The Jewish Play Initiative

The Jewish Play Initiative is the only professional theater initiative in the United States dedicated to commissioning, developing, and producing at least one new world premiere each season exploring contemporary Jewish life, history, identity, and ideas.

At a moment when antisemitism is once again on the rise and Jewish voices are increasingly marginalized in many cultural spaces, Miami New Drama made a simple but ambitious commitment: not just to produce Jewish stories, but to create them.

Rather than relying on the existing canon, we are helping build a new one.

Together, these plays embody the mission of the Jewish Play Initiative: to commission bold new voices, confront the most urgent questions facing Jewish life today, and create original works that begin in Miami and become part of the national theatrical conversation.

The Plays

Birthright

By Jonathan Spector
World Premiere
April 3–27, 2025

Six young American Jews meet on a Birthright trip in 2006. Eighteen years later, the bonds between them fracture — and what they inherited no longer fits the lives they’re living.

Transferred to MCC Theater, New York. Summer 2026.

“A thrillingly constructed drama” — The New York Times
“Altogether extraordinary” — The Wall Street Journal
“The best new play of the year” — The Wrap

The Zionists: A Family Storm

By S. Asher Gelman
World Premiere
April 9 – May 3, 2026

A prominent Jewish family, fractured by the aftermath of October 7, gathers for a fragile reunion at a Caribbean resort. As a hurricane closes in outside, a fiercer storm erupts within.

Transferred to Barrington Stage Company. Summer 2026.

Gandhi and the Jew

By Harley Elias
World Premiere
November 5–29, 2026

The extraordinary friendship between Mohandas Gandhi and Hermann Kallenbach, the Jewish architect who helped shape the philosophy of nonviolence — and whose opposing convictions about a Jewish state nearly destroyed the bond between them.

Our third commission.

The Golem of Havana

By Michel Hausmann
10th Anniversary Production
January 28 – February 28, 2027

Jewish folklore collides with Cuban revolution in 1950s Havana, in the original musical that opened Miami New Drama’s very first season at the Colony Theatre.

Returning for our 10th Anniversary.

Support the Jewish Play Initiative

The Jewish Play Initiative exists because a community of supporters decided these plays should be written.

Commissioning a new play means paying a writer to spend a year or more on something that does not yet exist. Every gift goes directly to that work: commissions, developmental readings, and the full production resources that turn a script into a world premiere.

To discuss a leadership gift, contact Lucas Metropulos, Director of Development, at lucas@miaminewdrama.org

With gratitude to our lead supporters:

Co-Founder
Gary Wasserman, Wasserman Projects

Stacey & Eric Mindich
Art & Ilene Penn
Mailman Foundation
Carolyn Perelmuter
Martin and Kathryn Mann
Dan Nir & Jill Braufman
Sandra Seligman