‘50/50’s’ Will Reiser to compete against Woody, Diablo

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on January 6, 2012

“Harry Potter’s” Jason Isaacs on Playing “Racist” Lucius Malfoy

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on July 15, 2011

Interview with Larry David at “Curb Your Enthusiasm” premiere

Published on July 10, 2011

Interview with Larry David at "Curb Your Enthusiasm" premiere

Women plot revenge against a sexist ‘70s boss in ‘9 to 5: The Musical’ (what a way to make a livin’)

By Shoshana Lewin Fischer
Published on September 11, 2008

"It seems that in a musical you would get to know people less -- I actually think you get to know them more" -- Patricia Resnick, writer of "9 to 5"

Israel’s Sundance Pics Garner Praise

By Tom Tugend
Published on January 15, 2004

"The Garden," which is having its world premiere at Sundance, tackles the unusual and unexplored problem of gay Palestinian teenagers, rejected by their own families, who cross the Green Line to work as male prostitutes in downtown Tel Aviv, in constant danger of deportation.

Chanukah Hoop Dreams

By Shoshana Lewin-Fischer
Published on November 20, 2003

Picture the "Bad News Bears" in a basketball court, add kippot and a dash of Chanukah and you have the makings of the Disney Channel's latest original movie, "Full-Court Miracle." The film is based on the true story of Lamont Carr (Richard T. Jones), a down-and-out former University of Virginia basketball star, who is asked to coach the Hebrew Academy Lions by the team's captain Alex Schlotsky (14-year-old Alex D. Linz). Schlotsky, after learning about the Chanukah legend in school, is convinced that Carr is really Judah Maccabee. Meanwhile, Alex's mother, a doctor, wants him to give up basketball and follow in her footsteps.

Complicated Branches

By Robert Brustein
Published on October 31, 2002

"The Syringa Tree," which won the 2001 Obie Award for best play and premieres in Los Angeles this week, might be the first theatrical work to deal with the complicated and ambiguous relations between Jews and blacks in South Africa. A solo performance written and acted by Pamela Gien, it is a partly fictionalized -- though mostly factual -- account of a half-Jewish, half-English child in Johannesburg during apartheid. Created by Gien in a Santa Monica acting class in 1996, the play was inspired by the brutal murder of Gien's grandfather when she was a child.

A ‘Love-Mock’ Relationship

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on March 30, 2000

At one point in Richard Greenberg's new play, "Everett Beekin," scheduled to premiere at South Coast Repertory (SCR) in September, a Jewish New Yorker arrives in Orange County and is perplexed by the efficiency, the serenity, the friendliness of the natives. "I don't want to mark myself a Californiphobic ... because [that is such a] cliché," one of the characters, Celia, tells her sister. "But the worst part is: You can never catch them when you've turned your back and you quick turn back. I mean, the tell-tale sneer, the exchanged mocking glances. You turn your back and they're still smiling! What are they? Happy?"