A New Opportunity for Jewish Performing Artists
Coastal Roots Farm’s new yearlong incubator is designed to nurture artistic voices at the intersection of Judaism and the climate crisis. The Jewish Climate Artists for California Incubator will bring together six performing artists from across the state to explore, create, and premier new works that inspire climate action and resilience.
2025 Selected Artists
Maya De La Rosa-Cohen
Maya De La Rosa-Cohen
2025 Artist: Jewish Climate Artists for California Incubator
Maya is writer and playwright from San Francisco who believes in the power of storytelling to build ongoing forms of connection and empathy, especially in times of fear and division. Her most recent play, The First Three, is based on the true story of her parents’ legal battle to become the first queer family in CA to share equal parenthood. Previous fellowships and residencies include LABA, SFBATCO’s Creator’s Lab, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Ground Floor Residency Lab.
Michelle Farang Shofet
Michelle Farang Shofet
2025 Artist: Jewish Climate Artists for California Incubator
Michelle is a multidisciplinary artist, landscape architect, and educator working at the intersection of nature, culture, and the spiritual realm. She is Co-Founding Director of Nocturnal Medicine, a nonprofit studio weaving together collective ritual, installation, and emotional choreography to tap into the shadows of the cultural soul. She has led courses on sustainable design, climate consciousness and eco-spirituality at The New School and Columbia University.
Allan Havis
Allan Havis
2025 Artist: Jewish Climate Artists for California Incubator
Allan is a playwright, novelist, and librettist with productions at leading theatres in America and abroad. His publications include over twenty plays, five novels, three opera libretti, and a popular book on cult films. Allan is a graduate of Yale Drama School and has served as a member of the UC San Diego faculty for thirty-six years. He is currently the Jewish Studies faculty director.
Livya Howard-Yashar
Livya Howard-Yashar
2025 Artist: Jewish Climate Artists for California Incubator
Livya is a dancer, choreographer, educator and musician born and raised in Los Angeles. Her work explores the deep inseparability between music and dance from various cultural perspectives. Livya’s work has centered around movement and music as a means of understanding and expressing cultural identity, enhancing relationship skills, and engaging in social action.
Heavy Meadow
Heavy Meadow
2025 Artist: Jewish Climate Artists for California Incubator
Eco-spiritual bard Heavy Meadow has been singing the song of The Mountains since his years living in West Virginia. He’s released two studio albums (The Fool and The Magician, with 20 more on the way…) and is working on a folk opera. By day, he runs Groupmuse, a classical, jazz, and roots music house concert network he founded in 2012. They’ve organized more than 10,000 groupmuses since then.
Dan Schifrin
Dan Schifrin
2025 Artist: Jewish Climate Artists for California Incubator
Dan is a playwright, fiction writer, and conversation designer working at the intersection of creativity and community. Through his classes at Stanford University; his podcast “Art & Other People”; and theater experiences like “Sweet & Sour” and “Marie Kondo and Martin Buber Walk Into a Bar,” Dan creates space for people to plant their next crop of new ideas.
Over ten months, participating artists will deepen their connection to Jewish and ecological wisdom and wise action through performance. The program begins with a five-day retreat at Coastal Roots Farm in September 2025, continues with bi-weekly virtual gatherings, and culminates in workshops and live performances at our Regenerate! Eco-Performance Fest in May 2026.
Selected artists will receive a $2,000 honorarium, travel support, and connections with leading Jewish and environmental thinkers, ritual leaders, and artistic directors.
For funders and partners: This program is made possible by The Covenant Foundation and other visionary supporters. If you’re passionate about the power of the arts to drive social and environmental change, join us in making this work possible. Email Philanthropy Manager Sara Blodgett at sara@coastalrootsfarm.org for details.
Climate change is deeply impacting communities across California. Fires, drought, and environmental degradation leave many of us hopeless and overwhelmed. We need new narratives—stories to help us move us from despair to hope and from overwhelm to action.
Jewish tradition holds a rich legacy of active hope, justice, awe, and environmental stewardship. Live performance can uniquely foster real-time connections and dialogue. This incubator will empower artists to weave these powerful threads together, creating work that can transform hearts and minds.
Creating climate-focused art can be isolating. Integrating Jewish wisdom into creative practice in new ways is deceptively hard. This program provides artists with guidance, peer inspiration and support, access to Jewish and environmental arts leaders, and a robust curriculum which includes sacred texts, sustainable farming practices, embodiment work, ritual making, and new ways to foster audience connections—all within a structured and nurturing environment.
Audiences across California will benefit from the bold stories these Artists create, as they will be by the opportunities to connect with each other around the Art. The goal: to foster audiences’ eco-spiritual resiliency and help them move from despair to wise action.
California’s artists and communities have been directly impacted by climate disasters. By prioritizing California-based artists and engaging local performing arts organizations, we aim to create a statewide ripple effect, bringing these performances and ideas to diverse Jewish communities and allies seeking spiritual and ecological resilience.
No! This is the first artist incubator dedicated to fostering new performances at the intersection of Judaism and the ecological crisis.
Yes. We are currently seeking applications from artists who self-identify as Jewish. How you express and integrate Judaism into your art and life is up to you—what matters is that your identity is meaningful to you and you want it to inform your creative practice.
A selection committee of Farm staff and arts leaders from across California will choose finalists. Finalists will be interviewed on zoom during the last 10 days of June.
- March 20, 2025 – Artist applications open
- June 10–20, 2025 – Rolling review and interviews begin for early applicants
- June 20, 2025 – Final deadline to submit applications
- June 21–30, 2025 – Final review and interviews for remaining applicants
- July 1, 2025 – Six selected artists announced
- September 7–11, 2025 – Opening retreat at Coastal Roots Farm (Encinitas, CA)
- September–December 2025 – Bi-weekly virtual gatherings (Monday or Wednesday evenings, 6–8pm PT)
- January–February 2026 – Independent artist work period
- March–April 2026 – Bi-weekly virtual gatherings resume
- May 13–17, 2026 – Final workshops and performances at Regenerate! Eco-Performance Fest, hosted at Coastal Roots Farm
- September 7–11, 2025: Opening retreat at the Farm
- May 13-17, 2026: Final performances at Regenerate! Eco-Performance Fest
If you cannot commit to these dates, we encourage you to apply in future cohorts.
Yes. Each selected artist will receive:
- A $2,000 honorarium
- Round-trip travel to the Farm
- Housing and meals during in-person gatherings
- Support for casting and rehearsal personnel
Not necessarily. But if you’re new to both, tell us why you’re drawn to exploring these themes now.
Cantor Rebecca Joy Fletcher, Coastal Roots Farm’s Director of Jewish Life, will lead the curriculum, supported by:
- Sharone Oren, Education Manager
- Adam McCurdy, Director of Farm Production
- Jewish and environmental scholars, ritual leaders, artists and activists from across California
- National guest teachers will include:
- Chantal Bilodeau (Arts and Climate Initiative)
- Jon Adam Ross (Inheritance Theater Project)
- Nate Smith (The Sixth Fest)
- Carson Becker
- Rabbi Zelig Gordon (Wilderness Torah)
We welcome funders, community partners, and arts supporters to help sustain this innovative incubator. Your support can provide artist stipends, mentorship opportunities, and expanded programming. To learn more about sponsorship opportunities or ways to get involved, please contact Philanthropy Manager Sara Blodgett at sara@coastalrootsfarm.org.
This program is made possible in part by the generosity of The Covenant Foundation and other partners committed to fostering Jewish creativity and climate action.