Seniors Audtion for Hebrew Play

by Yonatan Pedram, SSLI ‘27

This past Monday, the seniors auditioned for roles in this year's Hebrew play. About a week ago, each senior submitted a form detailing the character for which they wanted to try out. Then, seniors prepared songs and lines from the show for the audition. 

Seniors waiting their turn to audition. (SSLI Senior Play 2025 Instagram)

The play, called Salach Shabbati, is a satirical play about a Sephardic immigrant, Salach Shabbati, and his family who move to Israel just after its creation in 1948. Senior Samson Mildron explained, "This year, our senior class is performing the Israeli classic Salach Shabbat, which details a Jewish family's immigration to Israel, showing conflicts between modernity and tradition and showing that family is ever prevailing." Mildron auditioned for "the role of Salach Shabbati, the father and title character of the play who often finds himself in humorous situations, always yielding hilarious results."

The audition was exciting but also nerve-racking, and senior and Paw Print Now Editor Carly Smith shared, "Singing in front of Mr. Baumvoll and Ms. Meir was a little bit scary." Smith continued, "After I walked in the audition room, though, I felt much less nervous. I learned a song from the show for auditions, so it was also interesting to sing a song in Hebrew.”

Natalie Gordon volunteered to be one of the directors of the show along with Sal Purdy. Gordon explained she chose to be director because she "wanted to do something important for our grade, and I felt this would be the best way to do it. I knew that I could use my past experiences being in musicals to help me lead and make decisions that would make our show the best it could possibly be."

Although the audition took most of the lunch period, they were individual, so it only lasted about five minutes for each student. Senior and Paw Print Now Editor Sasha Chernoff stated, "I’m looking forward to starting rehearsals, and I think that my grade is going to have a lot of fun with the show."

Gordon concluded, "I want the show to be the best it can be and have as few mistakes as possible. Most importantly, I want it to bring the grade closer and give us more time to bond during our last year together."

Yonatan Pedram is a writer for Paw Print Now and has been published on the site since October 2023. Yonatan is currently a sophomore at the Schechter School of Long Island and can be reached at the following email address: ypedram27@schechterli.org.