‘Trayf’ is a Play about Love with No Shtick

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Image courtesy of Next Act Theatre

Trayf by Lindsay Joelle - Next Act Theatre 2026

Promotional art for Next Act Theatre's production of Lindsay Joelle's "Trayf" (2026).

Lindsay Joelle’s comedy Trayf centers on the friendship between two 18-year-old Orthodox Jewish boys who’ve dedicated themselves to serving their community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the center of Orthodox Jewish life in America in 1991. They drive their “mitzvah van” through the neighborhood offering a hand to any Jew who needs advice or comfort. “Trayf” comes from the Yiddish word for "unkosher," deriving in part from the Hebrew word for "torn.”

I’d been invited to join a small audience of designers, crew members, understudies, board members and donors to watch the first rehearsal of Next Act Theatre’s production opening September 18. Artistic director Cody Estle welcomed us to “Milwaukee’s thought-provoking theatre,” and described the play’s Lubavitch-Chasidic characters as “a group of people that are just like us. We’re all human and we all stand on the same ground.”

He introduced director Elyse Edelman, a frequent actor and director for Renaissance Theaterworks and other local companies who joined the Next Act staff last year as associate artistic director. This is her first directing job for Next Act.

The four-member cast sat behind a table, scripts in hand, partly memorized. They knew their characters well and played them beautifully. Edelman set the stage: “The play opens on two best friends in a Hertz RV in the moment between childhood and adulthood.”

Torn Friendship

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Photo courtesy of Next Act Theatre

Trayf - Next Act Theatre (2026)

Left to right: Rachel Zientek, Lucas Prizant, A.J. Magoon and Alex Mitchell at the first rehearsal for Next Act's production of "Trayf" (2026).

Those best friends are played by A.J. Magoon and Alex Mitchell. Lucas Prizant plays a young seeker who inadvertently tears their friendship, and Rachel Zientek plays the girlfriend he’s losing.

Two mornings later, I enjoy a conversation with Edelman and Magoon about the show.  I learn that Estle had directed an earlier play by Joelle at his former Chicago company. He brought the Trayf script with him when he took the job at Next Act in December ‘22. After admiring Edelman’s work with Renaissance and learning she was Jewish, he sent her the script in December ‘23. He brought her on staff as associate director in ‘25, and asked her to direct Trayf to open the company’s 37th season.

"Judaism was always part of my upbringing,” she tells me. “One side of my family I would consider more religious, the other more Reform. As a Jewish theater artist, I am asked to work on Jewish plays a lot. I am always grateful for that. But in many of those instances, I have been the only Jewish person in the room. This time, we have our cultural consultant Jody Hirsh in the room with us as our conduit to Jewish culture, as well as members of our Chabad community involved in decision-making about how that community is represented onstage.”

“I love this play because the playwright cares for these people lovingly,” she continues. “They’re represented as who they are in a beautiful, caring light, not in service to any kind of political statement. It’s one of my favorite plays that I’ve ever read, because I felt so seen and so cared for.”

That’s exactly how I, with my Catholic upbringing, felt at the reading.

Story for Everyone

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Photo courtesy of Next Act Theatre

Trayf - Next Act Theatre (2026)

The first rehearsal with a limited audience for Next Act Theatre's production of "Trayf" by Lindsay Joelle (2026).

“It’s a story for everyone,” says Magoon, who was raised Methodist. He’s playing Zalmy, who falls in love with Fiddler on the Roof when musicals are forbidden by his Chasidic Rebbe. “You don’t have to understand Judaism. You don’t have to be Chabad, if you are Jewish.”

With a BFA in theatre from Marquette, Magoon continues to act with Milwaukee theatres while serving as Next Act’s marketing director. But this is his first time acting for Next Act. He’d read the part last winter when Estle brought playwright Lindsay Joelle to town to explore the possibility of a production. Joelle was thrilled by Magoon’s reading, and by that of Zientek. Both were quickly cast.

“Then we did something I’ve never done when casting a play,” says Edelman. “It’s important that the boys at the center have this incredible chemistry, so we had A.J. read with the actors in call-backs. Auditions became a vibe check.”

“It’s very flattering to have someone say, hey, can we build casting around you,” Magoon admits.

“We cast a wide net for the others,” Edelman continues. Both are Jewish and came highly recommended. Mitchell graduated from the Guthrie Theatre School in Minneapolis. He’s playing Zalmy’s bestie, Shmuel, who holds to Orthodoxy. “It’s a love story for Shmuel, even if he doesn’t know what those feelings are yet,” Edelman says.

She discovered Prizant through Milwaukee General Auditions. “He told me about his own, more secular, relationship with Judaism,” she says. “He has an understanding of Leah’s disenchantment in a way that adds to the realism.”

“It’s nice to do a play about self-discovery,” says Magoon. “It’s a good reminder to just let everything be authentic. Let the humor come through that. Go into that mind space of no cynicism, where everything is deeply felt. There’s no shtick here.”

With preview performances on September 16 and 17, Trayf opens September 18 and runs through October 4 with a pay-what-you-can show on September 28, at Next Act Theatre, 255 S. Water Street. For tickets or more information, visit nextact.org or call the theatre at (414) 278-0765.