Shtik!

a queer play on Jewish vaudeville

written and performed by Sara Felder
directed by David Dower
developed with Jayne Wenger
lighting design by Leigh Henderson
set design by James Mulligan
sound advice by J. Raoul Brody
costumes by Jeff Simpson

In this provocative new comedy, Sara Felder, San Francisco’s best-loved Jewish lesbian juggler turns an insightful eye and sharp wit to the great questions of our time – identity, sexuality and rubber chickens.

Shtik! is a colorful and hilarious mosaic of comic clowning and searing satire that features an immigrant vaudevillian with a penchant for cross-dressing and a queer performance artist searching for a glimpse of her past. Each of their stories and their struggles are seen through their comic performance routines, or rather, their shtik.

Our story begins with a young Jewish woman sailing from Warsaw who dons a pair of trousers and ponders the wonders of Amerike. Then we travel to the present to meet a queer performance artist, shamelessly in love with Yiddishkeit, who stretches back across the century for a kiss. In addition, Shtik! introduces: a clown with a secret recipe, a juggler with attitude playing on the classics, a nearly century-old Yiddish play with a twist that could make a hipster plotz, a fiery Statue of Liberty, a vaudevillian’s take on three card monte, a yiddish Jabberwock, and granddaughters of Bundists swaying with the Holy Torah at the Western Wall.

Star of the recent comedy hit, June Bride, Sara Felder will take you bit by bit, shtik by shtik, from radical contemporary performance to gender-bending vaudeville theater. This is shtik: a piece, a bit, a comic routine. This is shtick: a prank, a bit of mischeif, a devious trick. This is Shtik!: a new piece of theater by Sara Felder.

Running time: 1 hour 20 min. No intermission.

Shtik! Photos:

Shtik! Video: coming soon

Shtik! Press:(right click to download PDF files)

Shtik! Tour History:

Shtik! Tech: Fire is used in the show. Notes available upon request. Recommended for adults and children over 12 years old.

This play was originally developed at A Traveling Jewish Theatre in San Francisco, May 1999. Shtick! is supported in part by grants from the Cultural Equity Grant Program of the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Zellerbach Family Fund, and the TCG Metropolitan Life Foundation Extended Collaboration Grant Program