Plays

A RADICAL FRIENDSHIP

This two-character play dramatizes the passionate relationship between Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. When King died, Heschel was asked to speak at his funeral; when Heschel died, King’s widow spoke at his. King, twenty-two years younger than Heschel, famously called him "My rabbi," and "Father Abraham."

The play follows the story of their friendship, inspired by and including the history they both made happen, the conferences and marches, the political triumphs as well as the personal tragedies. We see them meet, encourage each other, dare to tell each other when they feel the other is wrong, fight, forgive each other, and come together closer than before. In many ways, a love story.

On January 21, 2016, the play was performed, during Dr. King's Birthday Week, at Riverside Church in Manhattan, where Dr. King gave his famous speech against the war in Vietnam.  And in the play, the two men even discuss his ultimately dangerous decision to give it.  Ed Asner starred as Rabbi Heschel. Here's a link to the article Jane was asked to write to The Huffington Post about the two men and the performance.

HUFFINGTON POST ARTICLE

On January 20th, 2012, a staged reading of the play was performed at American Jewish University in Los Angeles, with Ed Asner reading Rabbi Heschel and Jason George reading Dr. King. On April 30th, 2011, the play was given its first public reading at The Skylight Theatre, also in Los Angeles, as part of the Katselas Theatre’s INKubator series for new plays.

"The play captures the spirit of Rabbi Heschel, with whom I studied, as well as the remarkable and inspiring relationship between him and Dr. King, a friendship which only edifies our lives today and should be understood and celebrated by many, many people…" - Rabbi Stanley Levy, LA


REMINISCENCES OF MOZART BY HIS SISTER


Commissioned by the Kennedy Center, Washington D.C. Jane performed it there, at Lincoln Center, and at Mozart festivals all over the United States.

This elegant and searing portrait of Mozart's sister, a brilliant musician in her own right, as well as a passionate and complicated woman, was directed by film maker Robert Gardinier.

Martin Verdrager, of the Kennedy Center, found the play "powerful and affecting."

Fred Noonan, of Lincoln Center, called it "historically accurate and perfectly performed."


JANE AVRIL


This three-character play tells the story of Jane Avril, the famous Parisian dancer of the 1890’s, made famous by the many posters and paintings of her by Toulouse-Lautrec.

We watch Jane dance for Lautrec while he paints her, a man whose legs had stopped growing when he was thirteen. He lends her his eyes as she lends him her legs. But though they are clearly in love, he won’t admit it or sleep with her, and she eventually falls in love with the Baron Jean-Pierre Duferrin, who asks her to marry him -- and to give up her dancing.

The play ran Off-Broadway for seven months in 1982 at New York's famous Provincetown Playhouse, with Jane as Jane Avril and Kevin O'Connor as Toulouse-Lautrec. It was filmed for The Lincoln Center Library, after which it was translated into Danish and produced in Copenhagen.


DEAR NOBODY

This funny, moving and romantic play about Fanny Burney, the 18th Century English best selling novelist and thirty-five of her friends, who included Samuel Johnson, Mme. DeStael, and King George III, ran for a year Off-Broadway in New York and toured to London and all over the United States.

"Dear Nobody really is a play. Fanny Burney happens to be one of the most interesting people in the whole of 18th Century England. Jane Marla Robbins plays her capitally."
--Clive Barnes, The New York Times

"Robbins' talent for mimicry and her warmth as a performer are astonishing."
--Bill Edwards, Variety

"Bright, funny, warm, kind, this, you feel, is very much the Fanny who captivated London."
--Dan Sullivan, The New York Times

"A true tour de force performance."
--Finona Macarthy, The London Times

"A dazzling display of versatility, surpassing charm and subtlety."
--Will Tusher, The Hollywood Reporter

"Jane Marla Robbins is witty and wonderful."
--Edith Oliver, The New Yorker


MIRIAM'S DANCE

MIRIAM’S DANCE is a one-woman play about Moses's sister, a priestess in her own right, alone on a mountain top, exiled from her people, initially paralyzed with leprosy, talking to God. First angry at God and Moses, through a fearless and searching inventory of herself, full of profound revelations about jealousy, tolerance, love and forgiveness, she comes not only to love God, Moses and herself, but also ends healed and dancing, celebrating life. An uplifting story of the human spirit, its resilience, courage, wisdom and genius. In 1998, MIRIAM’S DANCE was produced in New York at the Kaufman Theatre, directed by Robert Kalfin, and at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, directed by Dana Parness.

“Miriam is one of the most remarkable and least known women of the Bible. With Moses and Aaron she led three million people out of slavery to reach the Promised Land. Jane Marla Robbins' Miriam is a woman linked to God and humankind. Her story is a dramatic odyssey of insight, power, humor, inspiration and fulfillment.”
--Rabbi Stan Levy, Los Angeles

“Jane Marla Robbins is a wonderful writer and brilliant actress. Miriam's Dance speaks powerfully to many issues that we face today…Well researched, original, full of poetry…powerful, funny.”
--The Reverend Van Merle Smith, New York

“Well researched, original, full of poetry…powerful, funny.”
--Rabbi Lorraine Marx, Pennsylvania


BATS IN THE BELFRY

This one-act play was directed by Roscoe Lee Browne at the Spoleto Festival in Italy. The characters: three Bat Ladies, variously speaking in verse and leaping about.

CORNUCOPIA

This one-act play won the University of St. Thomas One-Act Play Competition. It was produced at the university, in Houston, Texas. The characters: an Eggplant and a Cabbage.


"Jane Marla Robbins is witty and wonderful."

Edith Oliver, The New Yorker