{"id":198,"date":"2019-03-28T10:18:29","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T14:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/?p=198"},"modified":"2019-04-03T14:41:16","modified_gmt":"2019-04-03T18:41:16","slug":"what-life-wants-prepares-for-boston-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/what-life-wants-prepares-for-boston-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"‘What Life Wants’ Prepares for World Premiere"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Katherine Gianni<\/em><\/p>\n

Israeli actor Dror Keren has wowed the performing arts world for more than three decades, acting in dozens of productions in venues across Tel-Aviv, including The Cameri Theatre, Habima Theatre, and Gesher Theatre. On Saturday, March 30, Mr. Keren will trade the main stage for a director\u2019s chair to watch the world premiere reading of his new show, \u201cWhat Life Wants.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI hope to act in the Israeli production,\u201d Mr. Keren said before rehearsal on Tuesday afternoon in the second-floor library of the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies. \u201cBut for right now I\u2019m focused on working on the script to make it the best that it can be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Two performances are scheduled for Saturday, March 30, at Boston Playwrights\u2019 Theatre on Commonwealth Avenue. Mr. Keren has spent just over a week crafting his script with a group of seven actors and Israeli Stage Founder and Artistic Director Guy Ben-Aharon. The residency will continue until the reading this Saturday, and was made possible by a <\/span>grant from the Jewish Cultural Endowment, administered by the Elie Wiesel Center.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Keren explained that a large part of the creative process has been translating the original text from Hebrew to English to make it accessible for American audiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have Guy with me who is really such an expert in these kinds of rehearsals,\u201d Mr. Keren said of his longtime friend. The two met in Israel over three years ago, but it wasn\u2019t until the international premiere of Mr. Keren\u2019s show, \u201cOn The Grill\u201d in June 2018, that they began to discuss an Israeli Stage residency. For this show, Mr. Ben-<\/span>Aharon has assisted in directing all aspects of the workshop.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\u201cOn
\u201cOn The Grill\u201d was written and directed by Mr. Keren. The show was awarded Best Original Play at the Israeli Theatre Awards in 2015.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHe knows Hebrew and English very well, so we had a few discussions on the right words or idioms that should be there for the English version that really say what I want to say,\u201d Mr. Keren said.<\/span><\/p>\n

And what is it exactly that Mr. Keren wants to say through his new play? He described that the show centers around what he perceives as his greatest personal challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cParenthood,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the main battles a person experiences in life are within the walls of his home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Keren said the group rehearses for five hours, if not longer, most afternoons\u2014and the outpour of creativity doesn\u2019t end after rehearsals wrap. \u201cUsually I go to Guy\u2019s place to continue working,\u201d he said, smiling. \u201cWe have conclusions and things to go over that we noted to ourselves during the rehearsals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With one show already sold out, and a second performance filling up quickly, both Mr. Keren and Mr. Ben-Aharon are gearing up for a large audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope they will be moved and I hope they identify with the characters,\u201d Mr. Keren said. \u201cI hope my play will reflect other people\u2019s lives because that\u2019s the main reason we\u2019re here: to see yourself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Two staged readings of What Life Wants will take place on Saturday, March 30, at Boston Playwrights\u2019 Theatre, 949 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA. The 8:00 pm show is currently sold out. For tickets to the 4:00 pm show time<\/span><\/i> click here. <\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Katherine Gianni Israeli actor Dror Keren has wowed the performing arts world for more than three decades, acting in dozens of productions in venues across Tel-Aviv, including The Cameri Theatre, Habima Theatre, and Gesher Theatre. On Saturday, March 30, Mr. Keren will trade the main stage for a director\u2019s chair to watch the world … Continue reading ‘What Life Wants’ Prepares for World Premiere<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6765,"featured_media":201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[24,21,11,19,6,23,22,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6765"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions\/227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}