A Letter From the Writer of "Faygele, A New Play"

Letter from the playwright:

Faygele is my baby. It is deeply personal, born from the ache of isolation and the longing for truth. I began writing it in 2021, in the thick of the pandemic, when the world felt like it was crumbling. But in many ways, that unraveling mirrored my own, a decade earlier.

At that time, I was a closeted gay Orthodox Jewish man, married, with four children. My life felt fractured beyond repair. People sometimes tell me I was brave for coming out, for walking away from the only life I’d ever known. But I don’t see it as courage. I see it as survival. The universe pushed me to a place where silence was no longer an option. To stay hidden would have been fatal. I chose to live.

Faygele is inspired by the true story of a teenager from a background much like mine. He didn’t make it. Trapped and unseen, he ended his life. His story haunted me. It compelled me. And through Ari, our beautiful, struggling protagonist, I try to give voice to what he might have said if he had been heard.

The characters surrounding Ari are drawn from a tapestry of lived experience, people I’ve known, interviewed, and sometimes just listened to with an open heart. I spoke with rabbis, parents, friends; people intimately connected to boys like Ari. People trying, failing, and sometimes succeeding at holding faith, family, and identity in the same trembling hand

Though Faygele is rooted in a specific world, I believe its heartbeat will resonate far beyond it. This play is for anyone who’s ever felt like an outsider. For anyone who’s ever loved someone trying to find their way back to themselves.

More than anything, I hope that every Ari out there knows they are not alone. That there are people, maybe not always right beside them, but out there, who see them, who love them and who are waiting to embrace them. Sometimes we just have to look a little harder to find that love.

To those seeing Faygele, thank you. I hope you leave with more compassion, more curiosity, and a deeper commitment to listening to stories different from your own. We often fear what we don’t understand. But behind every quiet pain, every proud smile, there is a story. May this play open the door to hearing them.

With love and gratitude,

Shimmy