Special Alumni Performance and Talkback: "Observant" by Pamela Weiler Grayson '86

Post Show Discussion With Award Winning Playwright Pamela Weiler Grayson '86

Join us for this new play by award winning Playwright Pamela Weiler Grayson '86 as it headlines the Spark Theatre Festival NYC, with a Brown Alumni discount price! This will be a special performance for a Brown Alumni audience, followed by a talkback with the playwright and cast.

In her latest work, award-winning playwright Pamela Weiler Grayson '86 depicts three generations of women who confront their relationships to their Jewish identities—and to each other. Comedy and tragedy entwine, like a braided challah, when a mass shooting in their community tests the bonds of faith and family in Grayson’s timely new play OBSERVANT. The limited engagement runs September 12 - 28 at The Chain Theatre.

Award-winning playwright Grayson’s plays and musicals have been produced in New York and nationwide. Her musical Urban Momfare (composer/lyricist/co-book writer) won a Best Musical award at FringeNYC, and was a Critics Pick in Time Out NY. The New York Premiere of OBSERVANT is directed by Shellen Lubin who has worked extensively in New York and recently directed When Zaydeh Danced On Eldridge Street at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. After attending a reading, Tony Award-winning producer Corey Brunish called the play “masterful”.

OBSERVANT is a proud recipient of a 2024 grant from the New York State Council on the Arts and was also a Semi-Finalist in the Jewish Plays Project’s 12th National Jewish Playwriting Competition.

Emerging Artists Theatre’s Artistic Director Paul Adams shared his thoughts on the production, “When I saw the reading of Pam's play OBSERVANT, I thought it was the best play she has written since I have known her. You see the world of a family, where religion has a different meaning to each member, and through an incident that rocks the family, everyone's faith is challenged. It’s a timely and unique play, and I’m looking forward to presenting it to a wider audience”.

One of the themes that runs throughout the play is how to come to terms with and try to improve a violent and chaotic world, when we can’t even seem to get along with our own families or communities, or reconcile our own internal conflicts. The Jewish custom of “Tikkun Olam,” which translates into “repair the world” or “mend the world,” reflects this deeply-held desire to make the world a better place, even while we struggle with hatred and extreme tribalism. A very timely theme in our current global and national climate.

Pamela Weiler Grayson '86 (Playwright) has had her award-winning plays and musicals seen on stages throughout the country, including Primary Stages, The Group Rep/Lonny Chapman Theatre, Cincinnati Lab Theatre, and Emerging Artists Theatre. Urban Momfare (composer/lyricist/co-book writer) won a Best Musical award at the New York International Fringe Festival, garnered four stars and a Critics Pick from Time Out. The Sustain, co-written with Alice Jankell and composer Aaron Drescher, and developed in Theatre Now New York’s International Musical Writers Lab, was a semifinalist at the 2021 Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Music Theater Conference. Observant is the recipient of a 2024 grant from the New York State Council on the Arts and a semifinalist in the Jewish Plays Project’s 12th National Jewish Playwriting Contest. Dramatists Guild member. Education: Brown University, Fordham Law School, New York Theatre Workshop, and The BMI Musical Theatre Workshop. pamelaweilergrayson.com