Audience Engagement

Lobby Display

In trying to achieve my goal of building educated empathy in a way that is accessible to all ages and backgrounds, I want my lobby display to be sensory-focused. Sensory stimulation encourages learning through exploration and creativity, and while sensory play is most often targeted towards younger children to promote brain development, it is a fantastic way for all audiences of different ages and learning styles to be engaged.

The following notice would be posted.

You are welcome to explore and learn through this interactive lobby display. However, please remember that many of these items are important and meaningful cultural artifacts for those of Jewish faith and tradition. Please treat them with respect and care.

Touch

Tallit (Prayer shawl): You’ll notice that all the men in Fiddler on the Roof wear tallit, or prayer shawls, marking their devotion and duty to God. Feel the four corners of the shawl – these strings are tied in a particular pattern known as tzitzit (as prescribed in Numbers 15 in the Torah.)

Milk jug – As a dairyman, Tevye carted around several milk jugs that could have weighed up to 88 pounds. Try to lift it if you’re able! (Please use caution)
Goose pillows – Goose feather pillows are a significant wedding gift given to characters in this show. Would you find them comfortable to sleep on?

Smell

Besamim (spice tower): This spice tower would be used during the Havdalah, a Jewish ritual that marks the end of the holy Sabbath. What does it smell like?
Frankincense oil: Smell this biblical incense often still used today. How is it similar and different to the besamim?

Look

Check out the visual file our dramaturg put together for this production. (Will be presented on a TV or via projector.)

Hear

Listen to some klezmer – an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. (Played in the lobby.)

Taste

Blintzes: Try these pancakes filled with soft, sweet cheese. Blintzes are a traditional food in Ashkenazi Jewish culture and are mentioned in Sholem Aleichem’s short stories. Because Tevye is a dairyman, his family is known to make the best blintzes. (Contains gluten and dairy)

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Speaker's Night

I would like Alisa Solomon to be our speaker for Speaker’s Night. Alisa Solomon is a dramaturg, teacher, and author of the books Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof and Re-dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender. She is also the editor of several books on intersectional and queer theatre, and she co-edited a book on the Palestinian conflict with Tony Kushner. Dr. Solomon got her doctorate at the Yale School of Drama and currently teaches at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. For Wonder of Wonders, Dr. Solomon did extensive research in English and Yiddish archives in Poland, Israel, and across the U.S., and interviewed more than one hundred people involved in dramatizing Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye stories. Dr. Solomon’s vast expertise in Fiddler on the Roof as well as her perspectives on feminist, intersectional, and queer theatre make her an ideal speaker to support the goal of this production: building educated empathy.

Drinks with the Dramaturg

I plan to have a Drinks with the Dramaturg fundraiser for parents and grandparents of actors to attend after Speaker's Night. This will take place at a venue outside the theatre. Attendees will pay $100 a head, which will cover kosher cocktail appetizers and drinks, with the remainder going to support the theatre program.