Sid Solomon plays a young man trying to reconnect with his Jewish roots in James Sherman's comedy "The God of Isaac" at Florida Studio Theatre. MATTHEW HOLLER PHOTO/FST
In 1977, the leader of the National Socialist Party of America — the Nazi Party — announced plans for a march on Skokie, Illinois, a predominantly Jewish Chicago suburb with a large number of Holocaust survivors.
The march never happened, but the announcement sparked outrage, led to protests and court challenges and a ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court that the use of the swastika is a symbolic form of free speech.
One of the side effects was how it inspired Chicago playwright James Sherman to look at his own life experiences, which he shared in his comedy “God of Isaac.” Florida Studio Theatre revisits the play it first staged in 1996 in a new production that opens Friday.
The march is the incident that leads Isaac, a 30-ish man from the Chicago area, to begin exploring a connection to his Jewish roots and religious education, which essentially ended after his bar mitzvah at age 13. Sherman himself played Isaac in the play’s Chicago premiere in 1985. In a 1996 interview with the Herald-Tribune, Sherman described the comedy as a “Jewish ‘Wizard of Oz': a young Jewish man goes on a journey and learns that there’s no place like home."
Eric Hoffmann, left, plays a tailor and numerous other characters, with Sid Solomon in the title role in James Sherman's "The God of Isaac" at Florida Studio Theatre. MATTHEW HOLLER PHOTO/FST
Actor Sid Solomon, who will make his FST debut as Isaac, said it’s an important personal story for him.
“Isaac basically comes from a place of pure ignorance. He knows that he’s Jewish, but he has very little sense of what that actually means,” Solomon said. At one point, two Orthodox Jewish men ask Isaac if he’s Jewish and “he has no idea what it means.”
In contrast, Solomon comes from a “fairly observant Jewish family and had a strong religious education.” It’s powerful, he said, for someone who has a pretty strong grasp on his religious identity to “play someone who is slowly and surely picking up on this information and figuring out why it’s important and able to come to the conclusion that this is a part of my life, this is who I am and it’s going to inform me moving forward.”
Though it may sound serious, Sherman, who is also the author of such plays as “Beau Jest,” tells the story in a humorous style that makes frequent use of references to classic films. Director Kate Alexander said that even though Isaac is Jewish, the story is universal.
“Look at Neil Simon and all our great comedic writers in the last two centuries. That humor has been accepted as mainstream. It’s humor that we all know. In our rehearsals, we have a lot of ethnic groups, Greek, Italian, and everyone is seeing their sort of family and their own situations in every scene.”
Sherman himself said it’s a play “anyone can relate to in some way. It’s about parents and children. Everybody comes from some place. And at some point in our life we all have to decide what we’re going to do about God.”
The play also touches on an the American tendency to become homogenized to fit in with contemporary society.
Rachel Moulton and Sid Solomon star in "The God of Isaac" at Florida Studio Theatre. MATTHEW HOLLER PHOTO/FST
“There’s a point that you ask what is the essence, and how much do I keep of my roots? The more you age, the richer that becomes,” Alexander said. “Finding those connections is important for every single person, wherever their families emigrated from, or if they’re first or second or third generation. We need to know our roots. That makes it an American story.”
The play reunites Solomon with Marina Re and Rachel Moulton, with whom he has co-starred at other theaters. Moulton and Re also have appeared frequently at FST — Moulton was most recently seen in “Alabama Story” and Re was in “Over the River and Through the Woods” last summer. They are joined by two other FST veterans — Eric Hoffmann, who plays multiple roles in "Isaac" and had the title role in "Butler," and Kevin Cristaldi, who was seen in “Next Fall” and “The Triumph of Love.” Rebeca Miller is another newcomer to the theater.
The familiarity of the performers and the director — Alexander said the theater tries to have at least 25 percent of each cast be FST veterans — often eases the rehearsal process.
“With Rachel and Marina, I know them. We have good relationships,” Solomon said. “We can skip that 'getting to know you' period that freelance actors always have to jump into. We’re already comfortable with each other.”
THEATER PREVIEW
"THE GOD OF ISAAC"
Runs Aug. 3-21 in Florida Studio Theatre's Gompertz Theatre, 1247 First St., Sarasota. Ticket information: 941-366-9000; floridastudiotheatre.org
