Come celebrate the first night of Hanukkah with a very special show at 54 Below!

Jewish people have been an integral part of Broadway’s tapestry for as long as Broadway has existed. Some of our most celebrated works focus on or feature Jewish stories and experiences.

Often however, Jewish performers are not given the chance to be the ones to tell those stories.

But that’s not the case tonight!

Get ready to hear all your favorite songs from beloved shows like Fiddler on the Roof, Parade, Falsettos, and more, sung by Broadway’s best, brightest, and — you guessed it — Jewish-est!

With Anti-Semitism in North America at its highest peak in decades, we’re honored and excited to have a night dedicated to giving Jewish artists the stage. Music direction by Simone Allen, with piano accompaniment by Madeline Myers (for Samantha Massell only).

Featuring:

Carolyn Berliner (The Elephant Man at Williamstown)
Jordan Matthew Brown (The Book of Mormon Broadway and national tour)
Rebecca Codas (“Over the Rainbow”)
Ben Freeman (Beloved King: A Queer Biblical Musical at Oberon at A.R.T.)
Marques Hollie (Go Down, Moshe)
Lily Lester (Mishegoss Comedy)
Samantha Massell (Fiddler on the Roof)
Lauren Molina (The Skivvies, John Doyle’s Sweeney Todd)
Brooke Sterling (New York premier of Mystic Pizza)
Becca Suskauer (Pretty Woman national tour)
Dani Weiner (Snow White at Hangar Theatre)
and more stars to be announced!

A portion of the proceeds from this evening will benefit LAB/SHUL: an artist-driven, everybody-friendly, God-optional experimental community for sacred Jewish gatherings based in NYC and reaching the world. www.labshul.org

Produced by Rebecca Codas.

Celebrate the release of Rena Branson’s new album, Love Is the Ground, at The Weitzman’s finale event for Pride Month. Branson’s music seamlessly weaves together Hebrew liturgy, English poetry, and wordless nigunim (spiritual melodies). This 2-set concert includes featured songs from the album and original compositions by Branson’s West Philly-based queer Jewish musical collaborators, including Rachel Chang, Dr. Koach Baruch Frazier, Aly Halpert, Marques Hollie, Joni Leibovic and Marni Loffman; with additional accompaniment by Mel Hsu and Koof Ibi. The evening will be emceed by Rabbi Mónica Gomery. Attendees are welcome to move and sing along throughout the event. Come as you are!

Site: Yizkor/King Manor is a site-specific performance installation created by visual artist Maya Ciarrocchi with music direction by Andrew Conklin. Comprised of music and dance in an immersive projected environment, Site: Yizkor examines individual and collective experiences of displacement and loss through the lens of Yizkor, a framework while inherently Jewish, is not limited to the Jewish experience. The project's source material includes architectural renderings of demolished buildings, maps of vanished places, and prose remembrances gathered during participatory writing workshops.

Performed by:

Anna Azrieli (movement)

Maya Ciarrocchi (video)

Andrew Conklin (guitar, electronics)

Marques Hollie (vocals)

Darvejon Jones (movement)

Sam Kulik (trombone)

Matt Nelson (saxophone)

maura nguyễn donohue (movement)

Alethea Pace (movement)

Marques is the tenor soloist for the Connecticut Master Chorale’s performance of Dave Brubeck’s To Hope! A Celebration. Rescheduled from 9/13/2020 to 3/5/2023 due to COVID-19.

Welcome to Seder Queen, co-led by Marques Hollie and Associate Director and Ritual Leader Naomi Less with support from the Lab/Shul Ritual Team. We are honored to premiere the Moses of the City Haggadah as our core Passover ritual tool, created by artist in residence, Luis Burgos along with live music, poetry, theater and heart-centered powerful conversations centering the perspectives of Jews of Color.

Seder Queen reflects the diversity of Judaism and lifts up the work of Jews of Color in Jewish spaces that have been historically white. We hope that other Jews of Color will experience Seder Queen as transformative, and know that they are not alone. We hope that white Jews will be moved to do the work of liberation alongside JOCs and know that JOCs are integral to Jewish continuity and to Jewish communal spaces.

Lab/Shul is also proud to partner with Ammud, JOC Mishpacha Project, LUNAR, and Mitsui Collective for this evening. This seder is generously supported by a grant from Jews of Color Initiative, an organization which works to build a truly multiracial, anti-racist Jewish community in which Jews of Color can experience joy and reach their full potential and belonging as leaders and community members. 

Featured Ritualists  

• Ari L. Monts (Ammud)*

• Ben Freeman (Lab/Shul)

• Dr. Harriette Wimms  (JOC Mishpacha)*

• Koshin Paley NY Zen Center for Contemplative Care 

• Maryam Chishti (LUNAR)*

• Naz Georgas (Cordoba House)

• Rabbi Noam Lerman (Lab/Shul)

• Rebecca S’manga Frank (Performance Artist) 

• Rev. Derrick McQueen (St. James Presbyterian Church)

• Yoshi Silverstein (Mitsui Collective)*

* Denotes Seder Queen Partner Organizations

Ritual Musicians

• Meg Okura

• Zafer Tawil

• Saskia Lane

Marques told two original stories during the festival’s Unheard Voices: LGBTQ+ Jews workshop.

