RVC synagogue storahtells for Yom Kippur

Jonah stared down at his dead inflatable palm tree. He is angry with God for commanding him to prophesize the destruction of the Ninevites only for God to forgive them after a viral tweet from Jonah inspired them to repent.

“I just want to die,” he groans after God kills his inflatable palm tree/vine. Between his reluctance to tell the Ninehvites of their impending doom, God killing his vine, and his journey inside a giant inflatable fish, Jonah feels a bit used.

The combined congregation of Central Synagogue and Beth Emeth is doing something different for this year’s Yom Kippur service. Using a technique called “Storahtelling,” they are running a stage play interpretation of the Book of Jonah and having some fun with it.

Through many long discussions and five drafts of script, Rabbis Marc Gruber, Elliot Skiddell and members of their congregation thought long and hard about what parts of Jonah they wanted to include and how they wanted to interpret them.

“Jonah is a bit bare bones so it’s open to a lot of interpretation,” said Gruber, who is directing the play.

“He’s Martin Scorcesewitz,” joked congregation member and King of the Ninehvites, Lois Mills.

The script was written by congregation members Laura Antoniou and Jane Brody and includes references to Pokemon gyms, pizza and locally sourced gluten free food. At one point God, played by congregation member Charlie Roemer, exclaims, “OMG!”

The idea for the play came from a weeklong training session Gruber attended in 2004, but he hadn’t produced one since 2007.

“We thought it was time to bring it back,” he said.

After a recent consolidation of the two Rockville Centre congregations, the rabbis and community members thought it was a good time to do some Storahtelling!

In addition to Mills and Roemer, the cast includes Lillian Attell as the narrator, as well as Antoniou and Brody, who play Jonah and special guest star Cain respectively. Cy Mills and Rabbi Skiddell play Ninehvites, and they are accompanied by stagehands Mitzi Hixon and Robin Stegman.