My Name Is Asher Lev

Asher Lev is a Ladover Hasid who keeps kosher, prays three times a day and believes in the Ribbono Shel Olom, the Master of the Universe. Asher Lev is an artist who is compulsively driven to render the world he sees and feels, even when it leads him to blasphemy. In this stirring and often visionary novel, This play traces Asher’s passage between these two identities, the one consecrated to God, the other subject only to the imagination. Asher Lev grows up in a cloistered Hasidic community in postwar Brooklyn, a world suffused by ritual and revolving around a charismatic Rebbe. But in time, his gift threatens to estrange him from that world and the parents he adores. As it follows his struggle, My Name Is Asher Lev becomes a luminous portrait of the artist, by turns heartbreaking and exultant, a modern classic.

Playwright:

Aaron Posner, adapted from the novel by Chaim Potok

Director:

Hal Brooks

Jasson Minidakis is in his 13th season as artistic director of Marin Theatre Company, where he has directed Oslo, Shakespeare in Love, Thomas and Sally, Guards at the Taj, August: Osage County, The Invisible Hand, Anne Boleyn, The Convert, The Whale, Failure: A Love Story, the world premiere of Lasso of Truth, The Whipping Man (San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle Awards for Best Production and Best Acting Ensemble), Waiting for Godot, Othello: the Moor of Venice, The Glass Menagerie, Edward Albee’s Tiny Alice, the world premiere of Libby Appel’s adaptation of Chekhov’s Seagull, Happy Now?, Equivocation (SFBATCC Award, Best Director), the world premiere of Sunlight, Lydia, The Seafarer, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, A Streetcar Named Desire, said Saïd, Love Song, and The Subject Tonight is Love. As artistic director of Actor’s Express Theatre Company, he directed The Pillowman; Bug; The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer; Echoes of Another Man; Killer Joe; Burn This; The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?; Blue/Orange; and Bel Canto. As producing artistic director of Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, he directed Jesus Hopped the ’A’ Train, Chagrin Falls (2002 Cincinnati Entertainment Award for Best Production), and numerous others, including 19 productions of Shakespeare. Regional credits include The Whipping Man at Virginia Stage Company, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Hamlet at Georgia Shakespeare, Copenhagen at Playhouse on the Square (2003 Ostrander Theatre Award for Best Dramatic Production), and Bedroom Farce at Wayside Theatre.

Lighting Designer:

York Kennedy

Costume Designer:

Callie Floor

Venue :

Marin Theatre Company

Mission: Marin Theatre Company produces world-class theater for the Marin County and Bay Area communities. We strive to set a national standard for intimate theater experiences of the highest quality, featuring provocative plays by passionate playwrights. We pursue a dialogue with our community that addresses our national and local concerns and interests and assists us in finding a new understanding of our lives. We create future artists and arts patrons through innovative programs for youth.

Vision: Marin Theatre Company creates intimate, powerful and emotional experiences that engage audiences to discuss new ideas and adopt a broader world view. We believe in taking risks. We inspire people to participate in live theater, regardless of personal means. We celebrate and promote the intellectual curiosity of our community, and believe that theater can be an important tool to help people build empathy and create change in our world.

In 1987, MTC had become a professional theater company, opening its own theater complex with onsite administrative offices and joining with other local theaters to negotiate the first regional equity contract in the Bay Area. Since then, MTC began a new play program to support emerging American playwrights, launching a New Works developmental workshop and public reading series in 2004 and establishing two new play prizes in 2007. MTC joined both the League of Resident Theatres and National New Play Network in 2008. MTC is now the leading professional theater in the North Bay and premier mid-sized theater in the Bay Area.

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