A series of spiritually engaging stars from around the world will join voices (and Zoom screens) to “Raise Ruach” and lift our spirits in the second annual Virtual ALEPH Cabaret! Emceed by Rabbi Lex Rofeberg and Dr. Brielle Paige Rassler, and produced by Rabbinic Pastor/Cantor Lisa Levine, our lineup of performers will be sharing their joyful songs, their powerful stories, and their soulful spirits in an unforgettable and entertaining evening benefiting ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal.

The ALEPH Virtual Cabaret is ALEPH's biggest summer fundraiser, and not one to be missed!

Learn more and register: www.aleph.org/virtualcabaret 

Join Lab/Shul on May 1, 2021 to celebrate our collective courage and to rejoice in the light of Fearless Fire. We will join together – in person and online – to ritually transcend from grief to relief in celebration of Lag B’Omer, the 33rd day between Passover and Shavuot that is traditionally celebrated as a day of respite and joy with outdoor games and bonfires.

The in person celebration will take place safely outdoors, at City Winery Hudson Valley. 

We’ll enjoy an afternoon of delicious food and wine, art and music workshops, poetry, storytelling, lawn games, body art and more. At sundown we’ll create multiple bonfire “party pods” and co-create a musical Havdalah ritual. Featuring live music by the Lab/Shul house band and special guest artists.

Join us for Freedom Feast 2021: An interactive, virtual, and ecumenical Passover Seder led by Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Zen faith leaders, along with artists, elected officials, activists, and musicians, inspired by our ancient narratives and shared commitment to justice, liberation, and human dignity.

In celebration of Passover and spring, ahead of  Easter and Ramadan,  we’ll gather  to share a communal festive feast, rising up as one big family for equity and healing, equality and hope. 

Freedom Feast 2021 features highlights from the rituals of Seder – interactive storytelling, live music and prayer – together with contemplation, conversation, and calls to action for unity in New York City and around the world. #SitToRise2021

COVID-19 YAHRZEIT with Site: Yizkor

Participatory performance and writing workshop to reflect and commemorate the last year of COVID-19 and all that has changed, led by Maya Ciarrocchi with music by Andrew Conklin.

Friday, March 12 | 5:00 – 6:00 PM

Who honors the spaces left by the dead? How and why do people and cultures disappear?

These questions animate Site: Yizkor, an in-process interdisciplinary project created collaboratively by Maya Ciarrocchi and composer Andrew Conklin. Site: Yizkor explores the physical and emotional manifestation of loss through text, drawing, video, and music. Its source material includes architectural renderings of demolished buildings, memory maps of vanished places, field recordings of folk music, and prose remembrances obtained from historical Yizkor books and from project participants.

To commemorate the anniversary of the 14Y closing its doors, Join LABA artist Maya Ciarrocchi for a participatory performance where we will read selections from Yizkor books and writing generated during previous workshops accompanied by live video and music. Following the reading, attendees will be invited to create their own Yizkor pages as a way to mourn lost people and places and the transformative last year.

Join Lab/Shul and our all faith siblings for a Ritual Rally for human dignity. As we celebrate Indigenous People’s Day and the Jewish holy day of Simchat Torah, we gather outside (and on zoom!) for a free, socially distanced celebration in the streets.

We are joined by the St. James Presbyterian Church and New York City Mayor’s Office for a ceremony weaving our ancient Scriptures, live music, healing rituals for the earth, and a call for equity, equality and justice for all.

Our dear friends and collaborators from Repair the World and Reclaim Our Vote will also join us as we channel our sacred spirit into actions for justice.

All ages, all faiths.

Led By:
Amichai Lau-Lavie
Naomi Less
Shira Kline
Rev. Dr. Derrick McQueen 
Rev. Dominique Atchison, Executive Director at the Center for Faith and Community Partnerships at NYC Office of the Mayor
Rev. Eugene Palmore, Church of the Master
Rebekka Goldsmith
Marques Hollie
(Anthony) Sexton; Harlem Up N Coming (HUNC)
Ms. Joyce Ade – Annual Multi-Cultural Festival (Yoruba Priestess)

Join composer-pianist Felix Jarrar for an evening of music entitled "OPERA GOES TO BROADWAY: an absolutely fabulous concert". This concert series features standard operatic repertoire alongside your favorite classics from Broadway!

Mezzo-sopranos Nicholle Bittlingmeyer and Eugenia Forteza will join tenor Marques Hollie for Felix's inaugural "OPERA GOES TO BROADWAY" concert on Friday March 20th at 8:00pm.

Joined by Shinae Kim (piano), Marques will present the world premiere of Kevin Joest’s, “Live Blindly”, an art song with text by Trumbull Stickney. The song will be premiered on the Sparks Wiry & Cries NYC songSLAM song competition at Mary Flagler Cary Hall in The DiMenna Center for Classical Music. The audience will decide the winning composition by voting at the end of the concert. Tickets are $20 and available via Eventbrite.

Marques is a soloist for a work-in-progress iteration of Maya Ciarrocchi and Andrew Conklin’s Site: Yizkor at the Bronx Museum of Art’s Block Gallery in Tribeca.

Marques will portray the role of Gnat, the evil witch in the world premiere of Felix Jarrar’s Mother Goose, a comic chamber opera. Tickets can be purchased here.

Tenor Marques Hollie will present a Halloween-inspired recital alongside Felix Jarrar that features music by Chopin, Jarrar, Joest, Schumann, and Saint-Saëns, among others.

Click here for more information and to reserve your spot!