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We are Putting the Pieces Together when I welcome Master Storyteller, Evan Kent to the show. He is singing songs, telling stories and creating memories for us on this episode of Caren Glasser LIVE! His stories encourage others to listen to the stories from generations past and learn from the knowledge, experience, and wisdom of those who came before us.
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
hello everyone karen glasser here and
0:03
welcome to karen glasser live i welcome
0:05
guests from all across the globe
0:07
who entertain wow and excite us and
0:09
today is no exception so whether you're
0:11
here live
0:12
or on replay make sure to say hi in the
0:14
comments and i'll say i right back
0:17
today our guest is evan kent he is a
0:20
master storyteller performer
0:22
and cantor having served his
0:23
congregation for 25 years
0:26
he moved to israel in 2013 and is
0:28
currently on the faculty of hebrew union
0:31
college
0:31
in jerusalem where he teaches liturgy
0:33
and sacred music
0:35
evan is also a musical theater performer
0:37
having starred in many productions in
0:39
jerusalem his one-man show
0:41
shards putting the pieces together has
0:44
been presented in jerusalem prague and
0:46
throughout the united states
0:48
and so without further ado let's welcome
0:51
kevin kent hey evan hey karen good to
0:54
have you good to see you
0:55
thank you for having me on today i am so
0:57
excited this is actually a return visit
0:59
we were talking earlier you were on a
1:01
prior show that i did and i'm so excited
1:03
because today is really like a show
1:04
show you're going to be doing a little
1:06
bit of performing for us which i
1:08
am so excited about so um before we do
1:11
that though we're going to touch
1:12
i want to touch some topics before we
1:14
jump into it the first one that just
1:16
comes to mind is
1:17
what is a storyteller how would you
1:19
define a storyteller
1:21
well you know in the jewish tradition
1:22
there are lots of uh
1:24
lots of ways to tell stories uh the
1:26
jewish tradition
1:27
uh has basically four types of
1:29
storytelling one
1:31
is uh midrashim stories that sort of
1:33
fill in the blanks in the torah
1:35
then we also have stories from uh from
1:38
talmud
1:38
that sort of give us laws or direction
1:41
then there's also
1:42
storytelling that is sort of mystical or
1:45
magical sort of sort of um fantastical
1:48
stories
1:49
the kind of stories that i tell that i
1:51
specialize
1:52
are in life life stories sort of the
1:54
stories that come from our own lives
1:56
and i tell the stories that are really
1:58
part of my own life and the lives of
2:00
other people that i know very well and
2:03
that what a great explanation if you're
2:05
just tuning in
2:06
we are putting the pieces together with
2:08
evan kent
2:09
so let's talk about shards let's talk
2:11
about this show that you've been doing
2:13
how did it begin
2:15
so we made aliyah in my husband rabbi
2:18
don gore and i made aliyah moved from
2:19
los
2:20
angeles to jerusalem in 2013
2:25
and um about a year after we moved here
2:28
was the beginning of the gaza war in
2:30
july of 2014
2:33
and with missiles literally sort of
2:36
landing within the perimeter of
2:37
jerusalem
2:39
i sort of had to sort of try to
2:41
understand
2:43
um if this was why did i move to israel
2:46
and it's no secret that i was uh as an
2:49
american never having experienced
2:51
war like that um i went to see a
2:54
therapist to get some
2:55
some assistance and his first question
2:58
to me which really became sort of the
3:00
the impetus for the show was he said why
3:03
are you here not really
3:05
why are you here in my office that was
3:06
obvious but why
3:08
why are you here why did you make this 7
3:10
000 mile
3:11
journey that's not only a physical
3:13
journey but also a spiritual
3:15
and emotional journey why did you come
3:17
here good question and after
3:19
um doing some sort of deep diving into
3:21
myself and into my family history i
3:23
really discovered
3:24
that i come from a family of wanderers
3:26
and journeyers
3:27
and uh sojourners um all of my family
3:30
are immigrants
3:31
and what shards became it became stories
3:34
of my
3:34
immigration to israel and stories of my
3:37
grandparents immigration
3:38
from eastern and central europe to the
3:40
united states at the turn of the 20th
3:42
century
3:43
wow wow wow so as i mentioned before you
3:46
know you you do this one-man show and
3:48
you've been
3:48
all over the world doing this and in
3:50
fact when you were on the show last time
3:52
we
3:52
was before everything that was going on
3:55
right now
3:55
and you were talking about that you had
3:57
a full
3:58
on i mean schedule you're going to come
4:01
in 2020 you're going to be going all
4:02
over the place and clearly
4:04
that's not possible right now so that
4:06
magical word pivot
4:08
um has happened and you actually are
4:11
going virtual you are going online right
4:14
yeah i mean uh i actually
4:17
