Actor-playwright Aaron Davidman is using Kickstarter to raise money for a filmed version of his one-man play “Wrestling Jerusalem,” which premiered in San Francisco last year.
The film “will be shot live in the theatre, in the dressing room, and on location in the desert,” according to his Kickstarter page. The live portion will be filmed at a full performance of “Wrestling Jerusalem” at 7 p.m. Oct. 3 at Marines Memorial Theatre in San Francisco.
In the play, Davidman plays a version of himself — an American Jew with a fraught relationship to Israel — as well as more than a dozen other characters, each a composite of Arabs and Jews he has met in the Holy Land over the course of some 20 trips. The play follows the central character’s journey to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Davidman was the artistic director of the S.F.-based Traveling Jewish Theatre during its last decade (it shut down in 2012). He has raised funds for the film primarily through grants from foundations and other sources.
As of Aug. 25, backers had pledged $12,112 of his $28,000 Kickstarter goal, which has a Sept. 11 deadline.
Prior to his S.F. performance, which will kick off a national tour of “Wrestling Jerusalem,” Davidman will perform his one-man show at 8 p.m. Sept. 20 at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto. — j. staff