American Theater Group hosts Talk-back after Parade performance

The American Theater Group, a professional regional theater company, hosted a talk-back entitled: Antisemitism: 1913-2023: Has Anything Changed? after a recent performance of the Tony Award-winning musical Parade, performed at JCC MetroWest in West Orange, NJ. Pictured above are panelists Linda Scherzer and Clifford Kulwin who answered questions from the audience after their prepared remarks on the history and rise of antisemitism in the US. Scherzer is Director of Community Relations Committee at the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, and also Director of Write On For Israel/NY, a project of The Jewish Week of NY. A former Mideast correspondent for CNN, Scherzer covered the first intifada, Gulf War and Oslo peace process. Kulwin is Rabbi Emeritus of Temple B’Nai Abraham in Livingston, NJ, and formerly a congregational rabbi in Rio de Janeiro. Rabbi Kulwin also oversaw international development for the World Union for Progressive Judaism.

Parade, by acclaimed playwright Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy) and score by Jason Robert Brown (Bridges of Madison County), tells the heart-wrenching, true story of Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-raised Jewish man living in Atlanta who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of a 13-year-old employee. Amid religious intolerance, political injustice and racial tension, the stirring musical explores the endurance of love and hope against all odds.

American Theater Group (ATG), founded in 2012, produces new and classic works primarily by American playwrights with an emphasis on the development of new works and the rediscovery of undeservedly neglected older ones. It also provides quality arts-in-education initiatives, including its annual DramaFest for students and its PlayLab program for BIPOC and queer playwrights. ATG programming is made possible in part by an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support general operating expenses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Made possible by the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. More information can be found at www.americantheatergroup.org.