Ladies and Gentlemen- Gvirotai ve Rabotai...

"Welcome and Bruchim Ha Baim to flight 613 taking off from JFK to Tel Aviv."

So after five sold out shows, loads of Middle Eastern cuisine at the nearby Olive Tree Cafe and endless cups of chamomile tea, I can finally say I have some Nachat.
It's nice to be part of a well received production. We all worked very hard. Lots of laughs, lots of re-writes, lots of last minute changes, lots of bench moving, lots of props lost and then found. Michelle, the stage manager for Sex and the Holy Land said to me in regards to all of the above: "Hey, it's the Fringe" and that put everything in perspective for me. It's not easy working on an original play but knowing that this is a baby taking it's first steps, and we are the ones helping it along is heartwarming. I thought to myself, opening night, "We are going on a ride, it might be a bumpy ride but in the end, we'll get to where we're headed and then we'll all get off"... and you can take that any way you'd like. It's Sex in the Holy Land, after all.

For me there were many memorable moments throughout this production but the highlight of this entire experience happened after our last show on Friday. I came out of the back door of The Players Theatre and there stood my close friends, Mike, Maggie and Jonathan, when and all of a sudden a face came out of the crowd like a forgotten angel. It was Adi Shapira's face; one of my long lost friends from performing arts high school in Israel. I said to her " What are you doing here???" She answered simply: " You sent me a facebook invite, didn't you?". Turns out she and her parents came for a short visit to New York and came to see the show. That moment made everything in my entire acting career worth it. It was the greatest and most touching surprise yet.

So I'd like to thank Adi Shapira for making me smile as well as the wonderful, talented people who made this show happen: Ross Buckley, Michelle Slonim, Ruby Joy, Zack Imbrogno, Adrian Kelly, Lyssa Mandel, Sarah-Doe Osborne, Susan Slatin, Gabriel Sloyer, Melanie Zoey Weinstein (who also wrote and produced) and Goldie Zwiebel.
Noah Aronson, Arthur Peters, Kate Rusek, Michelle Beige, Rachel G. Karp, Robby Sandler and our director Lee Gundersheimer, whom I like to call him Gundershnitzel.

KOL HA KAVOD to everyone!!! And here are some behind the scenes photos for you to enjoy.
















Sivan in the Wailing Wall City