Purim Masked Comedy

with Bruce Bierman
Sunday, February 28 | 11am – 12:45pm Pacific | on Zoom
In collaboration with KlezCalifornia
By donation – RSVP to reserve your spot

Welcome to a Yiddish theater experience creating the hilarious stock characters from Megiles Ester (The Book of Esther) with the whole body and voice! The roots of the Purim Shpil and Jewish theater reach back to the Medieval European mystery plays and the influence of the wildly popular buffoonery of the Commedia Dell’arte. We will explore precise character shtick handed down for centuries, how to bring a mask alive, and how to act out all our earthly ridiculous human foibles through the characters of Haman, Esther, King Ahashveyres and Mordechai. Radically inclusive. All are welcome. Wear comfortable clothes to be ridiculous in and if you have any kind of mask, please bring it along!

Bruce Bierman is a celebrated  Jewish dance master, teaching artist and award-winning theater director in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. He was a leading performer and teaching artist with the acclaimed Aman Folk Dance Ensemble of Los Angeles and currently serves on the faculty of Oakland’s groundbreaking Stagebridge Performing Arts Institute, where he has been teaching theater and dance since 2008.

After attending his first KlezCalifornia Yiddish Culture Festival back in 2006 and learning under the guidance of his first mentor, Steve Weintraub, Bruce went on to become a leading presenter of Yiddish dance throughout California and the Southwest.  He directed and choreographed The Megileh of Itzik Manger for the Jewish Music Festival and most recently was Yiddish dance dramaturg for the Tony Award winning play Indecent at Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Bruce teaches his weekly Joy of Jewish Dance (now on Zoom) for Chochmat HaLev every Thursday at 10am.