In conversation: Jenni Lea-Jones

Jenni Lea-Jones talks to JR about her role in The Merchant in Venice at Venice Ghetto 500

Sian Trenberth Photography

In the next of our chats with members of the cast and creative team of the very first production of The Merchant of Venice to be staged in the Venice Ghetto itself, Judi Herman talks to Welsh actress Jenni Lea-Jones, who has relocated to Venice and is perhaps the most unusual of the five performers sharing the role of Shylock in the show they are calling The Merchant in Venice. Apologies for the quality of the line at the start of this conversation, which happily soon improves. www.themerchantinvenice.org

In conversation: Jeff Ingber

Table tennis champ Jeff Ingber talks about travelling the world playing the beautiful game

Jeff Ingber, table tennis champion for decades from the mid-20th century and one of Howard Jacobsons heroes, met up with JR’s arts editor Judi Herman at the exhibition Chess in Shorts that accompanies the production of the Mighty Walzer at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre. Ingber told Judi about playing the other beautiful game in Manchester and how it was his passport to travel the world, from Israel to China.

Chess in Shorts, an exhibition by Howard Jacobson and Manchester Jewish Museum, runs until Saturday 30 July, FREE, at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, M2 7DH. www.royalexchange.co.uk

The Mighty Walzer runs until Saturday 30 July, 7.30pm & 2.30pm, £8-£16, at Royal Exchange Theatre.

Read our review of The Mighty Walzer and our interview with the show’s playwright and actor, Simon Bent and Elliot Levey. [link to blog]

In conversation: Davina Moss

In light of Venice Ghetto 500, Davina Moss talks to JR about her role in the production they’re calling The Merchant in Venice

As the celebrations to mark the 500th anniversary of the Venice Ghetto continue, excitement mounts over the first ever performances of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in the Ghetto itself (26-31 July). In the next of a series of interviews with members of the cast and creative team, JR’s arts editor Judi Herman talks to Londoner Davina Moss, currently studying dramaturgy at university in New York, to find out more about her role as assistant dramaturg on this unique production.

Visit www.themerchantinvenice.org for more info.

In conversation: Michelle Uranowitz

In light of Venice Ghetto 500, actor Michelle Uranowitz talks to JR about playing Shylock’s daughter as part of the anniversary celebrations

As the celebrations to mark the 500th anniversary of the Venice Ghetto kick off, excitement mounts over the first ever performances of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in the Ghetto itself (26-31 July). JR’s arts editor Judi Herman will be talking to various members of the cast and creative team in the coming weeks, but first spoke to American actor Michelle Uranowitz about playing Shylock’s rebellious daughter Jessica in Venice.

Visit www.themerchantinvenice.org for more info.

Audio tour: Moses, Mods and Mr Fish

Moses, Mods and Mr Fish: A guided audio tour of the Jewish Museum's new exhibition

An audio tour of the London Jewish Museum’s new exhibition, Moses, Mods and Mr Fish: The Menswear Revolution, charting the emergence of the modern male wardrobe. Join Judi Herman on an exclusive journey guided by curator Elizabeth Selby from the tailoring workshops of the mid-19th century to the boutique revolution and mod culture of the Swinging ‘60s. The exhibition tells the story through the huge number of Jewish companies at the forefront of the major developments and changes in the design, manufacturing and retail of men’s clothing from the mid-19th to late-20th century. Among the highlights are the clothes themselves – including the brown suede jacket worn by John Lennon during the recording of The Beatles’ 1963 album, With the Beatles. Judi rounds off her visit by sharing a rather special early ad for Moses and Son Menswear.

Moses, Mods and Mr Fish: The Menswear Revolution runs until 19 June at Jewish Museum, 129-131 Albert St, NW1 7NB; 020 7284 7384. www.jewishmuseum.org.uk

In conversation: Dana Ivgy

Dana Ivgy chats to JR’s arts editor Judi Herman about her role in Next to Her

Israeli actress Dana Ivgy chats to JR's arts editor Judi Herman about her role in Asaf Korman's drama Next to Her. This powerful, challenging film – with a script by Korman's wife Liron Ben-Shlush – explores the symbiotic relationship between Chelli (played by Ben-Shlush) and her mentally-challenged sister Gabby (Ivgy), for whom she is the sole carer. One day she is forced to hand Gabby over to a daycare centre part-time, which is when a relationship of another kind develops with Zohar (Yaakov Zada Daniel) the new gym teacher at the school where she works. Ben-Shlush based this story on her own experience of having a mentally disabled sister and worked closely with friend and co-star Dana Ivgy on her role.

