Sound & Spirit: The Making of Esther

The Making of

Esther: The Feast of Masks

You can also experience it online! June 28th, 2003 a performance of Esther in Boston was videotaped, and you can watch it on the WGBH Forum Network.
Visit our Stations and Times page to find out more about where you can hear Sound & Spirit.

In 2001, Sound & Spirit received a grant from the Jewish Outreach Institute to create a performance piece based on a significant Jewish text or event. Ellen Kushner selected the story of Esther, which is read each spring during the holiday of Purim.
"It was a natural choice," says Ellen, "because putting on Purim plays that tell the story of Esther has been a Jewish tradition for centuries."

Singing "Woyaya" in WGBH's FM Studio One

Ellen and Mary in Concord, MA "While these days it's kids who put on cute little plays, in the Old Country it was an adult thing, complete with satire and all kinds of transgression. I decided to hook into the old tradition and see what I could do, by bringing the story into the modern day! I wanted to create a show for grownups that takes on some of the deeper issues of the Esther stories, like disguises and revelations."

During the summer of 2002, we presented several live performance workshops of Esther. We invited members of the greater Boston community into WGBH's FM Studio One, the Tremont Theatre in downtown Boston and First Parish Church in Concord, MA.

Ellen as "Nate", with Joe looking on

Co-Executive Producer Jon Solins talking with an audience member, with Ellen in the background Audiences were asked to provide feedback about Esther, and we took their responses and suggestions into account as we continued to develop the script, music, staging and presentation. We especially enjoyed the post-performance discussions; we talked with audience members formally in a large group, ate cookies, and broke off into many smaller discussion groups as well. These conversations were great opportunities to delve into the topics raised by the show.

In September 2002 we set to work in our production studios creating the radio version of Esther: The Feast of Masks. Producer Gary Mott says "there were many challenges presented by Esther: ensuring the various characters were convincing, recording everything from rainstick to piano to mbira, as well as a variety of vocal arrangements, and blending it all together to make a show. We hope that the radio audience enjoys it as much as we enjoyed creating it!"

Clockwise from upper left: producer Gary Mott, Ellen Kushner, Josef Kessler, Mary Casey, recording engineer Jim Donahue, Michael McLaughlin

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In 2001, Sound & Spirit received a grant from the Jewish Outreach Institute to create a performance piece based on a significant Jewish text or event. Ellen Kushner selected the story of Esther, which is read each spring during the holiday of Purim. "It was a natural choice," says Ellen, "because putting on Purim plays that tell the story of Esther has been a Jewish tradition for centuries."		Singing "Woyaya" in WGBH's FM Studio One
Ellen and Mary in Concord, MA	"While these days it's kids who put on cute little plays, in the Old Country it was an adult thing, complete with satire and all kinds of transgression. I decided to hook into the old tradition and see what I could do, by bringing the story into the modern day! I wanted to create a show for grownups that takes on some of the deeper issues of the Esther stories, like disguises and revelations."
During the summer of 2002, we presented several live performance workshops of Esther. We invited members of the greater Boston community into WGBH's FM Studio One, the Tremont Theatre in downtown Boston and First Parish Church in Concord, MA.		Ellen as "Nate", with Joe looking on
Co-Executive Producer Jon Solins talking with an audience member, with Ellen in the background		Audiences were asked to provide feedback about Esther, and we took their responses and suggestions into account as we continued to develop the script, music, staging and presentation. We especially enjoyed the post-performance discussions; we talked with audience members formally in a large group, ate cookies, and broke off into many smaller discussion groups as well. These conversations were great opportunities to delve into the topics raised by the show.
In September 2002 we set to work in our production studios creating the radio version of Esther: The Feast of Masks. Producer Gary Mott says "there were many challenges presented by Esther: ensuring the various characters were convincing, recording everything from rainstick to piano to mbira, as well as a variety of vocal arrangements, and blending it all together to make a show. We hope that the radio audience enjoys it as much as we enjoyed creating it!"	Clockwise from upper left: producer Gary Mott, Ellen Kushner, Josef Kessler, Mary Casey, recording engineer Jim Donahue, Michael McLaughlin