playwright’s Center. The time works — 8am-10am CST. But does a U.S. based artistic institution still work? Because despite what the Playwrights Center tout as their values, the experience of other writers tells me “trouble ahead”.

Some of the Playwrights’ language around “equity” has phrases used to exclude Jews: “We support artists across all spectrums, with an emphasis on underrepresented and under-supported voices….We understand this work to be intersectional and long-term, grounded in relationships and evolving anti-racist practices”. “Underrepresented” and “intersectional” raise red flags.

And while they “proactively engage and welcome people of all abilities, ages, cultures, ethnicities, genders, incomes, races, religions, and sexual orientations,” what happens to the welcome mat when an Israeli is at the door? Witness the message EBU, the Spanish national public broadcaster, aired before Yuval Raphael took the Eurovision stage: “In the face of human rights, silence is not an option. Peace and justice for Palestine“.

Just one example out of many: When Joanna Chen wrote a blog post about Israel for Guernica, her work was labeled “a hand-wringing apologia for Zionism and the ongoing genocide in Palestine” and triggered a mass resignation by staff.

From this newspaper: “Meanwhile, more than a dozen Israeli and Zionist writers, editors, publishers and agents told The Times of Israel that they are being de-platformed, disinvited from literary events and harassed.”

Even if the instructor reminds the class of the institutional values, I’ll be working in an atmosphere of suspicion. I want to work on my play, not my classmates. Is that too much to ask?