Miriam's Drum

Alex Wolfson, Storahtelling Company Member

Passover StorahSteps Show

King's Bay Y, JCC Manhattan, 14th Street Y

What’s most important to you? What possession would you have the most trouble living without? What if you had to live without possessions? Who would be the people you’d want to surround yourself with to replace that important thing? These and some other juicy questions were part of the show “Miriam’s Drum” that I performed with new Storahtelling artist Michael Goldlist at the King’s Bay Y, the JCC Manhattan, and the 14th Street Y for our Storahtelling’s Passover StorahSteps show. 

We framed the show by having Michael play a child named Sam whose family was moving into a smaller home so he was going to have to put a lot of his possessions in storage. He had to figure out what things he wanted to bring with him to the new house as well as what needed to go into storage. And he had to do all of this packing while setting up the Seder plate for the Seder! We then introduced our puppet, Miriam, to walk Sam through setting up the Seder plate, tell him the Passover story, and help him realize that his situation wasn’t that unlike the Exodus from Egypt. The Israelites had to bring with them only their most important things as they rushed to freedom. 

Sam eventually realized that possessions weren’t important. He realized that the Israelites were happy to just be free and be with their families. He realized that HE just wanted to be with his family and deciding which toy was his favorite wasn’t as important as surrounding himself with the people he loved. The kids learned a valuable lesson about the importance of family as well as getting a refresher course on the important words, symbols, and Seder plate items that are used on Passover. 

The kids at all four performances loved the show, were very enthusiastic about the puppet (as always), and we had a great time doing it!