Live—and in person
New week-long festival wants to bring people out and together again
By Tracey Weiss Editor
There’s a lot of fun packed into the new week-long celebration being hosted by the Mandell JCC.
JLive is the first ever live arts festival, and it’s about creativity, community, and culture. Running from October 18-25, the week of offerings is designed for all ages and everyone, from all races and religions, is welcome, according to JCC Arts & Culture Director Ephi Stempler. A West Hartford native and former teacher, he grew up in the JCC community and is thrilled to be back.
“I started the job last September and the first thing I worked on was the (annual Jewish) film festival,” he said. “I saw was the real response to films, and they inspired joy. It brought the community together. It’s really what I need to work on, and I thought, ‘what is the need right now?’
To bring people out of their homes and leave their screens and bring them together through arts, music, storytelling, theater emphasis in real life.
“Performance requires you to leave homes and comfort zones. We all get so lazy.”
“Ephi hit the ground running,” said Kelly Boscarino. She is the JCC’s Marketing Director. “It’s a huge amount of work.”
The fun kicks off on Sunday, Oct. 18 at Town Hall with COJELLA, which stands for the “Celebration of Jewish Engagement, Legacy and Live Arts.” The event is free.
The afternoon of performance includes food trucks, family activities, and lots of music, including performances by award-winning composer/musician and hometown native Allegra Levy and musical comedian Adam Blotner. The Youth Jazz Orchestra from Artist Collective will perform music from Jewish composers and songwriters.
The afternoon will also feature a curated group of young performers to perform short pieces. That will be followed by the grand finale of the event, “David Clark’s All About Joel: The Ultimate Billy Joel Tribute.”
“This is one of the biggest Billy Joel tribute bands around,” Stempler said. “It’s a 90-minute performance at 3:30pm.”
The rest of the week’s events are being at the Mandell JCC’s Gilman Theater. On Oct. 20 the winners of the Honorable Menschen Personal Essay Contest Showcase will share their essays, which were based on the question, “What is a mensch? And who is the most important mensch in your life?” Stempler said.
On Oct. 22, JLive continues with “Cantors & Virtuosos: featuring Israeli Symphony Orchestra’s Opus 5 Ensemble. “We’re bringing in cantors from Connecticut who will be playing with the Opus Five musicians,” Stempler said. Opus Five is a woodwind quintet featuring principal musicians from the prestigious orchestra.
On Oct 24, “The Klau Family Presents: Jewish Hartford in Song and Story,” featuring music, storytelling, photographs and memories. The Klau family brings four generations of Jewish Hartford history—and its remarkable community—to life.
“This is really thrilling,” Stempler said. “When I was young, I was in a lot of plays at the JCC, and two years younger than the Klau boys, Nathan and Max, and we all know they are talented musicians.
“I knew their mom Bobby, (who directed him in a lot those performances) and she’s a talented and charming actor and musician. She said yes immediately (to performing). The show is original music and personal memories from the 1900s to now.”
“The program will be very personal,” Bobby said. “I think people in the audience will respond.”
Bobby and her late husband, David Klau, had five children. While her two daughters, Deborah, who lives in Milwaukee with her family and Michal, a West Hartford-based psychotherapist, will not be in the performance, her three sons are prepping for the performance. Thanks to Bobby’s talent as an actress and storyteller who produced and directed shows for years as a member of the (now defunct) Producer’s Guild of Hartford and as a storyteller. The Producing Guild was a highly influential, East Hartford-based theater production company. It was founded by artistic director Sal Marchese in 1970 and produced high caliber performances until 2002.
Daniel lives in West Hartford and is a superior court judge. (He takes after his grandfather, also a CT State Superior Court Judge and was sworn in wearing his grandfather’s robe.)
“Daniel plays a mean piano and writes songs about the law,” Bobby said. “He has released two CDs—"The Billable Hour Blues” and “The Lawyer Is A Tramp Champ.”
Twins Max and Nathan will be on stage as well. Max has a doctorate from Harvard and is a leadership development consultant.
Nathan is a graduate of Yale and is a tutor in New York. He has a long list of acting credits, including acting in the national touring productions of Jersey Boys, The Lion King (Timon and Zazu standby), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Forever Plaid, Annie, and Anything Goes, as well as being in local productions in Connecticut.
“It will be more than performing,” Bobby said. “My children are 4th generation Hartford Jews. On my husband’s side, they are 5th generation. There’s a sense of history, who came before us and made us who we are, which is important. So, it’s very much the history of our ancestry, and the telling the stories of where we came from.”
JLive wraps up on Oct. 25 with “Rising Stars: Youth Talent Show.”
“There are no judges, no prizes and no auditions,” Stempler said of this showcase of some of the area’s fresh new talents in singing, acting, dancing and more. The afternoon’s show will be broken into three age groups: 7-10, 11-13, and 14-18.
JLive was funded by a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation. “This is our kickoff, but the grant is for three years,” Boscarino said. “This is new and different. Who knows where this is going to go?” WHL“Cantors & Virtuosos” and The Klau Family show are $18; the rest of the events are free. Go to www.mandelljcc.org/JLIVE for more information.
