Stage and screen star Jackie Hoffman – known for her Emmy-nominated role of ‘Mamacita’ from FX’s Feud: Bette and Joan, her critically acclaimed Off-Broadway appearance in the Yiddish production of Fiddler on the Roof at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, and her MAC Award for Best Female Stand Up – is soon to be seen in a recurring role in the upcoming fourth season of Amazon’s award-winning series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. In July, you can also catch her live at the cell, in the world premiere of E. Dale Smith’s Fruma-Sarah (Waiting in the Wings).
Presented by Imagination Hive, this new “love letter to theater” explores the themes of isolation and what happens when you feel stuck and invisible to the people around you, as aging community-theater star Ariana Russo sits backstage awaiting her entrance in the eponymous spectral role of the late wife of Lazer Wolf in Fiddler on the Roof. While preparing herself for the hour-long wait – staged in real time, while the production of Fiddler is being performed onstage – she meets the night’s feisty substitute fly captain Margo. Tethered to the overhead fly system and weighed down physically by the yards of cheesecloth in her ghostly costume – and emotionally by her current situation – Ariana begins to expose the cracks in her bombastic façade, until she comes alive again while playing the ghost.
Directed by Braden M. Burns (whose most recent collaboration with Smith, Divine/Intervention, won the top award of Outstanding Production of the Play at the 2015 New York International Fringe Festival), the show also features writer, actor, and comedian Kelly Kinsella. The design team includes Divine/Intervention alum Bobby Goodrich (costumes), Dan Alaimo (lighting), Rodrigo Escalante (set), and Germán Martínez (sound), in a show that is in perfect alignment with the cell’s mission of incubating and presenting new works that” mine the mind, pierce the heart, and awaken the soul.”
Fruma-Sarah (Waiting in the Wings) plays July 1-25, at the cell, 338 W. 23rd Street, NYC. For tickets, go online. Please note that all seating is general admission, with a limited number of least expensive tickets available on a first come, first served basis, or you can pay a bit more and support the artists and organizations involved, who have been drastically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. All actors and production staff are fully vaccinated; audience members are required to wear masks while attending performances and must show proof of vaccination upon entry, as required by Actor’s Equity.
