Creative Connections

Dates
The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk – Sunday October 18, 2026 at 1:15 PM
A Preshow Conversation with Dr. Judith Baskin, Facilitated by Hester Kamin

Tropical Secrets – Sunday December 13, 2026 at 1:15 PM

Avaaz – Sunday February 7, 2027 at 1:15 PM

American Girls – Sunday March 28, 2027 at 1:15 PM

Becoming Eve – Sunday June 13, 2027 at 1:15 PM

Hester Kamin’s pre-show conversations are a Theater J favorite! Join us to discuss the themes of our plays and how they relate to our own experiences and the issues of our times. Pre-show conversations are a great way to meet other theater fans and thinkers and to be ready to engage with the play more deeply.

Hester Kamin is the Education Programs Manager at Theater J. She’s a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Ecole Jacques Lecoq, and the Fred Rogers Institute and has served as Director of Education of six theaters around the US and as Co-Artistic Director of touring Drama Ties Theatre in Paris. Hester has also directed and choreographed more than 200 shows with professional actors and students around the world and been honored with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists National Award, the Academy of Paris Award for Contribution to Arts and Culture, and, most recently, an Art Works Award from the National Endowment for the Arts for her play about Holocaust survivor Sabine Van Dam, In Flight. Hester is a member of Actors Equity Association, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and the Dramatists Guild of America.

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Join Hayley Finn for a conversation with Gwynne Flanagan, the aerial choreographer for The Flying Lovers, to talk about how evocative, physical movement can transform storytelling on stage.

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Join us for a preshow conversation with Jewish Religion and Literature scholar, Dr. Judith Baskin facilitated by Hester Kamin. The two will discuss the life and artistic contributions of Bella Chagall. An artist in her own right, Bella’s work is often overshadowed by that of her husband. Where do we see Bella’s creative contributions in Jewish history and culture?

Hester’s pre-show conversations are a Theater J favorite! Join us to discuss the themes of our plays and how they relate to our own experiences and the issues of our times. Pre-show conversations are a great way to meet other theater fans and thinkers and to be ready to engage with the play more deeply.

Dr. Judith Baskin, Phillip H. Knight Professor of Humanities Emerita, retired from the University of Oregon in 2017. Professor Baskin earned her Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Yale University. She is the author or editor of 9 books including Women of the Word: Jewish Women and Jewish Writing, and the introduction in later editions of Bella Chagall’s, Burning Lights. Her co-edited volume, The Cambridge Survey of Jewish History, Religion, and Culture, received a National Jewish Book Award in 2012. Dr. Baskin was awarded the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles.

Hester Kamin is the Education Programs Manager at Theater J. She’s a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Ecole Jacques Lecoq, and the Fred Rogers Institute and has served as Director of Education of six theaters around the US and as Co-Artistic Director of touring Drama Ties Theatre in Paris. Hester has also directed and choreographed more than 200 shows with professional actors and students around the world and been honored with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists National Award, the Academy of Paris Award for Contribution to Arts and Culture, and, most recently, an Art Works Award from the National Endowment for the Arts for her play about Holocaust survivor Sabine Van Dam, In Flight. Hester is a member of Actors Equity Association, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and the Dramatists Guild of America.

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Join members of the cast for a discussion about what it was like to work on the show.

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Join local director and expert yoga instructor, Elena Velasco for a 30-minute stretch inspired by Marc Chagall’s paintings. We’ll have a few mats on-site. Participants are encouraged to BYOM( Bring Your Own Mat)!

Elena Velasco (she/ella) is a theatre artist whose work encompasses performance, production, education and activism. During her 25 year career she has devoted her time equally between performance and residency work, predominantly in the Washington, DC area. An associate member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, her directing and choreography credits include Convergence Theatre, Synetic Theater, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Adventure Theatre, Keegan Theatre, Imagination Stage, Mead Theatre Lab, Young Playwrights’ Theater, Capital Fringe, Source Theatre, Discovery Theater, and the Kennedy Center’s New Visions New Voices Festival. She has choreographed for Avant Bard, Theatre J, Mosaic Theatre Company, and Keegan Theatre. Ms. Velasco is a member of SAG/AFTRA, and has performed at the Kennedy Center, Theatre Alliance, NextStop Theatre, Discovery Theatre, Imagination Stage, and in several films, commercials, and TV shows. A dedicated educator, she teaches and creates theatre through the lens of community engagement in K-12 schools, continuing education. and bilingual creative youth development programs. Ms. Velasco’s artistry is always driven by her commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and access, exemplified by her work as Artistic Director and Co-founder of Convergence Theatre, a small, nomadic performance collective centered on social justice and grounded in decolonized, consensus-organized processes and structures. She has placed her background in EDIA in service to many organizations, including the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, Southeastern Theatre Conference, the Women’s Theatre Festival, and TheatreWashington. She currently serves as a board member for Educational Theatre Company, a committee member for AATE’s Leaders of Color Institute and new chair of their Professional Theatre Network, and has been a featured speaker for Boston Conservatory at Berklee, George Mason University, Hollins University, Montgomery College, and TheatreWashington. Ms. Velasco is the theatre production coordinator and a tenured assistant professor at Bowie State University. MFA in Directing, Catholic University.

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Marc Chagall’s paintings and artistic life have inspired generations. What is the cultural and historic legacy of Chagall. Join artist and scholar, Dr. Rachel Pollack to discuss Marc Chagall’s impact across time.

Rachel Pollack is a visiting professor in the University Writing Program and has taught courses for the Corcoran School of Arts and Design and The University Honors Program. She has a PhD in Art History from The University of Maryland where she specialized in Northern Baroque art with a subspecialty in Greco-Roman sculpture. Her research and courses include a variety of topics across the disciplines of art history, archaeology, classics and material culture. She is an honorary member of GW’s Delta Iota Gamma, a fraternal organization for students studying in the field of anthropology and classics. Most recently, she curated two micro exhibitions at The Textile Museum: Embroidering The Crown (May 2023) and Garden of Love (February 2024). This research is featured in the Folger Shakespeare Library blog Shakespeare and Beyond, and further publications are forthcoming for The Textile Museum Journal.

Prof. Pollack is also a watercolor artist. Beginning in 2018, she participated in the art residency program at the Arte Studio Ginestrelle in Assisi and annually exhibits her work in Italy at Art Gallery Le Logge. As both an artist and an art historian, she encourages her students to reach across disciplinary boundaries and interpret art from their own perspective.

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What historical events and social movements shaped the lives of Bella and Marc Chagall? What did it mean for Marc to be appointed Commissioner of Fine Arts in Russia in 1918? How did his artistic fragments and colorful images reframe our understanding of Eastern European Jewish life? Join Dr. Lauren Strauss for a conversation about the play’s historic and cultural contexts.

Lauren B. Strauss is a professor of modern Jewish history, specializing in American Jewish cultural and political history. She has taught for twenty years at universities in the Washington, D.C. area. She holds a Ph.D. in Modern Jewish Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, a Master’s degree in International Relations from Yale University, and a B.A. from Brandeis University. Dr. Strauss teaches courses on American Jewish politics, popular culture, and women’s history, and on Yiddish culture, post-Emancipation Jewish history, and modern Jewish travel. She is a frequent community lecturer and has taught many adult education classes in the D.C. area.

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