Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.142 November 23, 1993 1) Geshikhte fun yidishn teater (Michael Steinlauf) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Nov 23 15:28:05 1993 From: M_Steinlauf@ACAD.FANDM.EDU (Michael Steinlauf) Subject: Geshikhte fun yidishn teater Khosheve Mendelnikes, Ikh shik aykh tsu a barikht vegn dem ershtn konferents gevidmet di geshikhte fun yidishn teater in Poyln, vos iz forgekumen in Varshe mit a khoydesh tsurik. Al dos guts, Mikhl International Conference on Jewish Theater in Poland An unprecedented scholarly event, the first international conference devoted to the history of Jewish theater, was held in Poland on October 18-21, 1993. Twenty-seven papers were presented by scholars from Poland, the United States, Israel, Germany, Ukraine and Italy. The conference was organized by the Theater Department of the University of Lodz and the Polish Society of Theater Historians under the auspices of the Polish Ministry of Culture, and was held at the Aleksander Zelwerowicz State Theater School in Warsaw. Papers were simultaneously translated into English and Polish. The conference took place on the heels of the publication earlier this year of Volume 41 of the Polish theater history journal Pamietnik Teatralny. This five hundred page issue, entirely devoted to research on the history of Jewish theater in Poland until 1939, is the first such publication since Jacob Shatzky edited the Arkhiv far der Geshikhte fun Yidishn Teater un Drame (Archives for the History of Jewish Theater and Drama) in New York in 1928. Coinciding with the conference was a festival of Jewish culture that included the screening of pre-war Yiddish films made in Poland and Ukraine, talks by Polish Jewish writers, and performances by Yiddish singers and theater troupes from throughout the world. The conference was opened on Monday afternoon, October 18, with the screening of two films: Aktor (1993), a film about Michal Szwejlich of the20 Polish State Yiddish Theater, made by Krystyna Bevis-Shmeruk and Irena Kamienska, and Jej Teatr (Her Theater, 1967), a film about Ida Kaminska made by Wladyslaw Forbert. The rest of the afternoon was devoted to a talk by the legendary Yiddish theater director Jakob Rotbaum of Wroclaw, who began his professional career staging Eugene O'Neill with the Vilna Troupe in 1930. Mr. Rotbaum reviewed his early years in theater, which included studies in Moscow with Meyerhold and Shlomo Mikhoels, and emphasized the importance of theater as an agent of education and social change. The first paper was presented on Tuesday morning, October 19, by the conference organizer, Professor Anna Kuligowska- Korzeniewska, Director of the Department of Drama and Theater at the University of Lodz, and President of the Polish Society of Theater Historians. Professor Kuligowska stressed the need to approach Yiddish theater, which was once performed in every corner of Poland, without either sentimental or ideological lenses, in order to "track the traces of the great and vanishing culture with which fate has linked us." Her paper was followed by that of the academic consultant to the conference, Professor Chone Shmeruk of Jerusalem, who reviewed Yiddish dramatic literature created up to World War I. Professor Shmeruk began with an analysis of why this literature did not develop until the 16th century, and then discussed the first Purim plays, early modern biblical and Enlightenment dramas, the rise of professional Yiddish theater under Abraham Goldfaden, and the contributions of the "classical" Yiddish writers, Mendele Mokher Seforim, Sholem Aleichem and Y. L. Peretz. Mr. Jozef Gelston (Lvov) traced the history of the Broder Singers, several generations of peripatetic Galician musicians, singers and jesters (originally associated with Ber Morgulis of Brody) from the late nineteenth century until the Holocaust. Professor Jan Michalik (Krakow) closed the morning session presenting press and archival research documenting the first performances of Yiddish theater in Krakow in the late 1880's. The afternoon session began with a paper by Dr. Maria Stykowa (Lublin) chronicling Yiddish amateur theater in Lublin from 1864-1916. Dr. Maria Prussak (Warsaw) examined demonstrations by Jewish students at the turn of the century in Warsaw and other Polish cities protesting the staging of certain antisemitic Polish plays. Her paper was followed by that of the conference secretary, Dr. Malgorzata Leyko of Lodz, who chronicled the work of Yitzhak Zandberg, who directed the first permanent Yiddish theater in Lodz from 1907-16. Professor Keren Goldberg (Los Angeles) closed the afternoon session with an overview of the development of Yiddish theater in Poland and its meaning for us today. The morning session on October 20 began with a paper by Ms. Elinor Rubel (Jerusalem) on popular Yiddish theater (the so-called "shund theater") based on a study of the performances of Avrom Fishzon's traveling company at the turn of the century. Focusing on Y. L. Peretz's theater writings in Warsaw after 1905, Professor Michael Steinlauf (Philadelphia) proposed a model for exploring the "kunst/shund" (high/low) distinction introduced by Peretz into Yiddish theater discourse. Professor Michael Taub (New York) then presented an analysis of the social issues raised by Peretz in his one-act plays, contrasting this body of work with his stories and full-length plays. Professor Kazimierz Nowacki (Krakow) chronicled Yiddish theater activity, both popular and dramatic, professional and amateur, in the cities and towns of Galicia during the interwar period. 