Sign up for Weekday J and get the latest on what's happening in the Jewish Bay Area.

"We're not going to know until it happens," says ATJT member Corey Fischer. "There will be surprises. There will be humor. I'm sure there will be an element of improvisation."

The seder, a fund-raiser for ATJT, will take place at Greens, a vegetarian restaurant at San Francisco's Fort Mason. The meal won't include gefilte fish or chicken soup, but it is sure to entail a colorful array of Passover interpretations.

Among those delivering the story of the Jews' exodus from slavery in Egypt will be the four ATJT members, juggler Sarah Felder, San Francisco actress and dancer Nina Wise and folksinger Ronnie Gilbert, an original member of the Weavers.

Gilbert, who is steeped in the tradition of Yiddish socialist songs, may be asked to bring some of that material to a discussion of matzah, the bread of affliction, as well as of hunger and poverty, Fischer says.

"A seder has always struck me as an inherently theatrical event," he says. "We're just really going with that full out."

But not all the storytellers at this first-time ATJT event are performers.

Norman Fischer, Jewish co-abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center, has been asked to discuss the traditional Four Questions, which ask what differentiates the seder night from all other nights.

Looking at the queries from a Zen perspective, Fischer says he will likely focus less on the questions themselves than on the larger value of existential questioning.

While there appear to be concrete answers to the Four Questions, says Fischer, who is no relation to the ATJT performer with the same surname, "the experience of the seder is really the answer to those questions. Whatever we experience and feel inside is the real answer."

At the seder, the Zen leader will also tackle the Haggadah segment that focuses on four sons: the wise son, the wicked son, the simple son and the one who does not know enough to inquire.

While many highlight the wise son as the hero of the quartet, Fischer expects his approach to resemble the Chassidic one, which focuses on the simple son as the admirable one of the bunch.

"Questions don't really have answers other than one's own life," Fischer says. The simple son "is willing to let go and not know and just be present with his life."

The various personalities asked to lead the ATJT seder may take center stage as the evening unfolds. But guests will also be encouraged to participate, Corey Fischer stresses.

"There will be a lot that we do together — a lot of singing, praying, blessing," he says. "Whenever possible, we're going to find ways to open it up to the group."