The WJT presented the Toronto premiere of Winnipeg author and playwright Sheldon Oberman's "The Always Prayer Shawl" twice at the July 8 and 9 festival at The Harbourfront Centre.
"There were about 250 people at each show," Gordon said last week of the play, which had its world premiere in Winnipeg last March. "It was almost full to capacity." Jews of all ages watched the production and other events at the festival.
"There were a lot of families watching," Gordon said of the crowds at "The Always Prayer Shawl", which tells of a Jewish boy and his grandfather, and the prayer shawl that binds them together. "They really liked it."
A member of Toronto's Holocaust awareness committee later approached her, and discussed the possibility of bringing the show back for presentation in Ontario schools.
The board of the Ashkenaz Festival paid "95 per cent" of the cost of bringing the Winnipeg cast of "Prayer Shawl" to Toronto for the show, along with Gordon and director Mariam Bernstein.
"Eighty per cent" of the festival, which was presented for the first time, consisted of klezmer and other Jewish entertainment, including performances by Finjan, Winnipeg's klezmer band. Most shows were held for free and outdoors and drew crowds of up to 1,5OO; indoor productions like "Prayer Shawl" had a small admission fee.
For Gordon, one of the most memorable festival shows was "a Jewish woman performing a traditional Jewish wedding, while juggling and getting out of a straitjacket."
"It would be great to do a festival like that in Winnipeg," she said.
Gordon also held discussions with officials from the Toronto Jewish Federation about the structure of the WJT.
The federation hopes to start another Jewish theatre there, following the collapse of the Toronto Jewish community's Leah Posluns Theatre. "They want to use the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre as a model."