I join in with my Purim Praises.  Our chavurah performed Stephanie's "Oy-klahoma:  We were all as "high as an elephant's eye" at the end.  Clever lyrics...funny dialogue.  Thanks Stephanie.

Iris Jacobs

 

I (join in with Purim praises). We used Stephanie's "Motown Purim" last year and are using "Oyklahoma" this year. Everyone is enjoying singing it. We got costumes from a local costume shop, so we look pretty good, too.

Cantor Pamela Sawyer

Dear Stephanie,
 
Thanks so much for everything. "Megillah Around the Clock" was a huge success! Our Purim festival was the most successful holiday (except for the High Holy Days and Pesach) that we've ever had at our small shul. Nearly every family in our shul attended. The main reason everyone came was they wanted to see how in the world we were going to pull off the musical shpiel. Well, with the help of your well written
script and easy to follow lyrics we did it! We only had one rehearsal but still managed to pull it off.  Your musical shpiel made our holiday a success. Todah Raba! 

Tzipporah Smith, Purim Chair -2009

We did the Beatles spiel.  The audience and the cast really enjoyed every minute of it.

Susan Cohen DeStefano

Jumping into the fray, we did the Beatles last night; I haven't laughed this hard for a very long time.  There is something about a "groovy" powerpoint presentation of a song for the congregation AND the teens in the audience waving their cel phones as if they were candles when the sung "Imagine" was sung.

 

I already have people clamoring for more for next year!!!

 

Thanks Stephanie.

Jan Morrison

We did Wizard of PersOz last night, it was great.

Ilana Axel
Cantorial Soloist

This year's MOTOWN MEGILLAH was a great hit at Congregation Beth Am.  We had a fuller-than-full house and all the members of the audience really loved it.  I'd say they were dancing in the aisles -- but there was almost no room for people to do so.  The cast did, though -- both to PURIM TIME HAMANTASH and to a parody of my own to DANCING IN THE STREET - when Haman's leading Mordecai around Shushan on the king's horse.  It's a wonderful spiel -- and we had lots of fun doing it.

Susan Cohen DeStefano

Just wanted to tell you that we never managed to run the purim shpiel
'night at the opera' last year through a number of circumstances, so we
ran it this year.  It was a huge success, played to a sold out audience,
and we cleared costs (including a lunch) at $8.00 a head.  I suspect we
will be in touch for another play in the near future.  Regards,

Jim Stevens

Chair, Or Shalom Theatre Troupe

We had a great Purim! (Beatles) Its the first time we did a shpiel (we did it for
faculty). People loved it and it will be the springboard to doing an all
school shpiel next year!  Many thanks!!

Rabbi Andy Hechtman

As in the past two years, we thoroughly enjoyed doing the shpiel and our congregants had a great time watching and participating!

Francie Nobleman. VP Ritual

Your schpiel was great fun and the CD you sent along with it was a God
send.  It made the whole thing possible.  Maybe next time you'll do
another CD with just the instrumentals.  Because we usually do our
schpiel on the closest Sunday we don't have any musicians because they
also play in church.  So we sang and danced with your CD with the vocals
along with our own.  It was a little confusing at times.  But well worth
it.  Thanks again for putting together a script and package that was so
professionally done!!!

Cantor Nancy R. Ginsberg, M.S.W.

The Purimshpiel went very well.  All enjoyed it.  I dressed as Sgt.
Pepper (the John Lennon variety), and all had a good time.  Thank you
for your help.

Rabbi Michael L. Kramer

This was our second year using one of your shpiels - they are fantastic!
Last year we did, "Schmaltz" and this year we did "What's Happening in
Shushan: A Guys and Dolls Purim" which we renamed, "Maidels and
Menschen." I love the fact that you send out the script on disk, so we
can edit it for the number of cast members we need. It also makes it
easy to add in jokes for our shul. The CDs help the cast members learn
the songs, and make my life easier! Thank you so much for another great year!

Cantor Jessica Epstein

Very enjoyable.  Easy rehearsals.  Staff had a great time performing and families and kids really loved the music of the Beatles.

Judy Grundfast, Music Specialist

• Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom - Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Cantor Stephanie Shor's Purim shpiels are exciting, upbeat, involving

and quite user friendly.  The quality of recording production for her CD

learning kit is impressive and outstanding.  I would highly recommend

her shpiels for a good time and a good cause.

Cantor Steve Sher

Megillah on the Roof! Where shall I begin? The script, music and lyrics

were wonderful. Our Rebbetzin said, "In her greatest imagination she

never expected a production of such caliber."  On a personal note I would like to thank you for offering such a vast array of professionally scripted material to the Jewish Community. It was undoubtedly Divine Providence directing me to your website. And to have found you literally, right around the corner, was a blessing.  I do hope we have the opportunity to meet someday.  With sincere gratitude,

Shayna

Thanks to purimshpiels.com, we were able to provide the perfect

centerpiece for this year's Purim Celebration!  Our congregation had

never held a full "Purim Shpiel," and the event was a great success.

Just one week after Purim, we are already making plans for an expanded

Shpiel next year!

Mark Overbeck

On behalf of the Ritual Committee here at Temple Emanuel, we want to

thank you for making our Purim celebration so wonderful.  Using your "Lion King" shpiel was a wonderful way to get so many of our congregants and their families involved.  We played to a "packed house", including our entire Sunday School, and the Show got "rave reviews".  We have every intention of selecting another shpiel to do next Purim.  Thanks for everything.

Tami Brody, Ritual Committee

Our purim shpiel was fabulous, the kids the adults, everyone had a great time.  We got compliments that it was the best Purim Shpiel that they had seen.

