{"id":45514,"date":"2018-10-26T16:11:32","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T22:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=45514"},"modified":"2018-10-26T16:12:54","modified_gmt":"2018-10-26T22:12:54","slug":"how-moises-kaufman-went-from-a-yeshiva-in-venezuela-to-a-harvey-fierstein-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/how-moises-kaufman-went-from-a-yeshiva-in-venezuela-to-a-harvey-fierstein-classic\/","title":{"rendered":"How Moises Kaufman went from a yeshiva in Venezuela to directing a Harvey Fierstein classic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By CURT SCHLEIER<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 It has been more than 35 years since Harvey Fierstein\u2019s \u201cTorch Song Trilogy\u201d opened on Broadway. At the time it was a theatrical revelation: Who could have imagined that the story of a young gay Jewish man\u2019s quest for love and validation in a world that viewed him as an abomination would become such a hit?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_45515\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/kaufman.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-45515\" class=\"wp-image-45515 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/kaufman-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/kaufman-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/kaufman-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/kaufman.jpg 880w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/198;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-45515\" class=\"wp-image-45515 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/kaufman-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/kaufman-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/kaufman-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/kaufman.jpg 880w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-45515\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harvey Fierstein, left, inspired Moises Kaufman with his groundbreaking work \u201cTorch Song Trilogy.\u201d (Courtesy of Torch Song on Broadway)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Fierstein, who wrote and starred in the original production, won the Tony Awards in 1983 for best play and best lead actor, and rocketed to theater stardom.<\/p>\n<p>The play is back on Broadway in a slimmed-down production \u2014 it\u2019s over an hour shorter than the three-part, four-plus hour original and is just called \u201cTorch Song.\u201d It stars Michael Urie (of \u201cUgly Betty\u201d fame) as Arnold Beckoff, a professional drag queen, and his performance is so funny, moving and sensitive that it could win him a Tony, too. It opens Nov. 1 at the Hayes Theater and will run through Feb. 24.<\/p>\n<p>Among the play\u2019s earliest fans, just before its original days on Broadway, was Moises Kaufman. These days, Kaufman is known for founding the Tectonic Theater Project, a company that has produced acclaimed off-Broadway plays such as \u201cThe Laramie Project\u201d and \u201cGross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde.\u201d Now he\u2019s directing this version of \u201cTorch Song.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kaufman, 54, was still a teenager when he caught a performance of the show by a touring company in San Francisco while on vacation from his native Venezuela.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to believe it was bashert,\u201d he said in a telephone interview, using the Yiddish word for \u201cfated.\u201d \u201cI was very young and it had a very great impact on me because it spoke to my Judaism, it spoke to my gayness and it spoke to my desire to be an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The play was one of the reasons Kaufman set his sights on the New York theater world, a long way from his native Caracas, where he was born and attended a yeshiva through high school. His father emigrated there from a village along the Romanian and Ukrainian border when he was 20. He had survived the Holocaust through making and selling the yellow Stars of David that Jews were compelled to wear by the Nazis. In Caracas, he married a Venezuela-born daughter of immigrants from Kiev.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_45516\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/urie.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-45516\" class=\"wp-image-45516 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/urie-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/urie-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/urie-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/urie.jpg 880w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/198;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-45516\" class=\"wp-image-45516 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/urie-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/urie-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/urie-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/urie.jpg 880w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-45516\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Urie, known for a role on \u201cUgly Betty,\u201d stars in the revival \u201cTorch Song.\u201d (Matthew Murphy)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cTorch Song Trilogy\u201d struck a chord with Kaufman on multiple levels. He calls himself still very \u201cspiritually\u201d Jewish today, and the show also has a very Jewish sensibility \u2014 from the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jta.org\/2018\/08\/27\/default\/neil-simon-got-us-right-thats-geniuses\">Neil Simon<\/a>-inflected humor to its multiple Yiddishisms.<\/p>\n<p>In the show\u2019s opening moments, Beckoff offers a funny and sad soliloquy admitting to himself and the audience that he just wants someone to say \u201cI love you\u201d and mean it. He ultimately finds that someone, though that ends badly \u2014 as does the visit of his widowed mother (Mercedes Ruehl), up from Florida, who still holds out hope that her son eventually will blossom into heterosexuality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJews are people who understand about oppression,\u201d Kaufman said. \u201cIt\u2019s something you struggle with your whole life, something that never goes away. You internalize it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTorch Song Trilogy,\u201d he said, \u201cwas incredibly entertaining, and yet it could exist in the same framework that deals with very real and complex human issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1606429\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1606429 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.jta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IMG_7181-2.jpg\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IMG_7181-2.jpg 880w, https:\/\/www.jta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IMG_7181-2-156x103.jpg 156w, https:\/\/www.jta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IMG_7181-2-350x231.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.jta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IMG_7181-2-768x506.jpg 768w\" alt=\"\" width=\"880\" height=\"580\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 880px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 880\/580;\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1606429\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IMG_7181-2.jpg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IMG_7181-2.jpg 880w, https:\/\/www.jta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IMG_7181-2-156x103.jpg 156w, https:\/\/www.jta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IMG_7181-2-350x231.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.jta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IMG_7181-2-768x506.jpg 768w\" alt=\"\" width=\"880\" height=\"580\"><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaufman in front of the Hayes Theater in New York City, where the play he\u2019s directing will debut on Nov. 1. (Courtesy of Torch Song on Broadway)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Kaufman said he finds the story prophetic today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Harvey] started talking in the play about what he saw in the future: gay marriage, gay adoption and [continued] gay bashing,\u201d the Venezuelan director said. \u201cHe put it on stage and allowed us to see it and believe that it was possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After attending New York University, Kaufman co-founded the Tectonic Theater Project in 1991 with Jeffrey LaHoste, his future (and current) husband. The TTP became one of many small theater companies in New York City that produces often nontraditional projects off- and off-off-Broadway. They are staffed by young writers, directors and actors seeking opportunities to strut their stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Kaufman\u2019s first big success didn\u2019t come until 1997, when he wrote and directed \u201cGross Indecency,\u201d about the infamous trial involving Oscar Wilde\u2019s gay affairs that shocked Victorian society.<\/p>\n<p>Just a year later Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, was beaten, tortured and left to die on a fence pole in what was widely seen as a hate crime. The profits from \u201cGross Indecency\u201d allowed Kaufman and members of the TTP to travel to Laramie and interview members of the community. Their subsequent work, \u201cThe Laramie Project,\u201d became one of the most performed plays in the country, in both professional settings and in high schools and colleges across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Kaufman has gone on to direct and write over a dozen other plays, and he won a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002. In 2016, President Barack Obama made him the first Venezuelan to receive a National Medal of Arts. At one point Kaufman&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.morphizm.com\/recommends\/interviews\/orozco_moises.html\">called himself<\/a>&nbsp;\u201cthe hardest-working Jewish Latino gay artist in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although it\u2019s a coincidence that \u201cTorch Song\u201d opens almost exactly 20 years after Shepard\u2019s horrific murder (on Friday, his ashes were placed in a crypt at the Washington National Cathedral), Kaufman said the anniversary serves as a reminder that the themes of Fierstein\u2019s play continue to resonate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany kids who come out to their parents today still get the same response that you see in the play,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"How%20Moises%20Kaufman%20went%20from%20a%20yeshiva%20in%20Venezuela%20to%20directing%20a%20Harvey%20Fierstein%20classic\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7122],"tags":[9691,9690,8790,8795,3741,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45514"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45514"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45519,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45514\/revisions\/45519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}