“The Hannukah Hodgepodge” by Ezra Yarborough, Homo for the Holigays
Fast forward to time stamp 1:10:10 to view just “The Hannukah Hodgepodge”
On December 18th, 2022, I produced a fundraiser event in collaboration with IDEA Stages called Homo for the Holigays. The event featured four new one-act plays, all written the night before, and rehearsed that day. In between the one acts were variety performances by local queer stand-up comics, singers, and poets.
I directed “The Hannukah Hodgepodge,” a one-act by Ezra Yarborough. Directing this piece was challenging not only due to the time constraints, but also technical constraints—we had one general light plot to work with and were unable to request specials. The audience was also in the round due to the production calendar constraints of the venue that had donated their space.
It was important to me to prioritize the actors’ ability to make bold choices with confidence despite the time constraints. For this reason, I told them they were free to have their scripts on-hand for the show if needed. Another challenge was that the playwright and I are both Jewish, but none of our volunteer actors were. We had to decide our level of comfort with sharing a Hannukah story told by non-Jewish actors, and this was the compromise we came up with. We decided that it was more important to us to include Hannukah representation than to eliminate it entirely due to the make-up of our cast.
The script was funny and fast-paced, and casting was the most important element to the piece’s success. Thankfully, the cast brought many bold choices to their work and had a natural chemistry, so my main job was to get out of their way, support the choices that were there, and bring up the volume on the ones that were timid yet truthful and fitting.