i i will say that um i'll give a shout
4:20
out to intersection for the arts in san
4:22
francisco through an amazing
4:24
support group a group of artists both
4:26
visual and performing artists we came
4:28
together on a weekly basis and tried to
4:29
sort of deal with our grief of not
4:31
performing or not being able to
4:33
uh enable our own art and um
4:36
what i decided was that i had to become
4:39
technologically advanced which is not
4:41
something that i was really adept at
4:43
and i we're now working with a
4:45
production company out of new york city
4:47
um that has produced many broadway shows
4:50
and we are taking shards
4:51
virtual beginning uh we'll have two
4:53
performances starting in october
4:56
how exciting is that and uh
5:00
look at that i think is that sia or saya
5:03
ty actually she's one of the the people
5:05
that has actually been in this uh
5:07
this group with me this arts group and
5:08
it's been really wonderful
5:10
she's a terrific visual artist a
5:12
muralist and has done great work herself
5:14
well welcome to the show
5:15
cyan i'm so glad you're here and i agree
5:17
yes i think we talked about this that
5:19
virtual is where it's at i mean whether
5:21
we like it or not this is this is what
5:23
we have
5:24
and we might as well make make the best
5:26
of it and
5:27
what you do does translate it really
5:29
does translate to the
5:31
to the screen um and so without
5:34
further ado i'm going to drop myself out
5:37
of here i'm going to put you on full
5:38
screen and let you
5:40
entertain us i kind of want to go let
5:42
you in
5:45
slightly different snow but that's a
5:46
great show
5:48
take it away all right thank you
5:52
so what i'd like to share with you is um
5:55
are some stories about
5:56
one of them is actually how i first
5:58
became a camper and then one of my
6:00
experiences while
6:01
i was in uh cantorial school so these
6:04
stories go back
6:04
a while in my own personal life but
6:07
before
6:08
i actually share with you those stories
6:10
i'd like to share with you a song that i
6:12
wrote specifically for shards
6:14
that really sets the tone of the entire
6:18
show
6:21
[Music]
6:28
let me tell you a story
6:32
let me sing you a song
6:36
join me on this incredible journey and i
6:39
promise it won't go
6:41
very long let me tell you
6:44
a story let me sing you a song
6:48
[Music]
6:50
and you'll all meet my great grandmother
6:53
and you're all
6:54
invited to join along a story of
6:58
home and of homeland a tale of
7:02
courage and love and it's all true
7:06
well that's how i remember it and i
7:08
really want to
7:10
share it with you
7:14
let me sing you a story
7:18
let me tell you a song so let's start at
7:22
the beginning
7:23
the top of the inning and i promise it
7:26
won't go
7:28
very long
7:31
very long
7:38
so as storytellers we tell stories
7:42
we sing songs and my personal journey
7:46
one of my personal journeys begins when
7:48
i was a music student in manhattan
7:50
school of music
7:51
in new york city and my goal was always
7:54
to appear on broadway well
7:57
i did appear on broadway well not
8:00
broadway broadway like times square
8:04
broadway like the schubert theater
8:05
broadway i
8:07
was a little bit uh further uptown what
8:10
we might call
8:12
off-broadway actually i was even further
8:16
uptown than that i was off off
8:19
broadway but actually i was really
8:23
almost at the tip of manhattan what we
8:25
would call off
8:26
off off broadway but i couldn't complain
8:30
i was performing i was singing i was
8:33
actually paying
8:34
my rent by singing and this space
8:37
was amazing state-of-the-art
8:41
state of the art lighting an amazing
8:43
sound system
8:45
beautiful velvet curtains amazing seats
8:48
about a
8:49
thousand people almost at every
8:51
performance and
8:53
let me share with you one of my favorite
8:55
songs from that time when i was
9:06
performing
9:21
oh i had made it to broadway 207th
9:25
and broadway the church of the good
9:27
shepherd paulus fathers but
9:29
i was actually making a living singing
9:32
mass for the catholic church it was
9:36
such a wonderful place to sing such a
9:38
wonderful place
9:39
to to be part of this community after
9:43
every mass people would come up to me
9:46
and say
9:46
you know this was the most beautiful
9:49
sunday of my
9:50
life your voice is like the angels i
9:52
remember marge
9:53
mooney she was one of the women who sang
9:55
in the volunteer choir with me
9:56
but she was also a teacher in the sunday
9:58
school an elderly irish woman she came
10:01
up to me and she said
10:02
you know when you sing it's like the
10:04
voice of
10:05
baby jesus and then john
10:09
john o'connell he was an irish guy that
10:11
actually was
10:12
also in the choir and he came up to me
10:15
after another sunday and said
10:17
when you sing it's like the voices
10:20
of the angels and i thought well that's
10:23
sort of nice but here i was a nice
10:26
jewish boy from long island singing for
10:28
the catholics
10:30
just a little a little weird you know
