Messiahs of 1933: How American Yiddish Theatre Survived Adversity Through Satire

Передня обкладинка
Temple University Press, 7 трав. 2008 р. - 320 стор.

Joel Schechter has rediscovered the funny and often politically-charged plays of the American Yiddish theatre of the 1930s. In Messiahs of 1933 he celebrates their satire, their radical imagination, and their commitment to social change. He introduces readers to the once-famous writers and actors—Moishe Nadir, David Pinski, Yosl Cutler, and others—who brought into artistic form their visions of peace, social justice, and satire for all.

Messiahs of 1933 greatly enlarges our understanding of Yiddish theatre and culture in the United States. It examines the innovative stage performances created by the Artef collective, the Modicut puppeteers, and the Yiddish Unit of the Federal Theatre Project. And it introduces to contemporary readers some of the most popular theatre actors of the 30s, including Leo Fuchs, Menasha Skulnik, and Yetta Zwerling. Throughout, it includes relevant photographs and contemporary comic strips, along with the first English-language publication of excerpts from the featured plays.

З цієї книги

Зміст

How Playwright Moishe Nadir and Artef Led America Out of the Great Depression to a Future of Full Employment Justice and Yiddish Satire for All
1
The Lower East Side Arises
37
How Soviet Yiddish Satire Fared in America
57
The Society of the Sorely Perplexed Takes the Stage
71
It Cant Happen Here in Yiddish
105
The Tailor Becomes a Storekeeper
121
Popular Yiddish Theatre Reconsidered
141
The Yiddish Puppetry of Maud and Cutler
157
Sholem Aleichemand the Communists
203
The Yiddish AntiWar Catalogue Reconsidered
221
Still Waiting for the Messiah
231
Appendix
239
Acknowledgments
245
Notes
247
Bibliography
279
Index
287

9 Leo Fuchs Yiddish Vaudevillian in Trouble
177
10 Yetta Zwerlings Comic Dybbuk
193

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Популярні уривки

Сторінка 16 - We know that the Jews were prohibited from investigating the future. The Torah and the prayers instruct them in remembrance, however. This stripped the future of its magic, to which all those succumb who turn to the soothsayers for enlightenment. This does not imply, however, that for the Jews the future turned into homogeneous, empty time. For every second of time was the strait gate through which the Messiah might enter.

Про автора (2008)

Joel Schechter is Professor of Theatre Arts at San Francisco State University. He has written a number of books about satirists and circus clowns, and created a series of comic strips with the illustrator Spain.

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