Newish Jewish Plays Summer 2026
Newish Jewish Plays brings new theatrical works to Sarasota through staged readings directed by professional directors and performed by experienced Sarasota actors.
After each reading, audience members will be invited to complete evaluation forms. This feedback gives playwrights valuable insight and helps Sarasota Jewish Theatre determine whether a play may be considered for a future season.
This series reflects our commitment to presenting new plays that move theater forward, explore changing values, and speak to the important events and contemporary issues shaping our lives today.
Newish Jewish Plays
Performed at The Sarasota Players
Mondays, August 17, 24, and 31 at 7:30 p.m.
Reading – August 17 – 7:30pm
A Punchline
by Michael Schwartz
Directed by Jeffery Kin
A Holocaust survivor, Leah, moves to Hollywood and creates a TV show featuring “funny Nazis” which has proven popular (as well as offensive to many). She tells her story in a synagogue as part of a lecture and discussion series, during which she remembers a special relationship she forged in the concentration camp, and the price she had to pay for survival on her own terms.
Reading – August 24 – 7:30pm
Un Hombre: A Golem Story
by Stephen Kaplan
Directed by Yinoelle Colon
Rebecca Wolfson, a sculptor, is struggling to get back on track after the untimely death of her husband. She is suffering from intense artist’s block, and her son is withdrawn, failing Spanish, and unprepared for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah. All seems hopeless until a lot of wine and a little magic transform a hunk of clay into the answer to all of their problems. But when her creation begins questioning his own purpose and existence, both mother and son are forced to confront their grief and grow in ways they never expected.
Reading – August 31 – 7:30pm
Dry Summer
by Robert Axelrod
Directed by Preston Boyd
Desperate to get his life back on track, a depressed, gay, Jewish, twenty-something returns home for the summer, where he winds up taking a job as an unconventional sober companion to his alcoholic former neighbor as she attempts to make it to 90 days of sobriety.