Cantor Jacqueline Breines

We had a cast of about 10 and all of us thoroughly enjoyed performing the spiel entitled "Shmaltz - A Greasy Purim."  Your CD was terrific with wonderful voices and very clever lyrics! It allowed us to put on the shpiel with only 2 rehearsals (neither of which had all "actors" in attendance!). Despite our lack of practice, the play came off as a smashing success! Everyone who came participated in some way (we handed out the lyrics to the first and last songs so the "audience" could join in) and it was an incredibly freilach festival celebration. All agreed that it was a wonderful way to celebrate Purim.

Francie Robins, Nobleman VP Ritual

• Temple Israel - Northern Westchester, New York

I am happy to report to you that your Spongebob Shpiel was a great hit for this season! We had about 20 kids involved and choreographed them to dance as well as sing the numbers. It was a great success. I will surely call upon your skills for next season as well. This was a great shpiel for very young kids. Thanks, again, for the gift of your creativity and talent.  Again, brava to you for your creative achievements.

Cantor Steve Sher

• Congregation Shomray Hadath (Conservative) and Congregation B'Nai Israel (Reform) - Elmira, New York

I must say that it was a fantastic evening. With excellent publicity we had more than 3x the normal number of attendees this year. Your shpiel provided an excellent show filled with cast members of all ages. The songs were fun and lively, and allowed us to explore our freedoms in choreography. I received dozens of compliments on the script and the acting. The 100 dollars was money well spent. It is not entirely my decision, however, I hope that we use your company again. I can not tell you how wonderful the evening went. It was one of the most successful evenings in our community in years. Your shpiel has helped bring some new light to our community. The theme was amazing with excellent lyrics and good energy! Thank you so much for your help and for providing our community with such a wonderful gift!  Shalom,

Jeff Rosenheck, Youth Group President

• Temple Beth Shalom - Hastings-on-Hudson, New York

Our Purim shpiel went very well. It was performed by our 7th/8th grade youth group--all boys. While we didn't have as many rehearsals as I would have liked and not all of our performers knew who the Beatles were, they were very cute and very well received (the parents certainly appreciated the Beatles parody-aspect of it!). I appreciated having your cleverly rhyming script to work from. I realized only after Purim had come and gone (and the reviews were two thumbs way up!) that we have done some creative Purim shpiels before, but not musical parodies (believe it or not). So, working with your material was a great way for us to get initiated into what the rest of the world has been doing for years. I'm sure we'll be surfing your website next year for our next   attempt!

Cantor Robin Anne Joseph

• Beth Shalom of Brandon - Seffner, Florida

It went very nicely and was very well received.  As the director of the shpiel, I can say it was very nice to have everything together and easy to follow.

Joel Edelson, Board Member

• Southgate and District Reform Synagogue - London, England

We hardly had a lot of time to do any preparation - well, actually, none at all!  In spite of that, however, it went down really well.  I thought it was splendidly written - both the prose and the songs.  Very  clever adn ingenious...... I did a songsheet so that all the congregation and we - the congregation - sang the songs.  Everybody said how much they enjoyed and like it.

Rabbi Colin Eimer

• Temple Sinai - Newport News, Virginia

We had great success with the "Shushan Shrek" - The CD 'saved' our pitiful voiceovers  and it was well received from audience (our wonderfully adaptive narrators sounding like "gingerbread man" and the "Queen of Hearts" had us all in stitches). Many Thanks and Be Well!

Lisa Stern, Religious/Hebrew Schools Director

• Temple Emanuel - Pueblo, Colorado

The kids did the Marx brother's play as readers' theatre .  We had a great time with it though and the parents and visitors enjoyed the play followed by a potluck dinner.  Thanks. L'Shalom.
Cantor Birdie Becker

• Temple Amanu-El - Long Beach, New York

The shpiel was great and we had alot of fun. We especially enjoyed the lyrics and the adaptaion to the music. I would recommend this to any of my fellow cantors. Thanks again.

Cantor David Katz

• Temple Rodeph Torah - Western Monmouth, New Jersey

Thank you so much for helping make this year's Purim Shpiel such a huge success! Our congregation, Temple Rodeph Torah in Western Monmouth County, NJ, was entertained  with the production of  "Schmaltz...A Greased Purim". Everyone enjoyed the Shpiel! The CD's that you provided were so helpful to our cast members, which consisted of both adults and children. The music was great and we had everyone clapping along to the popular tunes. Thank you again for providing us with such a fun script!

Robbin Friedell, congregant, member of TRT Board of Directors, and Purim Shpiel Director

• Congregation Beth Israel-Judea - San Francisco, California

Our Purim Shpiel went well.  We did the Lion King.  Congregation Beth

Israel-Judea in San Francisco.  The play was well received, got lots of

laughs.

Linda Park, Synagogue Administrator

The Motown tunes really encouraged even congregants who'd never considered singing on stage to become part of the performance.... The audience really got into the performance, the response was wildly enthusiastic. “We presented your “Motown Purim shpiel” yesterday evening and it was a tremendous success.  All the cast members enjoyed doing it, and the congregation really got into the spirit of the evening.  There were nothing but rave reviews at the oneg after the performance. 

Cantor Susan Cohen DeStefano

We had an AWESOME time at my house sharing your shpiel in my living room! Everyone sang along with the Beatles CD and we even had a guest guitarist do a solo of Imagine. In fact, some of our members wrote you a few handwritten notes which I'll type here for you. Feel free to use any of our comments on your website. This was a great way to celebrate Purim with every age group.

• Temple Israel - Sharon, Massachusetts