Theater

A local temple tackles the religious divide with Pulitzer-winning play ‘Disgraced’

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A rehearsal of Disgraced at Temple Beth Sholom.
Photo: Steve Marcus
Jacob Coakley

Temple Beth Sholom will open its doors to the community for a free staged reading this week. That’s already a little out of the box for a temple, and they’re not pulling any punches with the play selection either. Disgraced, by Ayad Akhtar, has a setup like a bad joke—a Muslim lawyer, a WASP artist, a black lawyer and a Jewish art dealer meet for dinner—but turns into a scorching examination of race, religion and politics. The play won the 2013 Pulitzer for drama, and is being produced at prestigious theaters across the country. But at a temple? I asked the leaders of Temple Beth Sholom, Rabbi Felipe Goodman and Rabbi Benjamin Katz, and the director of the reading, Kate St-Pierre, why they chose this play, and why they wanted to have it performed at their temple.

Disgraced is about the stereotyping of people, the setting aside of people just because of religion. It’s a very important message that no one else is talking about, so we have to,” says Rabbi Goodman. Still, he wants to be clear that he’s not inviting this play into his temple in an attempt to whitewash the problems of Islam, especially its relation to terrorism. “It’s an important part of the equation, we can’t just throw that under the rug and say it doesn't exist,” says Goodman, but he thinks there’s still value in this play that his congregation, and the larger Las Vegas community, can benefit from. “We’ve been on that receiving end of the phobia so many different times in our history. I want our people to understand how dangerous it is to stereotype Muslims and I think this play is a perfect tool to do that,” he says, adding, “When people do not understand religion they immediately demonize it.”

Reaching for that understanding, the play takes many tacks. The playwright has described it as a smart sitcom, which moves into an idea play, which becomes a romantic thriller, which then becomes melodrama, agitprop, and romantic love story. “It’s an experience that cannot be reduced to a sound bite,” says Rabbi Katz. “Akhtar says he wrote this play because so much of our lives are mediated by screens. To have real people experiencing emotions together is something that’s unusual in our lives and our society right now.” Which is why director Kate St-Pierre and the rabbis will be leading community discussions after the play to work through some of the issues it presents.

“There’s so many opportunities in this play to create community afterwards,” says St-Pierre. “It opens up opportunity to really begin to discuss the work. This play is a beginning of a conversation. And it takes place on the stage, but it will be continued in our homes.”

Disgraced January 23, 7 p.m.; January 24, 2 p.m., free. Temple Beth Sholom, ​10700 Havenwood Lane, 702-804-1333.

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