Esther's Crown Rocked the Town

Naamah Harris, Storahtelling Company Member
Purim StorahSteps Show
Marks JCH, Kings Bay Y, 14th Street Y, Bergen County Solomon Schechter. 




They say that "me'sheneechnas adar marbim b'simcha," those who enter the month of Adar will be filled with happiness, and that is certainly how I feel after a wonderful run of Esther's Crown for Storahsteps' Purim show!

Not only did I get to work with Alex Wolfson for our sophomore collaboration but we both had the privilege of being able to share this show with so many different Jewish communities.   Our journey began at the Marks JCH and then at the Kings Bay Y, where many our of audience members are from the Russian Jewish community in Brooklyn, and there was a wonderful mix of English, Hebrew and Russian going around! One of the themes of our show dealt with our responsibility as Jews and as human beings to take care of each other using the Jewish principle, Tikkun Olam, healing the world.  Esther, with help from Mordechai and King Achashverosh, (and in our show, Dr. Trudy, the puppet) did just this for the Jews in Shushan thousands of years ago.  It is exciting to know that we can still come together to celebrate this principle with our fellow Jews from all different parts of the world, right here in New York City!

And for some more exciting news: our third performance, at the 14th Street Y, was Storahsteps' FIRST EVER SOLD OUT show!! What an exciting day!! We had so many kids dressed up in awesome costumes: princesses, queens, and SUPERHEROS!! With a sea of Spidermen, Batmen, Supermen and many others looking out at us, we discussed the idea of having courage even when its hard or scary, just like Queen Esther did when talking to King Achashverosh about saving her people.  (That would be us!) We focused on the idea that it was not enough for Esther to just wear her crown to feel like a Queen, but she needed to ACT on behalf of her people to really BE one.   And finally we wrapped it up at the Solomon Schechter of Bergen County, where not only did we get a chance to perform our show geared to early education, we had the opportunity to revamp the show for an older crowd of kids from grades 2nd through 5th.  In this adapted show, we had the chance to delve into some deeper issues, including extending the idea of Tikkun Olam not just to our fellow Jews but to communities all over the world that need our help, such as Japan, Libya, Egypt, New Zealand and, unfortunately, many more.  It was touching to hear how much courage and sense of Tikkun Olam these kids had by wanting to send tzedaka, mishloach manot, baskets of food and gifts, and physical aid to all these places that need it.

All in all, it was a fun, rewarding, and meaningful experience that we hope was just as much fun to watch as it was for us to perform! Chag Sameach!