Rachel Feldbin Urist

Playwright

Rachel Urist is executive director of New Voices, a non-profit dedicated to promoting self-discovery through theatre. She conducts playwriting workshops, primarily for teens. She is a three-time recipient of the Michigan Creative Artist Award and winner of many playwriting awards. Her recent work on "The Children of Abraham Project," with Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit, was the subject of a CBS documentary.

SELECTED PLAYS:

THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM PROJECT, written with The Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit, tells the stories and explores fears and hopes of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic youth in the wake of 9/11.
Cast size: 6 - 8.

SHYLOCK'S DAUGHTER:
Inspired by Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, tells Jessica's story while taking a new look at Shylock, a man more sinned against than sinning. A cast of seven includes Jessica, Shylock, Miriam (Jessica's nurse), Lorenzo.

THE TALKING CURE:
A play in two acts about the perils and pleasures of pxcsychotherapy. In a series of therapy sessions two
friends seek relief. One finds liberation, the other finds
bondage, and their friendship dissolves in the process.
Cast: 2 men, 2 women.

CLOWNS ON ICE:
A dark comedy about two ancient friends, one Jewish one Catholic, who laugh at their own malaproprisms as their speech turns to word salad. A husband contemplates loss and the vagaries of marriage while a young man nurses all.
Cast: 4

DEAR JASON:
An epistolary fantasy based on the Medea story. Suitable for readers' theatre, this darkly comic play explores the absurdities born of righteous indignation. It's also about friendship and the fond fantasy that people understand one another. Jewish liturgy is evoked in Medea's meditations.
Cast: 5-6

LEGACIES:
Hayim Klonitsky, a survivor of Nazi concentration camps, takes his family on a long-delayed journey into the past. As he relives old joys and terrors, his children are moved to understand and forgive him his trespasses. And he, at last, can forgive himself.
Cast: 9 actors play 40 characters.

SHTETL TALES:
A play for family audiences about Jewish life in the shtetls of Eastern Europe. Adapted from Yiddish folktales.

A POUND OF FEATHERS:
Musical adaptation of 'Shtetl Tales' written in collaboration with Andrew Lippa, Tom Greenwald, and Jeffrey Seller.

BLUEPRINTS:
A surreal play in two acts about what it means to be a Jew. Building on anachronisms, the play spans the millennia.
3 actors play 14 characters.

THE SENTIMENTAL FATHER:
An adaptation of 'Pere Goriot', a novel by Honoré de Balzac. Swordfights, romance, treachery. This story is a French variation of Shakespeare's King Lear.
18 actors play 28 characters.

THE WHIPPING BOY:
An adaptation of the children's novel by Sid Fleischman; adapted with the author's permission. This is one of> several plays commissioned by YPT.

THIN ICE:
1-act; a comedy about two actresses doing an improvisation for an unseen acting coach who has romanced both women.
Cast: 2 women.

OFF AND RUNNING:
1-act; /a comedy about a couple in bed. It is the night before she is to run her first marathon, and she can't sleep.
Cast: 1 man, 1 woman.

GOING UP:
1-act; a comedy about a man and woman who meet regularly at an elevator three times a week. He wants friendship. She remains elusive. A third actor plays multiple roles, intruding on the intimacy of the familiar strangers.

Photo Credit: Peter Smith

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