A Great Miracle Happened Here will be staged July 16-19 as part of Illusion Theater’s Fresh Ink series
By ERIN ELLIOTT /Â Community News Editor
Jenna Zark’s son Josh was just 12 years old on Sept. 11, 2001, but Zark described the events of that day as a “formative experience” for him.
“The first thing he said to me was, ‘Grandpa had Pearl Harbor and that was something that happened in his generation, but this happened to me and this is for mine,’” Zark told the AJW. “And I just remember being struck by that.”
Years later, while Josh was in high school, he began talking about volunteering for the U.S. Army and later, while attending Jewish camp, about volunteering for the Israeli Army. At that time, Josh’s college plans were on the back burner.
When Zark, a local playwright, was asked to write for Illusion Theater’s Festival of Lights in 2007, she recalled what she was feeling as her son decided what to do with his future.
“I can understand his feelings on it and wanting to serve his country and wanting to help Israel, and there’s a part of me that’s a mom, just a mom, that’s very concerned about his being safe,” Zark said. “It turned out that he got very interested in singing, and he got into a conservatory and he wound up going there. The day that he left was a particularly emotional one for me and I started thinking about what if instead of going to the conservatory, he was going to the army.”
Zark’s original scene for Illusion Theater has now become a two-act play titled A Great Miracle Happened Here, which is about a Midwestern couple whose world turns upside down when their 18-year-old son decides to join the Israeli Army.
Jenna Zark: I had to research things like how you put together and take apart an M-16. (Photo: Courtesy of Jenna Zark)
The play will be performed July 16-19 as part of the theater’s Fresh Ink series, which showcases new plays and encourages audience members to give feedback in post-show discussions. The play was funded in part by a grant from Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council, an initiative of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation.
“In the case of A Great Miracle Happened Here, it’s going to be a little more on the workshop side of things,” Zark said. “I may be revising during rehearsal and performance. Some scenes will be blocked and some scenes will be stationary, but it will really give myself and the audience the opportunity to see the play and to provide feedback for it, perhaps make some revisions to it. It’s a very process-oriented journey… and I think that’s what makes it so exciting.”
Zark began working on the play in January 2008 and has talked to several young men and women who have joined the Israel Defense Forces, as well as their families. Many of their real-life experiences served as starting points for some of Zark’s scenes.
“I had to research things like how you put together and take apart an M-16, which my husband thought was very funny,” Zark said. “When I first started, I was doing an AK-47 and then when I spoke with one of the soldiers, she said, ‘No, we don’t use those, we use M-16s.’ So I had to go on YouTube and find out how you take apart and clean an M-16.”
Zark also uses the play to explore the difference between Israeli Jews and those in the Diaspora.
“For the young man, he’s heard all his life about Israel and when he finally experiences it, it has a profound effect on him. It has an effect that his mother did not anticipate,” Zark said. “Some of what I also want to explore in the play is the difference between being an Israeli Jew and an American Jew, and how sometimes you’re on the same page and sometimes you’re not. And that can make for some painful revelations.”
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A Great Miracle Happened Here will be performed 8 p.m. Thursday, July 16, Friday, July 17, and Saturday, July 18; and 7 p.m. Sunday, July 19 at Illusion Theater, on the 8th floor of the Hennepin Center for the Arts, 528 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis. For tickets and information, contact the Illusion Theater box office at 612-339-4944 or: www.illusiontheater.org.
(American Jewish World, 7.10.09)
