Fire

The overarching goal of my I.S. is to make people question how deeply the religious ideas we are taught as children impact us later in life. Rather than simply a play about religion, my play attempts to examine people\u27s lives and how the decisions they make are influenced by religion, whether they are aware of it or not. Specifically, I explore the relationship between Judaism and West Los Angeles. I have looked at how this community makes up a large part of the place where I was born and raised, even though very few people in West Los Angeles would consider themselves practicing Jews. This exploration lead me to larger questions, including how the ideas within the Jewish community I was raised have impacted the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and the place of homosexuality within contemporary Judaism. To create my play, I wrote about real-life situations and experiences I\u27ve had in Los Angeles and looked to then draw out the significance of religion afterwards. Hopefully my work will complicate the issues of contemporary Judaism and allow people to question things that they might not otherwise