by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

March 19, 2009

Performance artist Dan Safer is not the first to wonder how his family managed, year after year, to take a thrilling narrative and turn it into an interminable wait for dinner.

We’re talking, of course, about the Passover seder.

“I love my parents, but our seders were dull,” said Safer, 36, who grew up in Princeton, where his family attended The Jewish Center of Princeton. “I would completely glaze over and wait for the food. I didn’t connect with it. Maybe it was the form — I was not a slave in Egypt. It was under glass and covered [with] dust and had no resonance for me.”

Twenty years later, Safer is lifting that glass, with an experimental theater piece called Haggaddah.

With his company, Witness Relocation, and a grant from an “incubator” of new Jewish art, Safer is staging an exploded, re-envisioned Passover story that combines storytelling, rock concert conventions, dance, and dramatic scenes.

The piece will have its world premiere at La Mama E.T.C. Annex Theater in New York City March 20-29.

Safer calls it “an all-out dance/theater/spectacle full of sex, violence, blood, guts, avenging angels, oceans splitting in half, slavery, plagues, etc.” Although he will be on tour in France when Passover begins, he said, “This is my seder. I can’t wait to do it every night!”

He’s hoping the performance will attract not only disenfranchised Jews like himself, but people of all stripes, both Jewish and non-Jewish.

“This is an amazing story not just for Jews but for people in general,” he said.

But maybe not the littlest people. “The material is hard-core,” he warned. “They kill people; there’s plagues. It’s not little-kid friendly. I don’t want any angry parents.”

Growing up, Safer did not exactly embrace his heritage.

“I was forced to go to Hebrew school and I hated it. And there’s this exclusive quality a lot of the Jewish community has: You’re supposed to hang out with other Jews. That repelled me. I felt zero connection to people just because they’re Jewish.”

His response?

“I went in the other direction. I thought, I don’t want to be in this club; this had nothing to do with me.” In a recent phone interview, he even likened himself to the Haggada’s “wicked” child.

‘Stuff I can connect to’

Judaism has not been part of Safer’s life for 20 years, but working on Haggaddah has brought him around.

“I’m more connected than I was two years ago,” he said. “I’ve found a lot of stuff I can connect to.”

Like The Heebie Jeebies at CBGB’s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk, by Steven Lee Beeber, published in 2006.

“I’m definitely not joining a synagogue and looking for Friday night services. It hasn’t increased my belief in God,” said Safer. “But [Judaism] is a more positive part of my identity. I find access to people who felt like me.”

Safer is among the 12 artists who comprise the first cohort of recipients of The Six Points Fellowship, which began three years ago as a partnership of three organizations — Avodah Arts, JDub Records, and the Foundation for Jewish Culture — interested in cultivating art projects with a Jewish focus. Among the funders is UJA Federation of New York. Six Points received over 300 applicants. Winners were selected by a panel of professional artists.

In addition to the grant money given over two years, participants gathered once a month for professional support as well as Jewish study. Among the recipients is Galeet Dardashti, former cantor at Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Montclair.

Safer won a two-year, $45,000 grant from the fellowship.

“We felt Dan Safer’s project had very significant artistic merit, and we understood what he meant about the Haggada being such a rich piece of literature with a story that is very exciting, but we rarely get to see it in a way that is inspiring,” said program director Rebecca Guber.

Safer put together his experimental theater ensemble Witness Relocation in 2000, and he serves as its artistic director. He not only jumped into the Passover project head first, but also sent his ensemble in, even though only “about two and a half of us are Jewish.” Everyone attended at least one seder as part of the basic research.

His ultimate dream for Haggaddah is more than just a one-time pre-Passover run.

“I think it would be cool if it turned into the Jewish Christmas Carol, and, you know, people did it every year all over the place.”

He said he would “love to see [The Who’s] Roger Daltrey as Pharaoh,” but added, “That’ll never happen.”

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