| Home | Biography | Reviews | About the Book | Appearances and Events | Feedback | Contacts | The West Coast Jewish Theatre |
|
West Coast Jewish Theatre Founder Resents All Bigotry
"Not Born Yesterday" Feb. 2, 2007 Naomi Karz Jacobs, founder of the West Coast Jewish Theatre in Los Angeles, has included quite a bit of philosophy in her autobiography, The Builder's Daughter. She tells how her granddaughter asked, "Why does God let bad things happen?" Naomi writes: "With all my life experiences I don't think I have the wisdom to answer her. I only know that to love is to understand life." She writes, "I have always resented any form of bigotry, whether against Jews or others. I thought I was dreaming when I arrived in Baltimore in 1946 and saw "Colored Only" signs in bathroom, department stores and hotels ... I had gone to school with blacks in Los Angeles in the '30s and '40s." Both her parents were immigrants from Russia, who left to escape the pogroms there. Her maternal grandmother had a hole in her head the size of a fist, caused by an attack against her and one of her daughters. Naomi's mother had found her sister dead and her mother bleeding profusely. One of Naomi's aunts on her father's side couldn't pass immigration requirements when the family entered the United States, and was sent back to Germany. She probably perished in the Holocaust. Naomi's parents loved theater and belonged to a club of entertainers who performed shows in a home. At age 13, Naomi first saw her mother perform in Yiddish, and the seeds of her own love of the theater were planted. She divored after 20 years of marriage to Harry Jacobs and earned a second degree at UCLA in 1972, to get a teaching credential and support herself. She also took a writing class and was told by the professor that her play could be produced just as it was. Naomi continued with writing classes but her playwriting was on hold for 12 years when she took over her father's real estate business. When she bowed out of the business she again wrote a play, "my first step toward founding a theater," she says. Naomi wrote comedy about funny things that happened in her family. "I take a bad situation and make it funny," she says. Her book contains these same elements, like the grandmother who used a garden hose to wash the floor, on the second floor. She refers to her love life after her divorce as a "tragicomedy." Naomi was bothered by a bad back for years, and when she visited a gentleman friend in Australia, she says that the guest room mattress "looked like it came from a thrift shop after being used for a trampoline." She and another writer produced the West Coast Jewish Theatre's first formal production in 1994. The Theatre does not have its own playhouse, but uses different venues. Well known actors have performed in its productions - Ed Asner, Hal Linden, Shelly Berman, Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Harold Gould. Her Theatre has presented only one of her works, Next Year in Jerusalem. Another of her plays, What a Racquet, was produced at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles. After two unsuccessful marriages - her first husband tried to alienate her children from her - teaching at an inner city school where a riot occurred and surviving a bout of cancer, Naomi gives this advice: "There's never an idyllic life ... There's another crisis another the corner, so sweetheart, get in the ring and keep fighting." Naomi now lives in Marina Del Rey and says, "It's time to smell the flowers," and treasure her family and grandchildren. |
The Builder's Daughterby Naomi Karz Jacobs Seven Locks Press 2006 With a light touch and discerning eye, Naomi Karz Jacobs has produced a highly original work that finally does justice to the subject of Jewish family life in America since the 1920s Read more about the book... |
The West Coast Jewish Theatre
The West Coast Jewish Theatre is a California non-profit corporation devoted to the quality production of dramatic and comedic plays, musical theatre, revues and special performances. |