by Malka Percal

Finding one’s voice as an artist is no easy task, particularly in the super-competitive New York “market.” So after a few years of auditioning for and acting in other people’s plays, Joan Fishman began writing her own solo performance pieces. Her meditative, 45-minute multimedia solo “Walking in His Footsteps” was seen recently at the New York Fringe Festival. It explores not only her grandfather’s life but also her own experience as a grandchild of Holocaust survivors. In a recent interview, Fishman discussed her motivation, the conflict between Orthodox and secular women, and Marc Chagall’s wife.

JEWESS: What made you pursue acting and theater?
FISHMAN: I liked becoming somebody different. Originally, the idea of becoming a character and transforming myself and being able to change myself in a way where I didn’t have to be a polite nice girl, which everyone saw me as in real life, was very fulfilling. It still is. This is why it’s kind of ironic that I’m doing [more autobiographical work].

What inspired you to start making your own pieces?
There are a lot of Jewish people in theater and in the art world, but very few talk about inspiration they find from their culture. It really struck me in my master’s program [at Villanova]. We had a book, the “bible” of theater, and there wasn’t one mention of Yiddish theater, which was so important to American and world theater. My teacher was Jewish and never talked about being Jewish and was even upset at me when I didn’t come to class on Yom Kippur. That was the first time I used the Holocaust as a writer and a performer. My grandmother had recorded her story, and I played some of the recordings and contrasted my modern life with my grandmother’s–my attitude toward food, a lot of different things. One of the main reasons I did this, a little bit, was to put it in the face of the teacher.

Soon after I finished my MFA at the Actor’s Studio, I took a theater class at Makor with Stephen Hazan Arnoff. We looked at biblical texts and sought inspiration from the themes to create work. “Flame” developed from that.

Much of your work examines the roles of Jewish women.
When I wrote “Flame” I was thinking about all these girls I knew who dyed their hair blond, who got nose jobs. Jews are in the interesting position of being a minority but not having to be perceived as a minority. I was thinking a lot about that, and then went back to when I was a child and my grandmother talked about Hannah Senesh. Like my grandmother, Senesh was Hungarian. She was born the same year my grandmother was born, and she became a Zionist. Just how do you transition from being this ordinary girl with ordinary problems, thinking about boys, to becoming a paratrooper. She was an ordinary girl in extraordinary times.

You’ve also examined intra-Jewish issues.
Another piece I wrote, ”Marked,” is about the conflict between Orthodox and secular women, about the assumptions that are made about each. Secular Jewish women look at Orthodox women as oppressed and naive and subservient to the men. And Orthodox women see themselves as having separate but equal roles as Jewish women. Ironically, I think secular Jewish women have more insecurity in their life. I was inspired because a good friend became more observant over the years. Why did she choose Orthodox Judaism? I felt that the aspect of community was really important to her, and she didn’t find it in any other Jewish community. You move somewhere, and the synagogue becomes a huge place for a social life, to meet people, for your children to meet other children. There’s a great strength. I performed “Marked” at Makor, where I was an artist in residence, and for a Purim festival downtown.

How has 3GNY, an organization for grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, influenced your work?
I feel very energized with these people. It’s nice to know there are other people in similar situations where they’re leading a secular life, they have this history, and you try to figure out how to make history a part of your life and what part does it have. You want to honor your grandparents and great grandparents, and how do you do that? There are people in 3GNY who are religious, people who are not religious, people who know Yiddish, and people who just come to the events.

What’s it like being a young artist in New York?
It’s great. There are a million things you can audition for. I love doing comedy and I love doing good work. But I just couldn’t pound the pavement, basically. Getting a crappy job and auditioning 5 days a week–it’s just not in me. Instead, I work as a Hebrew school teacher and a nursery school teacher at a conservative synagogue and tutor bar and bat mitzvah students.

What about future projects?
The piece I can see most clearly right now is about Bella Chagall, Marc Chagall’s wife. She wrote a memoir in Yiddish called “Burning Light,” about living in Vitebsk. You read it and you feel like you’re there. It’s prewar and everybody knows each other, even the beggars on the street. The text is so beautiful, I just want to take it and create a theatrical experience.

Posted on August 28th, 2007 Filed under: Uncategorized |