When it comes to the pandemic, some artistic organizations are still making their way back. Cases in point: The Chester Theatre Company (CTC) saw its 2020 season wiped out, and the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst had to cancel Yidstock, its popular music and cultural festival.
Last summer, the Yiddish Book Center offered an online version of Yidstock, with pre-recorded programming. Meanwhile, Chester Theatre held a more limited season, with three plays staged outside not in Chester but under a tent at Hancock Shaker Village west of Pittsfield.
For the summer of 2022, though, both CTC and Yidstock are fully back. Here’s a look at both programs.
Since it began 10 years ago, Yidstock has been an annual celebration of what Lisa Newman, director of public programs and publishing at the Yiddish Book Center, calls “the breadth of Yiddish music” — music that reflects elements of jazz, blues, klezmer, even techno.
But with the four-day festival (July 7-10) returning live to the book center for the first time since 2019, “Yidstock 2022: The Festival of New Jewish Music” is also “kind of a homecoming for our audience,” said Newman. “It’s really nice to have people come back and have a hands-on experience here.”
Featuring seven concerts offering a range of music, including what’s called “Klezmer hip-hop,” Yidstock also features numerous talks and workshops on music and other subjects; dance workshops; and two film screenings. One of those is an award-winning documentary on Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, a noted post-WWII Yiddish artist and poet.
A longtime participant at Yidstock is Eleanor Reissa, a New York actress, singer, and playwright who has a long history with the book center. This year Reissa will sing as part of her own ensemble and with another group as well, and she’ll also read from her family memoir, “The Letters Project: A Daughter’s Journey.”
The book explores letters her mother and father, both of whom narrowly survived the Holocaust, exchanged when they were courting shortly after the war; discovering those letters years later prompted Reissa to explore her family roots in depth.
“This journey of discovery is riveting, told with tender insight, at times heartbreaking and at times heartwarming just like the Yiddish songs that have delighted Ms. Reissa’s audiences,” says one reviewer.
Also part of Yidstock’s musical lineup is Paul Shapiro’s Ribs & Brisket Revue, an ensemble that blends jazz, Yiddish swing, R&B, klezmer, and more, including the music that backdrops “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” the Netflix show about a New York housewife circa late 1950s/early 1960s who becomes a stand-up comedian.
“What’s really great about doing this live again is the way the musicians all have a chance to kind of cross-pollinate,” said Newman.
Yidstock 2022 will close Sunday, July 10 from 7:30-9 p.m. with a show by The Klezmatics, the Grammy winning modern klezmer band from New York.
More information on Yidstock is available at yiddishbookcenter.org, including COVID-19 protocols; face masks and proof of vaccination are required for all performances.
As Daniel Elihu Kramer sees it, bringing the company’s 2022 season back to the cozy confines of Chester Town Hall “was not something we could put off. We said to ourselves earlier this year, ‘We have to have this new season, and we have to have it here.’ ”
Kramer, CTC’s producing artistic director, said the company felt pretty confident about returning to Chester — “The town has been really good to work with,” he noted — though safety protocols are still being observed. Face masks are required for all shows, as is proof of COVID-19 vaccination; actors and other staff are regularly tested, Kramer said.
CTC has had more flexibility in preparing for its new season than last year, with separate stage managers, costume designers and others involved in the productions; a full team of interns is on board. Last year, by contrast, staffing was kept to a bare minimum to minimize everyone’s exposure to the virus, Kramer noted.
The 2022 season offers four plays, beginning with the current one, “Pride@Prejudice,” an updated version of Jane Austen’s classic novel, this time with bloggers, chat rooms, Austen enthusiasts, and Austen herself as a character — one of 30 in the production, portrayed by five different actors.
“Pride@Prejudice,” which Kramer wrote, debuted at CTC in 2011, and Kramer says he wanted to bring the play back “as a sort of ‘welcome home’ for everyone now that we’re back in town hall.”
He’s also directed the play for the first time, and he joked that in that role, “I saw where we could make some cuts — what was that writer thinking?”
“Pride@Prejudice,” which ran July 1-3, is followed July 7-17 by “Birds of North America,” a story about a father and daughter (played by Christopher Patrick Mullen and Micheline Wu), fellow birdwatchers who over a decade “navigate the changes in the climate and in their relationship,” as program notes put it.
Kramer says he’s particularly excited about the third play of the season, “Pass Over,” which runs July 28-Aug. 7 and was the first production staged on Broadway last year after the famous theater district had been shuttered for months.
Written by Antoinette Nwandu, “Pass Over” is centered on two young African-American men (played by Kayodè Soyemi and Austin Sasser) hanging out in their Chicago neighborhood and wishing they could “pass over” to a better world; into their current one come two white men (both roles are played by CTC veteran James Barry), an aggressive cop and a rich man who goes by the name “Master.”
Kramer says the play, which has drawn comparisons to “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett, “was not something I originally thought we could get the rights to, so we’re thrilled we can do it … this really fits into our commitment to inclusion and more diverse storytelling.”
The 2022 season concludes Aug. 11-21 with the premiere of “To the Moon and Back,” written by Connecticut playwright Darcy Parker Bruce, who CTC commissioned to create this three-character drama. It’s based primarily around the relationship of a daughter (Tara Franklin) and father (Raye Birk), who have a complicated history.
Kramer says “To the Moon and Back” was originally planned for the 2020 season and that Bruce has used the last few years to make changes to the work “that have really made it into something different, with this wonderful fantastical element.”
CTC productions take place Wednesday through Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., depending on the date. Visit chestertheatre.org for more information, including on post-play discussions and ticket prices.