A Traveling Jewish Theatre: Background on Heart of the World

Heart of the World 1999

by Helen Stoltzfus

It is the first day of rehearsal of the revival of Heart of the World. I have not heard this play for nine years. As we gather, I think about the long life of this piece: from its ecumenical beginnings at a Buddhist retreat with the Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh who asked me to write a piece about bringing a child into the world -- a piece that sowed the seed for Heart of the World; to joining A Traveling Jewish Theatre twelve years ago as the company's only non-Jewish member and deciding to deal with my "otherness" through a piece on intermarriage; from the year or more of improvisations, writing, editing and re-working of a script with Albert and our co-creator and director, Martha Boesing; to the premiere of the play at the Eureka Theater in San Francisco followed by extensive touring of the piece to places as diverse as North Newton, Kansas, Seattle, Washington, and Prague, Czechoslovakia.

Now, nine years later the play still lives, while taking on new significance. The issues it raises remain timely, as people all over the world are intermarrying at a rate unprecedented in human history. For instance, an estimated 60% of Jews in the U.S. marry non-Jews. The profound questions that Heart raises continue to resonate: How do we maintain our cultural and religious identity and still connect with "the other?" What do we want to pass on to future generations? What do we want to let go of? What is gained in an intermarriage? What is lost?

This revival of Heart also marks a new phase of life for A Traveling Jewish Theatre as it is the first piece cast with outside actors to perform work that was originally written and performed by the ensemble. (Our third production this season, Berlin, Jerusalem, and the Moon will also feature a guest cast.) For Heart, we have invited two seasoned Bay Area actors, Robert Weinapple and Cynthia Bassham, to play the roles Albert and I originated, and, this time around, I direct the play. It is an exciting new development for the company. As I listen to Robert and Cynthia read through the play at this rehearsal, I know the play no longer belongs to Albert and me. It will now live in these actors, who will, in turn, draw on their own pasts, memories, and experiences, to breathe life into these characters, into this story, into this Heart of the World.

Remembering Heart of the World on tour in, Prague, Czechoslovakia, October, 1990

(After the "Velvet Revolution" we perform in Prague in the theatre where Vaclav Havel held the first meetings that sparked that historic event. Heart is performed in English with accompanying scene summaries translated into Czech and Slovak. The following are excerpts from Helen Stoltzfus's journal of the tour.)

In the second act where the German/Jewish conflict comes to a head, I experience the most incredible intensity of feeling I have ever felt in any audience. The audience seems to breathe with us as the Jewish character questions the German/Christian character. This is not like performing in America. These are people who have experienced war, suffering, persecution. As we speak the words of the play at an attentive audience, I also sense their deep respect for artists, poetry, literature, and language.

Afterwards, at the discussion (at which most of the 400 attendees stay), people ask: "How will you raise your child?" "How long has the theatre been together?" They also wonder about Yiddish, "Is it still spoken by Jews?" Afterwards a young woman comes up to me. "I understand this play. I am Czech. My boyfriend is Slovak..." A young man approaches me and very earnestly asks me (through another audience member who translates for him), "How do you do it?" (raise a child in an intermarriage). Others gather around us eagerly. We talk theoretically for awhile and then through the translator it is revealed that he is a Jew married to a Christian, and it is "very difficult" for him. I am gratified that the play has been understood, that even the deep discomfort it carries has clearly been translated. The small group around this man becomes a forum. Another woman interjects, "It is not hard (to raise children in intermarriage). Toleration is possible." Finally, it is the engagement, the interaction, that is important for me...