Next to Her can be watched on BFI Player for £4.50 or at the following screenings: Friday 25 – Wednesday 30 March, times vary, £7.50, at MAC Birmingham, B12 9QH; 0121 446 3232. www.macbirmingham.co.uk. Sunday 20 March, 8pm, £8.50, at Glasgow Film Theatre, G3 6RB; 0141 332 6535. www.glasgowfilm.org/theatre 

Read JR’s four-star review of Next to Her [link to blog]

In conversation: Diane Samuels

Diane Samuels talks to Judi Herman about her play Poppy + George and her new oratorio Song of Dina

©Richard Lakos

Liverpudlian playwright Diane Samuels talks to Judi Herman about identity and change from London’s East End 1919 to now. These themes feature in her play Poppy + George, about Northerner Poppy Wright, who is taken on at a tailoring workshop by the proprietor Smith, a Russian Jew with a Chinese past. It’s here that Poppy also meets Tommy the music hall artist and George the chauffeur, both changed by serving in the trenches. Diane also discusses her new project (at 21:49), Song of Dina, a multimedia oratorio with music by composer Maurice Chernick, based on the story of the Patriarch Jacob’s only daughter.

Poppy + George runs to Saturday 27 February, 7.30pm & 2.30pm, £12-£22.50, at Watford Palace Theatre, 20 Clarendon Rd, WD17 1JZ; 01923 225671. www.watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk

Song of Dina plays on Wednesday 6 April, 7.45pm, FREE, at JW3, 341-351 Finchley Rd, NW3 6ET; 020 7433 8989. www.jw3.org.uk

Read JR’s four-star review of Poppy + George [link to blog]

In conversation: Scott Frankel, Michael Korie and Doug Wright

Judi Herman speaks to the brains behind the musical retelling of the real-life riches to rags story, Grey Gardens

Courtesy of Scott Rylander

In the mid-1970s Albert and David Maysles – first-generation sons of Jewish immigrants to the US from Eastern Europe – made Grey Gardens, one of their most famous films. The documentary told the story of a mother and daughter from the highest echelons of US Society, Edith and Edie Bouvier Beale, who were the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The two Bouvier Beale women were discovered living as reclusive social outcasts in Grey Gardens, a dilapidated mansion overrun by cats that was so squalid the Health Department deemed it “unfit for human habitation”. Now another creative Jewish pair, composer Scott Frankel and lyricist Michael Korie, together with book writer Doug Wright, have brought their multi-award-winning musical based on the film to London. JR’s arts editor Judi Herman, who saw Thom Southerland’s European production starring Sheila Hancock and Jenna Russell, was enchanted by this riches to rags story, as you’ll hear in her interview with the three writers.

Grey Gardens runs until Saturday 6 February, 7.30pm & 3pm, £25, £20 concs, at Southwark Playhouse, 77-85 Newington Causeway, SE1 6BD; 020 7407 0234. www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk

Book by Doug Wright, Music by Scott Frankel, Lyrics by Michael Korie Based on the film Grey Gardens by David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Mayer and Susan Froemke, Grey Gardens tells the spectacular real life rise and fall of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's aunt and cousin, Edith and Edie Bouvier Beale.

Here, you can watch a clip of Jenna Russell singing Another Winter in a Summer Town from the musical.

Audio tour: Blood

Blood: A guided tour of the Jewish Museum’s cutting edge exhibition

JR’s arts editor Judi Herman joins Joanne Rosenthal, curator of the London Jewish Museum’s Blood exhibition, to take you on a guided audio tour. This cutting edge exhibition explores the provocative and complex subject of blood, featuring manuscripts, prints, Jewish ritual and ceremonial objects, art, film, literature and cultural ephemera to present a rich exploration of how blood can unite and divide, reflecting on over 2,000 years of history.

Blood testing and donation at the museum: Anyone interested in saving lives through blood donation is invited to attend a Know Your Group day at the Jewish Museum, to register and test likely blood groups, on Sunday 17 January ahead of donation in February – donors will be invited to give blood then. There is no need to register in advance for the Know Your Group days – simply turn up between 10am and 4pm.

Blood runs until 28 February at London Jewish Museum, 129-131 Albert St, NW1 7NB; 020 7284 7384. www.jewishmuseum.org.uk

In conversation: Larry Mollin

Larry Mollin talks to Judi Herman about his new play ‘The Screenwriter’s Daughter’

Larry Mollin talks to JR’s arts editor Judi Herman about his new play, The Screenwriter’s Daughter, charting the tempestuous relationship between Hollywood screenwriter Ben Hecht and his free-spirited daughter Jenny, who joins the radical New York Living Theatre in the 1960s against Hecht’s will. This rich and powerful Jewish writer was blacklisted in the UK in the 1940s and ’50s for his political activism, but he has also been recognised for his human rights efforts in creating public awareness of the Holocaust and furthering the cause of Jews around the world. His 120 screenplays include Gone with the Wind and Scarface, which won the first Oscar for Original Screenplay in 1927, and for Alfred Hitchcock he wrote a number of his best psycho-dramas, receiving his final Academy Award nomination for Notorious. His stage writing includes The Front Page, the sharp and witty comedy set in a newspaper office he co-wrote with Charles MacArthur (also filmed several times, including with Jack Lemmon and Walther Matthau).

The Screenwriter’s Daughter runs until Sunday 29 November. 7pm & 2pm, £15-£19.50, Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BX; 020 7734 2222. www.leicestersquaretheatre.com