Brian Feldman often includes his family in his performance art. There’s 24-Hour Embrace, during which he and his father Edward hugged for an entire day in an Orlando boxing ring. Or 24-Minute Embrace, when he and his mother Marilyn held one another in three cities on the same day.

But his favorite performance art piece, “the one that started it all,” he says, remains The Feldman Dynamic. His entire family—mother, father, and sister Adrienne—joins him onstage and they eat dinner together. No script. No rehearsal. No talking points. Just a regular family meal, aside from the audience watching it all transpire. He came up with the idea when he was getting ready for his bar mitzvah and the piece debuted a dozen years later in 2003.

Beginning this weekend, The Feldman Dynamic will come to D.C. with a special twist: the family will celebrate the Festival of Lights for eight straight nights, each performance held at a venue in a different D.C. ward. He’s calling it The Feldman Dynamic: 8 Wards of Chanukah.

He says he’s wanted to do this ever since he moved to D.C., and made the connection that there are eight wards and eight nights. It’s the first time the whole Feldman clan will be together in the District.

“My mom is very excited to be traveling up there,” says Feldman, while making spaghetti in a Florida apartment on Friday before gathering his family to drive up to D.C. “My dad and my sister were a little bit of a harder sell this year due to finances. Taking the time off was difficult.”

Another challenge was lining up the venues. “I went to hundreds of places, every possible place you can think of,” he says, before ultimately landing on a mix of traditional theaters, artist workspaces, and private residences.

The Feldman Dynamic: 8 Wards of Chanukah is funded with assistance from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, but the project grant money still hasn’t arrived. Feldman says he would have had to cancel the performance run were it not for the last-minute financial help of his best friend, Kristina Wong.

“This show, just by happening, is a true miracle, and if we make it through all eight nights it will be an additional miracle,” Feldman says, noting that his family has been fighting a lot recently.

This is the twelfth run of The Feldman Dynamic, seven of which have occurred during the Festival of Lights, which means there’ll be a lighting of the menorah, latkes, and dreidels. Most infamously, he says, he held one Chanukah Feldman Dynamic dinner in a Florida Cracker Barrel before the sheriff was called. This isn’t Feldman’s only performance art tied to a Jewish holiday or set in a public place. Last winter, he held a Shabbat dinner in D.C.’s first Wawa.

The Feldman Dynamic “has been pegged as a Jewish show because there’s so many Chanukah versions, but ultimately, it’s about a family trying to get through dinner” he says. “We might not be talking about Chanukah. We may be talking about financial concerns, my status in my apartment, politics—I’m not telling anyone what to talk about.”

He says that, before performances, family members try not to speak with one another for a half day, “so everything is fresh and we’re not tired of talking to each other.”

Feldman calls this show both his dearest, and the most challenging to perform. He says that there have been revelations revealed on stage, which he declined to detail, but audiences shouldn’t necessarily expect histrionics in a performance that he bills as his response to reality television.

“I’m not guaranteeing an entertaining show. It’s not about entertainment. It’s about seeing another person’s life experience and observing it,” he says. “Ideally, you’re going to think about your family more than you think about my family. You’re going to have a lot of time to watch us and you can’t change the channel.”

Surprises do happen. Once, his dad went backstage and emerged wearing roller skates, for instance. He says his dad is the ham of the family. “I have to tell him to tone it down, but he’s learning,” Feldman says. His mom, on the other hand, who used to be so nervous beforehand that she would would shake and couldn’t eat on stage, is now “a pro.”

Each night, $2 from each ticket (the prices range, depending on the evening) will go to a local nonprofit. Anyone with an ID showing the last name “Feldman,” though, gets in for free. Has he met a lot of other Feldmans in D.C.?

“I’ve met a couple, but I’m not sure they’re coming,” Feldman says. “It’s not for everyone’s taste. It’s a Chanukah performance art piece in D.C. That’s kind of as niche as it gets.”

The Feldman Dynamic runs from December 2-9 at various times and locations

•  Night 1 / Ward 1: Sun. Dec. 2 at 6 p.m. at Source Theatre (ticket sales benefit Martha’s Table)
• Night 2 / Ward 2: Mon. Dec. 3 at 6:30 p.m. at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (ticket sales benefit Miriam’s Kitchen)
•  Night 3 / Ward 3: Tue. Dec. 4 at 7:30 p.m. at Heather’s Hideaway (Private Residence) (ticket sales benefit D.C. Law Students in Court)
•  Night 4 / Ward 4: Wed. Dec. 5 at 7:30 p.m. at RhizomeDC (ticket sales benefit Humane Rescue Alliance)
• Night 5 / Ward 5: Thu. Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m. at Hole in the Sky (ticket sales benefit So Others Might Eat)
• Night 6 / Ward 6: Fri. Dec. 7 at 9:30 p.m. at The Miracle Theatre (ticket sales benefit D.C. Central Kitchen)
• Night 7 / Ward 7: Sat. Dec. 8 at 6 p.m. at Westover Farms (Private Residence) (ticket sales benefit Bread for the City)
• Night 8 / Ward 8: Sun. Dec. 9 at 6 p.m. at Anacostia Arts Center (ticket sales benefit Community of Hope)

Previously:

DCist Becomes #BFFs With Prolific Performance Artist Brian Feldman