{"id":22599,"date":"2022-05-03T09:00:53","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T16:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=22599"},"modified":"2022-05-04T10:54:33","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T17:54:33","slug":"play-explores-multi-generational-households-gender-bar-mitzvahs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2022\/05\/03\/play-explores-multi-generational-households-gender-bar-mitzvahs\/","title":{"rendered":"Play explores multi-generational households, gender, bar mitzvahs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local director Kevin McKendrick is directing Bema Productions\u2019 take on Rich Orloff\u2019s award-winning play Men Overboard<\/i> in May; McKendrick describes it as a very poignant comedic performance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMen Overboard<\/i> is what I describe as a wry comedy,\u201d says McKendrick. \u201cThere\u2019s many funny sections in it but it\u2019s quite poignant. It deals with three generations of one family that happen to be male and how they struggle with their own relationships, with coping with life and with coping with each other. You know, we get to pick our friends but you never get to pick your family. So it\u2019s really a story about three generations of the same family trying to find their way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKendrick says that the play was heavily inspired by sitcoms such as Frasier<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Rehearsals for Men Overboard, running from May 5 to 15 (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe looked at older television programs like Frasier<\/i>, where you would have a grandfather living in the same house as his son or sons and what challenges would there be in a relationship where you have more than one generation sharing the same space,\u201d he says. \u201cThe plot focuses around a young boy who is about to become 13 years of age, and he\u2019s Jewish, so he\u2019s about to have his bar mitzvah, and he\u2019s going through a struggle about what does it mean to be a man, what is a man and how does he define himself as a man in today\u2019s world. So I think there are lots of influences, actually, without being too specific, about that kind of\u00a0 <\/span>questioning and conversation that\u2019s going on in our society: what is a man? What is masculinity? What is femininity? And how do they relate to each other?\u201d<\/p>\n

McKendrick says that aside from being entertaining, theatre performances should always leave the audience with something to think about.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think art, especially theatre, because that\u2019s really the art that I\u2019ve been involved with, should always be provocative yet entertaining,\u201d he says. \u201cSo if there\u2019s a message that we want, and just about every play has a message, it should be framed in some kind of package or production that also entertains an audience. Otherwise art becomes too didactic or it becomes too superficial. So, for me, and the reason I\u2019ve worked my entire working life in theatre, is because I believe that theatre has the power to change people\u2019s minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKendrick says that a great director inspires their actors to give their best performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that the best directors are those that draw out from their actors the actors\u2019 very best work, so I try and predicate everything we do in our process on observation rather than outcome,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t want the actors to worry about what I want. I know what I want. But I want them to discover it with my guidance, rather than me telling them \u2018This is what you should do.\u2019 So I try to make the process as organic as possible, because the actors are going to have to do the play. I\u2019m not going to be up on stage. They have to do the play, so they have to own it, and they have to know why they\u2019re doing what they\u2019re doing at any moment on the stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKendrick says the main things that he hopes audiences will take away from the play are entertainment and fulfillment.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, I want them to be entertained,\u201d he says. \u201cI want them to be glad they came to the theatre, especially in the days that we\u2019re living in now, post-COVID. I think it\u2019s important that we make people feel good about being in a group watching a play. And then I want them to think about the messages in this play, which are about how we struggle with relationships and how can we better communicate our feelings, our aspirations, and what we mean to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Men Overboard
\n<\/i>Various times, Thursday, May 5 to Sunday, May 15
\n$25, Congregation Emanu-El Synagogue
\nbemaproductions.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local director Kevin McKendrick is directing Bema Productions\u2019 take on Rich Orloff\u2019s award-winning play Men Overboard in May; McKendrick describes it as a very poignant comedic performance.\u00a0 \u201cMen Overboard is what I describe as a wry comedy,\u201d says McKendrick. \u201cThere\u2019s many funny sections in it but it\u2019s quite poignant. It deals with three generations of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,268],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-may-4-2022"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22599"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22601,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22599\/revisions\/22601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}