Robert Pinsky
The Life Of David
September 29 2005, 7:30 PM
Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall
"For the hero to be celebrated requires the artist who imagines the celebration: David the warrior-artist is both." So writes Robert Pinsky in his new book on King David. Drawing on the biblical chronicle of David as well as on later commentaries, Pinsky crafts both a detailed biography and an ecstatic song to David—warrior, outlaw, poet, king; golden boy and enfeebled old man; slayer of Goliath, lover of Bathsheba, successor to Saul, and founder of Jerusalem. Robert Pinsky is the author of six books of poetry, four works of criticism, and the translation
The Inferno of Dante. He was Poet Laureate of the United States from 1997 to 2000.
Ariel Dorfman
Why For Years I Did Not Seem To Care If I Was A Jew And Whether I Was Wrong
November 1 2005, 7:30 PM
Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall
3rd Avenue & Union Street
Ariel Dorfman was almost killed in the coup that toppled the Chilean government in 1973. Forced into exile, he spent the next 20 years protesting against the government of General Pinochet, while at the same time making a reputation for himself as a literary writer. He has published novels, essays, and plays, including
Death and the Maiden, which was turned into a film by Roman Polanski. Jewish characters and themes, however, are rarely central to his stories and plays. Dorfman talks about his work and why, despite appearances, he may be a Jewish writer after all. This event is cosponsored by Seattle Repertory Theatre, which will present the world premiere of Dorfman's play
Purgatorio from November 2 to 26, 2005.
Susan Stamberg & Friends
Hanukkah Lights: Stories Of The Season
December 5 2005, 7:30 PM
Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall
3rd Avenue and Union St., Seattle
A grandmother shakes up the Hanukkah party at the Coney Island Sephardic Home with some tambourine-whooping belly dancing. A young rabbi must decide whether to give in to a four-year-old animal rights activist and retract the story of the Maccabees spearing an elephant, or be true to the original and suffer the consequences. For fifteen years, National Public Radio has celebrated Hanukkah with readings of original stories by distinguished American writers. Local actors join NPR's Susan Stamberg for an evening of dramatic readings. Stories from the series have been collected in a new anthology,
Hanukkah Lights: Stories of the Season.
Classic Jews: A Staged Reading
Adapted And Directed By Laura Ferri
January 12 2006, 7:30 PM
Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall
Before Philip Roth or Saul Bellow picked up a pen, the most famous (and notorious) Jewish characters in the English tradition were created by non-Jews. In imagining these heroes, heroines, and villains, British and American authors pondered the place of Jews in society, and bolstered many of the stereotypes, positive and negative, that later writers would revisit, reinvent, and react against. Laura Ferri directs an evening of readings from Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and others. Ferri has been a company member of Book-It Repertory Theatre for twelve years, where she has adapted and directed numerous literary productions.
Donald Margulies
In Conversation with Misha Berson
March 23 2006, 7:30 PM
Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall
Donald Margulies' passion for theater began in his family's Coney Island apartment, listening to his father spin show tunes on the turntable. His own plays, however, owe more to Arthur Miller than to
Fiddler. In
God of Vengeance, adapted from Sholom Asch, a tyrannical father is frustrated in his attempts to marry off his daughter to a rabbinical student. In
Dinner with Friends, which won the Pulitzer Prize, one couple's divorce leads to trouble in the marriage of another. And in
Brooklyn Boy, a writer's personal life disintegrates just as his novel hits the bestseller list. Margulies will talk about his work with Misha Berson, theater critic for
The Seattle Times.
Eva Hoffman
Between Words, Between Worlds: Some Thoughts On Exile
May 31 2006, 7:30 PM
Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall
"It is only through the efforts of imagination and memory that the shadows can be made to speak," writes Eva Hoffman. Her memoir,
Lost in Translation, follows her journey from Cold War Poland to Canada, and later, Texas, as she grapples with language, identity, and alienation. In her more recent books,
Shtetl and
After Such Knowledge, she examines life before and after the Holocaust, and the complexities of remembrance. A former editor for
The New York Review of Books, Hoffman teaches at Hunter College.