MONDAY: Rodgers & Hammerstein 101 FREE
Also: West Side Story this Thursday; Into the Woods; Jewish Women Photographers and Poets
The last FREE Monday class for 2020 is Rodgers & Hammerstein 101, on Monday, December 7 at Noon ET. We’ll look at the songwriting duo behind “Oklahoma!”; “South Pacific”; and “The Sound of Music” and ask how the two dealt with issues of prejudice in their musicals. Hint: sometimes what’s NOT there is more important than what’s there.
Sign up: bitly.com/BenkofMusical
On Thursday, December 10 Jewish Culture 101 continues its three-part Sondheim Seminar with an exploration of West Side Story. This video demonstrates the contributions of the four Jewish men who made the show (lyricist Stephen Sondheim, yes, but also book writer Arthur Laurents, choreographer Jerome Robbins, and composer Leonard Bernstein. Why has West Side Story proved so enduring? What are Sondheim’s lyrics about BESIDES two star-crossed lovers? The following Thursday (December 17) we’ll do the same with Into the Woods.
Tuition for the whole series is $1. Sign up: bitly.com/BenkofSondheim
And JUST ANNOUNCED: a two-part class on Creative Jewish Women, set for Thursday, January 7.
The Noon class examines the many Jewish women who have led the genre of photography in the United States: Eve Arnold (known for her gritty news photography and elegant candid photos of Marilyn Monroe); Diane Arbus (known for her street photography and fascination with unusual people like twins, female impersonators, and circus performers); and Annie Leibovitz (known for her iconic magazine covers of Demi Moore, Caitlyn Jenner, and especially John Lennon and Yoko Ono).
Then, at 1 pm, we'll look at Jewish women poets like Emma Lazarus (whose "New Colossus" poem - "Give me your tired, your poor…" - is on the Statue of Liberty); Irena Klepfisz (whose "Bashert" is a landmark twist on Holocaust memory); and especially Louise Glück (the newly minted 2020 Nobelist in Literature).
Tuition: $2. Sign up: bitly.com/BenkofWomen
The Monday FREE classes in January will cover classic musicals like Kiss Me Kate and Guys and Dolls. More information later this week.
Finally, I’m booking Zoom classes for individual synagogues, Hadassah chapters, Federation committees, etc. Contact me if you’d like me to present one of my talks to an organization you work with. Right now the most popular ones are “If You Could See Cabaret Through My Eyes”; “SNL’s Jews”; “Contemporary Jewish Broadway”; and “Debbie Friedman 101” but I can offer any of them.