Gabrielle Kaplan Mayer

Website : www.insulinpumpbook.com
Residence : Philadephia, PA

Biographical information

Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer is a writer, performer and educator. She is the author of two books of plays for young people, The Magic Tanach and Other Short Plays and Extraordinary Jews: Their Lives On Stage (ARE Publishing, Inc.). Her one-woman shows, including Zoom Gali Gali! and Greta in Seven Parts have been staged in Chicago and Boston. A 1993 graduate of Emerson College with a B.F.A. cum laude in performing arts, she also earned a Master's degree in Jewish studies at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in June 2001. She is a former theater critic and arts reporter for the Chicago Reader and was selected to study with acclaimed playwright Maria Irene Fornes for the Next Stage Theater Festival in Boston. Gabrielle currently teaches playwriting for the Philadelphia Young Playwrights Festival and also writes and lectures on a variety of topics, including health, religion, spirituality, the arts and education. She has recently been selected to be a presenter for the Pennsylvania Humanities' Council Speakers Bureau. Her most recent book Insulin Pump Therapy Demystified (Marlowe & Company) deals with the challenges and rewards of insulin pump therapy, from a patient's perspective. She is currently working on Creating Your Jewish Wedding, a new resource book for Jewish Lights Publishing (March '04).

Discussion topics

• Jewish Playwrights in American Theater--Since the 1920s, Jewish playwrights have made profound contributions to the development of a uniquely American theater. From the work of playwrights like Clifford Odets, whose social consciousness came largely from his Jewish roots, to Arthur Miller, who has taken on themes ranging from Jewish identity to awareness of the Holocaust, the American theater has become a forum for these artists to engage Jewish and gentile audiences alike. Contemporary Jewish-American playwrights like Tony Kushner and Wendy Wasserstein expose voices that have not been heard in previous generations-those of gay male and Jewish women's identities. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, what issues will Jewish playwrights examine?
• Creative Jewish Weddings--Many couples today are bringing their creative talents, abilities and perspectives to the Jewish wedding tradition. Both the wedding ceremony itself and the ritual objects used within it can be transformed with meaning through the couple's exploration of their spiritual paths, both separately and together. This presentation showcases examples of how Jewish wedding objects and rituals, including chuppot, ketubbot, and more, are being infused with new meanings for contemporary couples.

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