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The Week in Germany: Culture November 16, 2006 Hampshire Shakespeare Stages New Play by Peter Wortsman About Religious Tolerance
A new play premieres this week in Massachusetts that delves deep into a tale of courage and dedication in defense of religious rights, long obscured by the veils of history. "Burning Words", by New York playwright Peter Wortsman, will be staged by the Hampshire Shakespeare Company on November 17, 18 and 19 at the Northampton Center for the Arts. In the early 1500s, an era marked by the lingering excesses of the Inquisition and the initial rumblings of protest by Martin Luther, Emporer Maximilian I was persuaded by rabidly antisemitic forces to order the confiscation and destruction of holy Hebrew texts. One German Christian scholar, Johannes Reuchlin, argued forcefully for their preservation as the foundations of the Christian faith, adding "the Jew is as worthy in the eyes of our Lord God as I am". The play tells the story of Reuchlin's confrontation with his church and his society in one of the most religiously turbulent times in European history.
Veteran Hampshire Shakespeare actors will flesh out such powerful characters as Reuchlin himself (Walter Carroll); his nemesis Johannes Pfefferkorn (Dan Barnes), a Jewish convert to Christianity; the Emperor Maximilian I (Ezra LeBank); and various other members of the German Catholic hierarchy at the time. The playwright has been working with director Lucinda Kidder and dramaturg Lauryn Sasso to hone the action of the play, which has received enthusiastic reviews at two public readings, including its first reading at the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies. Peter Wortsman is a playwright and author who produced the first English translation of Reuchlin's historic defense of the Talmud and other holy books, "Recommendation Whether to Confiscate, Destroy and Burn All Jewish Books". This book on which the play is based was the subject of a daylong symposium at New York University in 2001 attended by scholars, clergy and publishers. An earlier dramatic work by Wortsman, "The Tatooed Man Tells All", based on extensive interviews with Holocaust survivors, was published in 2000. The play was made possible with the support of the German Information
Center USA, the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany Boston,
the Interfaith Council of Western Massachusetts, the Jewish Arts Camp,
Culture Initiative of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, WFCR FM, The National
Yiddish Book Center, Hampshire College Center for the Book and Jewish
Studies Program, Smith College Jewish Studies Program and The Office of
the Jewish Chaplain. Links: |
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