What are the origins of The Jewish Theatre of Bloomington?
Audrey Heller: I co-founded The Jewish Theatre of Bloomington with Bakol Ruben Gellar. I had long been involved informally in Jewish theatre in Bloomington, creating and performing in Jewishly themed puppet shows and performances for adults about prominent Jewish women during Women’s History Month. Bakol had been active in theater in Israel, where she had lived for 13 years before moving to Bloomington. After we met and discovered our mutual love of theater and shared commitment to Judaism, the idea of forming a Jewish theater was born. The first production was in 2005 — a staged reading of Chaim’s Love Song, written by my friend, California playwright Marvin Chernoff. The performance sold out and several disappointed theatergoers were turned away. Buoyed by the success of the first production and urged by many audience members, we made plans for a fully staged two-night production the following April of A.R. Gurney’s Another Antigone, directed by Martha Jacobs. Again, the production
