About — Tamara Micner

Oh hello!

I am a writer, performer and Yiddish teacher who lives in London and hails from Vancouver/Coast Salish land.

My work aims to be joyful and connected, helping us to end the climate & ecological emergency, celebrate Jewishness and work towards racial justice.

I am a Yiddish/ײדיש teacher who has completed advanced Yiddish studies at the Paris Yiddish Centre/Medem Bibliotek and has started performing and writing in Yiddish as well as English.

Currently, I’m developing the pantomime Yankl & Der Beanstalk, inspired by the Jack and the Beanstalk story and set in the radical Jewish East End of yore. It includes Yiddishised pop songs, a workers’ strike and Pickle Fairy. The show is supported by Arts Council England, Manchester Jewish Museum, rice & beans theatre and Chutzpah! Festival.

I am collaborating on Katy Dye’s project Climate Grief Karaoke, inviting audiences to sing pop songs that help us express climate grief. We have performed at Cambridge Junction, the Totally Thames Festival and Bit of a Do Festival. More to come…

I recently co-facilitated the retreat Moving In, inviting Jewish climate activists to engage with climate justice through art, movement and ritual. Over a weekend in Somerset, we shared victories and challenges, built community and explored possibilities for healing, liberation and transformation. Thank you to Moishe House for supporting us!

Previously, I created and performed the digital solo show Old Friends, a one-hour sleepover experience (on Zoom!). This was commissioned by Cambridge Junction, supported by Arts Council England and performed with the Junction and Cockpit Theatre in March 2022 from Hackney Showroom. The show reminisces about that one true friend who got away and explores who’s replaced them, or hasn’t. Can we enjoy the close friendships as adults that we revelled in as kids? When can we finally mourn our friend breakups with ice cream and bad TV?

My first solo show, Holocaust Brunch, asks how we can honour the stories we inherit whilst breaking free from them. It toured England and Canada in 2020-21 and was developed with support from Arts Council England, Canada Council for the Arts, British Columbia Arts Council, Battersea Arts Centre, Camden People’s Theatre, JW3 and Chutzpah! Festival.

My work has been nominated by the Jessie Richardson Awards, shortlisted by BBC Writersroom Scriptroom and awarded the Lucy Cavendish College Alumnae Prize for Contribution to the Arts. I trained in acting at the Central School of Speech & Drama and in longform improv with Monkey Toast, and completed the Royal Court Theatre Young Writers’ Programme.