S3E51 What Questions Are Jewish Artists Asking in the 21st Century? (David Winitsky)

Jewish artists have always found themselves in relationship with the world around them. Sometimes that relationship is generative. Sometimes it is uneasy. Often it requires artists to negotiate Jewish identity alongside broader ideas of citizenship, Americanness, Western culture, inherited artistic forms, and the cultural languages in which they work. That tension has become a recurring theme of the Art/Lab Podcast. But it is not new. Jewish artists and Jewish culture have always been shaped by the surrounding world — responding to it, resisting it, borrowing from it, arguing with it, and transforming it. In this episode, Rabbi Josh Rose speaks with David Winitsky, founder and Executive Artistic Director of the Jewish Plays Project, the nation's leading development house for contemporary Jewish theater. David has spent years thinking about how Jewish theater has changed over time, what questions Jewish artists are asking now, and what it means to create serious Jewish culture in the 21st century. David has directed and assisted on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally, with work connected to institutions including Paper Mill Playhouse, Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, New World Stages, and others. Through the Jewish Plays Project, he has helped develop 49 plays, 27 of which have gone on to production or further development in New York, London, Tel Aviv, and across the United States. This conversation explores what makes a play Jewish, how contemporary Jewish theater moves beyond inherited mid-century stories, and why Jewish culture needs not only institutional support but active participation. David is a sharp and generous thinker about Jewish art, theater, identity, and the role of culture in shaping Jewish meaning today.  *The Art/Lab Podcast: Conversations About Jewish Arts and Culture is conceived of and created by Rabbi Josh Rose, and is a program of Art/Lab: Innovating Jewish Arts and Culture.*  Art/Lab: Innovating Jewish Arts & Culture artlabpdx.org Jewish Plays Project: jewishplaysproject.org/ Jewish Playwriting Contest: jewishplaysproject.org/jewish-playwriting-contest/ One Hundred Years of Solitude: broadwaybooks.net/book/9780060883287