20 Closing the morning session was a paper by Mr. Mieczyslaw Abramowicz (Gdansk) focusing on the little-known activity of Yiddish theaters in Danzig during the first years of Nazi rule (1934-38). The afternoon session began with a paper by Mr. Jozef Weichert of Tel Aviv (read by Dr. Marek Bielacki of Lodz) discussing aspects of his father Mikhal Weichert's work with the avantgarde Yiddish company Yung Teater (Young Theater) which he directed in the 1930's. Professor Zbigniew Osinski (Warsaw) surveyed the little-known work of the Hebrew Theater Studio in Vilna from 1927-33, and its close relations with Juliusz Osterwa's Reduta Theater. Focusing on the reactions of the Polish and Polish-Jewish press to Habima's three tours of Poland (1926, 1930, 1936), Ms. Katarzyna Lezenska (Warsaw) presented a contribution to social as well as theater history. Professor Eleonora Udalska (Katowice) analyzed Polish-language productions of Anski's The Dybbuk during the interwar period, focusing on differences between the styles of Yiddish and Polish productions. Dr. Jan Ciechowicz (Gdansk) surveyed the writings on Yiddish and Polish theater that appeared in the popular Polish-language Jewish weekly Opinia, published in Warsaw from 1933-35. The morning session on October 21 began with a paper by Ms. Brigitte Dalinger of Vienna (read by Ms. Kowalska) documenting the origins of Yiddish theater in Vienna during the last years of the nineteenth century, and comparing its development to that of Yiddish theater further east. On the basis of research in the contemporary German Jewish press, Ms. Heide Riss (Munich) chronicled the activity of Polish Yiddish actors and companies in Berlin from the early 1920's to 1933. Professor Liana Tedeschi (Milan) analyzed the powerful mediating function of Yiddish theater in New York at the turn of the century, and suggested its displacement of the synagogue as the social and spiritual center of Jewish life. Professor Marta Meducka (Kielce) traced the effects of the Yiddish popular repertory developed in the late nineteenth century in the United States on Yiddish theater activity in Poland in the early twentieth century and between the wars. Professor Edward Krasinski (Warsaw) closed the morning session with a survey of the many forms of contact and collaboration between Polish and Jewish actors, directors, scenographers, audiences, theater critics and instructors during the interwar years. The afternoon session began with a paper by Dr. Ruta Sakowska (Warsaw) on Jewish theater activity in the Warsaw Ghetto, focusing on the most ambitious of these effors, Mark Arnshteyn's Polish-language Nowy Teatr Kameralny (New Chamber Theater). This was followed by two papers devoted to Ida Kaminska's activities in post-war Poland. Analyzing recently accessible government documents, Ms. Joanna Krakowska-Narozniak (Warsaw) documented the vicissitudes of Kaminska's efforts to continue staging Yiddish theater in communist Poland. Ms. Danuta Gibas (Krakow) explored Kaminska's collaboration with the Polish director Konrad Swinarski in his productions of plays by Brecht and DA8urrenmatt in Warsaw in the early 1960's. Dr. Marian Fuks (Warsaw) closed the session with a paper chronicling the development of Jewish musical theater. The conference concluded with an appearance by Mr. Shmuel Atzmon, director of the Yiddish Theater of Israel, who discussed the development of this theater over the past two decades, and screened video excerpts from recent productions. The conference organizers plan to publish the complete proceedings of the conference in Polish, and anticipate an English version as well.20 46or further information about the conference, contact Dr. Malgorzata Leyko, Katedra Teorii Literatury, Teatru i Filmu Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego, ul. Sienkiewicz 21, 90-114 Lodz, Poland, fax: 011 4842 78 39 58; or Dr. Michael Steinlauf, Department of History, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA 17604-3003; tel: (717) 291-4288; fax: (717) 399-4413;e-mail: M_Steinlauf@acad.FandM.edu ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.142 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. Send submissions/responses to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files