'Indecent' and JDT Lab at Guild Hall This Week

Guild Hall will present BroadwayHD’s encore screening of “Indecent” on Saturday at 7 p.m. The play by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel was called “superbly realized and remarkably powerful” by the New York Times critic Ben Brantley when it opened last April. 

The play was inspired by the controversial 1923 Broadway debut of the English translation of Sholem Asch’s Yiddish play “God of Vengeance.” Set in a brothel, that play included Jewish prostitutes, a lesbian scene, and the hurling of a Torah across the stage. Its run was cut short when the cast and producer were indicted and convicted of obscenity.

“Indecent” earned a Tony Award nomination for best play, and Rebecca Taichman took home the Tony for her direction. Tickets are $18, $16 for members.

The next offering in Guild Hall’s JDT Lab will be a free performance of “Small Among Infinite Stars,” a Box Collective production written by Matthew Minnicino, on Tuesday evening at 7:30. A Manhattan actor, writer, director, and teacher, Mr. Minnicino has created full-length theater pieces, adaptations, and one-acts.

Inspired by Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” “Small Among Infinite Stars” was described on Guild Hall’s website as “a triptych of interlaced interrogations of explosive, uncomfortable, radiant womanhood — torn from the corridors of fact, the high towers of fantasy, and the endless night sky of pure fiction.” Reservations have been suggested.