10:33
they say in new york city you can have
10:37
a good job a good relationship
10:40
and a good apartment but you can only
10:43
have two
10:44
of the three at any given time
10:47
i'll let you in on a secret in this
10:48
point in my life
10:51
i had neither a good job i had neither
10:54
a good relationship and i had a terribly
10:58
small apartment and
11:02
everything around me was sort of
11:05
collapsing
11:07
well it came time for easter easter week
11:10
the holiest
11:11
time on the entire catholic calendar
11:16
and i led the entire congregation day
11:18
after day
11:19
morning afternoon and evening in very
11:22
solemn masses
11:23
as we moved through the week to good
11:25
friday
11:27
and on good friday i stood on the altar
11:30
of the church
11:31
of the good shepherd paulist fathers
11:35
and i took my place in this darkened
11:38
big church and i was about to recite
11:42
the litany of saints that's a listing of
11:45
all the saints names
11:46
and as i took my place on the altar i
11:49
thought
11:50
if there is a god
11:53
maybe i can find
11:56
some answers here and i began to recite
12:02
mary mother of god pray for us
12:07
saint agatha pray
12:10
for us saint agnes
12:14
pray for us and as
12:17
i sang these sacred words for the
12:20
catholic church
12:22
i felt as if i was somewhat elevated
12:26
above the altar of that church and as i
12:29
sang
12:29
saint beatrice pray for us i heard
12:33
other words other music that i had not
12:36
thought about
12:38
in a very long time saint benedict pray
12:41
for
12:42
my israel
12:44
[Music]
12:46
adonai eloheinu saint gregory pray for
12:59
and by the time that mass was over
13:03
i knew that that would be the last time
13:08
that i would ever sing for the catholic
13:09
church
13:11
the following week i applied to hebrew
13:13
union college to their cantorial program
13:15
and i was accepted and i began my
13:18
journey
13:19
to serving 25 years at a synagogue in
13:22
southern california
13:24
now i'd like to tell you a story about
13:26
my student pulpit my student pulpit
13:29
was on the south shore of long island in
13:31
freeport new york
13:32
right on the almost right on the water
13:35
and one of the best
13:36
parts about this entire experience and i
13:38
was there for three years
13:41
was the music director the pianist
13:44
actually she was also an organist
13:46
because we had an organ
13:47
and a piano and she was like an
13:49
encyclopedia a walking encyclopedia
13:52
of jewish music and claire berman was
13:56
her name and she gave me music
13:58
that nobody had and she helped me
14:00
understand how that
14:02
we sing different music on friday night
14:04
and on saturday morning
14:05
and we sing different music for rosh
14:06
hashanah than we do for yom kippur
14:09
and she would transpose music into my
14:11
own key and help me out and coach me and
14:13
teach me
14:14
so one afternoon
14:19
in this music library at the college
14:22
there was a box of music that i saw and
14:24
i was rummaging through it
14:26
and i came across a manuscript of a
14:29
piece of music
14:30
that i realized was shalom alechem
14:33
a song that we sing that welcomes
14:37
shabbat
14:38
on friday i thought well this is
14:41
something i i could share with claire
14:43
she's probably never she's never seen
14:44
this piece and there was something in
14:46
yiddish i could identify that it was in
14:48
yiddish
14:49
at the top of the music i i i don't read
14:51
yiddish i don't understand yiddish
14:53
but i i took it to claire i actually
14:56
called her that friday i said can we
14:58
meet a few minutes
14:59
before the service so we could go over
15:01
the music so i
15:02
i came into the sanctuary claire was
15:05
already warming up at the keyboard she
15:07
played
15:07
so beautifully and i sat down next to
15:10
her
15:11
and i opened up my briefcase and i took
15:13
out the music
15:15
and put it on the music rack on the
15:17
piano
15:19
and she looked at it and she started to
15:22
cry
15:23
what's the matter claire isn't this
15:25
piece okay
15:27
isn't this a piece that we could sing
15:28
tonight
15:30
and she turned to me and said evan
15:34
let me read for you what it says at the
15:37
top of this page
15:39
in yiddish i'll translate
15:43
it said this piece
15:46
was sung by tessie werlinski
15:50
who said that her father a rabbi in
15:53
odessa russia
15:55
sang it for her every friday night
16:02
evan tessie werlinski
16:07
was my mother
16:10
and that rabbi of course
16:13
was my grandfather
16:17
and on that friday night the shabbat
16:21
angels
16:22
from odessa russia came and sang
16:26
with the shabbat angels at my student
16:30
congregation
16:31
on the south shore of long island
16:34
and this is what they said
16:52
[Music]
17:13
[Music]
17:30
foreign
17:44
me
17:50
[Music]
17:59
my show shards is filled with more true
18:02
stories
18:03
as i say in the opening song that the
18:06
stories are all true well at least
18:07
that's how i remember them and memory is
18:10
a very strange thing
18:12
things that i remember other members of
