The 14th Street Y is the home of LABA, the National Laboratory for New Jewish Culture. Each year, LABA brings a group of talented artists into our building to study and create art together.
It’s good that we keep in touch with our LABA alumni, because we learn fabulous things. For Instance, two of our artists are collaborating on a new play, The Atmosphere of Memory, at the Labyrinth Theater Company.
Actor LABA Alumni David Deblinger, who was a LABA fellow for the past two years, will be appearing with Ellen Burstyn, Max Casella and John Glover. The play was written by David Bar Katz, a LABA alumni from our 2009-2010 year. We’re not surprised that our LABA alumni are doing so well, but we’re impressed all the same!
In the Play, the character Jon Stone has recently found the courage to write his masterpiece: a play about his upbringing. But when his actual mother is cast to play his mother on stage and his estranged father remembers the family history differently, Jon is forced to rewrite, not only his play, but his past as well. With twists hilarious and heartbreaking, playwright Katz (Philip Roth in Khartoum, Freak) turns Williams and O’Neill on their heads by imagining a world where the boundaries between life and art, fact and fiction, are as blurry as The Atmosphere of Memory itself.
We encourage you to see it, cheer on David and David, and come see what our LABA artists are up to this year. You never know where you might find them next!
For more information on the show, visit http://labtheater.org/the-atmosphere-of-memory/
Becky Skoff is the Manager of LABA and the Theater at the 14th Street Y
Thoughts + Happenings 