Our Founder
Zelda Dean, the Founder and Managing Artistic Director of Bema Productions (Bema), is thrilled to have fulfilled her vision of launching a Jewish theatre group in Victoria. Zelda has spent a lifetime volunteering for synagogues, Federations and Jewish theatre. She has engaged in a lifelong quest of fighting racism, antisemitism, and hate. Zelda founded Congregation Emanu-El’s Bēma Productions, the third Jewish theatre company she launched. She invited two other members of the arts committee, Annie Weeks and Ruthi Wicks, to join her and Bema has been going strong ever since.
Zelda brings over forty years of experience in the arts and has had the pleasure of working with Calgary and Victoria’s finest actors in over 130 productions which she has directed and produced.
Mission
The mission of Bema Productions is to produce thought-provoking, passionate, and entertaining plays that speak to the universal human condition, embrace the society at large and celebrate the distinctive voice and social vision that are part of the Jewish experience and cultural legacy.
Bema builds bridges and fosters relations between the Jewish community and the non-Jewish community through the shared experiences as volunteers, actors, and audiences. Bema Productions represents a center where the community at large is welcomed and embraced. We believe that theatre is about community building; its role is to reflect the audience back to itself and so, illuminate us all. By drawing on Jewish experience, we shed light on our common experience.
Bema is proud to foster and encourage the creations of new plays and productions that support Bema’s mandate. Bema Productions invites new play submissions and welcomes volunteers who may be interested in our projects and who have an interest and/or experience in theatre both on and off the stage.
Fundraising success
By maintaining financial responsibility, Bema has become a visible and respected theatre company in Victoria. Financial support has been received from the CRD Arts Development, The Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island, the Waldman Foundation, the Anako Foundation, Royal Oak Burial Park, and numerous private donors.
Bema is proud to support fundraising initiatives for Victoria-based non-profit organizations. In the beginning, shows were toured to their venues – a challenging operation for a small company. So, an invitation offering a private performance in Bema’s Black Box Theatre was given to non-profit organizations that were running their own social programs to benefit those in need. These organizations sold their own tickets and retained the majority of the ticket revenue. Examples of the Outreach recipients are the Indigenous Language Revitalization, the Victoria Youth Clinic, the Syrian Refugee Fund, the Help Fill a Dream Foundation and the youth music program at the Conservatory of Music through Arbutus Singers.
Bema also has a policy of making a donation following each production’s run to a variety of not-for-profit organizations in need. The last donation pre-Covid was to The Native Friendship Centre.
Venue
Bema produces shows in collaboration with multiple venues in Victoria but our home venue is in Congregation Emanu-El, Canada’s oldest synagogue building that is still in use. With this assistance, the necessary staging, lighting, sound and other equipment have been purchased along with the materials to create the Black Box Theatre in Congregation Emanu-El’s social hall. Newcomers to the theatre are always amazed at how the room transforms into an intimate theatre venue.