18:14
my family don't remember but that is the
18:16
joy
18:16
and that is the gift of memory and of
18:19
retrieval
18:20
the show will go virtual in october and
18:24
i hope
18:25
you will join us um stories of my
18:28
grandparents my great-grandparents i'll
18:30
give you a teaser i did not know that i
18:32
had a grandfather
18:34
until my first year of tantorial school
18:37
and when i was 24
18:38
and my grandfather actually died in the
18:41
last year of cantorial school
18:43
family estrangement um and
18:46
that's one of the major stories in my
18:48
show and what
18:49
the shards is is really shards are like
18:52
here in israel they're
18:53
pieces of pottery and what we try to do
18:56
in our own lives
18:57
is take those pieces and put them back
19:00
together
19:01
and they often don't go back together
19:03
the way that we want them to
19:05
but we have to somehow deal with that
19:08
and that's really
19:09
what the show is all about it's about
19:11
going somewhere experience
19:13
expecting something and experiencing
19:15
something different
19:17
you know evan as i was listening to you
19:19
down in the green room and
19:21
hearing you perform and your beautiful
19:23
beautiful magnificent voice this was the
19:25
first time i actually had
19:26
the pleasure of seeing you perform
19:29
and wow anyone who has the opportunity
19:32
to come hear you virtually live
19:36
needs who do this really needs to do
19:39
this
19:40
you you bring up a lot of emotion you
19:42
bring up a lot of it
19:43
this has first of all i want to bring a
19:45
comment up great story voice thank you
19:47
for sharing with us thanks buck i
19:49
appreciate that
19:50
um no matter what religion you hail from
19:54
no matter what demographic you hail from
19:57
the stories the stories are the stories
20:01
and we all
20:02
have those stories so i'm gonna put up
20:05
your website right now because
20:06
unfortunately i can't send them anywhere
20:08
right now to go
20:10
pick up a ticket a virtual ticket will
20:13
be out
20:13
very soon very soon it will be out very
20:16
soon and the way to
20:17
way to keep in touch with that really to
20:19
be on top is to go check out evan's
20:21
website at evankent.com and he's also
20:23
promised me that he's going to send me
20:25
the link so that i can add this to
20:27
everything that we do
20:28
thank you for that and also make sure
20:30
that you go follow evan
20:32
on instagram not just because he has a
20:33
magnificent voice but oh my gosh
20:35
he shares the most amazing images he's a
20:38
baker
20:41
i get hungry just watching you on
20:43
instagram the last time you did we're
20:44
talking about it
20:45
cinnamon rolls oh my god yeah they were
20:48
they were amazing
20:49
yeah so is there a correlation between
20:51
singing and baking
20:52
for you just curious that's a really
20:54
interesting question
20:56
um you know it's sort of
20:59
well there you know i'll think about
21:00
that baking is really the art and
21:03
science of baking because
21:05
you can have the same recipe but
21:08
it never comes out the same because um
21:11
humidity temperature your own
21:13
temperament and singing is the same you
21:15
train yourself
21:16
but every performance is different i
21:18
mean um and
21:20
it really is i mean it is the art and
21:22
science of singing as well
21:24
um but i also find that there's this
21:26
great therapy and i mean
21:27
you know it's like the song waitress
21:29
where she says sugar flower butter you
21:31
put them together and you make amazing
21:33
things
21:33
saya wants to know do you sing while you
21:35
bake
21:37
i actually don't inquiring i i actually
21:41
what i do is i do listen to music when i
21:42
bake
21:45
i love it well evan thank you so much
21:47
for blessing us with your voice your
21:49
stories
21:50
um i encourage everyone to go follow
21:52
evan and check them out as soon as
21:54
as soon as the tickets are available go
21:56
get yourself a ticket it's
21:57
it's great it's you maybe baking is
21:59
therapy so is listening to you
22:01
um i want to thank you all thanks so
22:03
much truly i i
22:05
i you know how much i i adore you i just
22:07
i just think that you just
22:08
walk on the moon and i'm just really
22:10
happy that you took some time now as
22:12
in case you hadn't noticed during really
22:14
realized evan's in israel it is a whole
22:16
lot later there right now
22:18
than it is i told him after the show
22:20
he's going to go to bed i think or maybe
22:21
not maybe your night out i don't know
22:23
um but for all of you i know that you
22:26
have a choice as to how to spend
22:27
where you're going to spend your time
22:28
and you chose to spend it with us today
22:30
whether it's you know on replay or live
22:32
we appreciate you so much
22:34
make sure you tune in and next time on
22:36
the next episode of karen glasser live
22:38
go out and give somebody an awesome day
22:40
and we'll see you next time goodbye
22:41
everyone thank you karen
#Performing Arts
#Broadway & Musical Theater