Debra Caplan, Co-Director and Producer

Debra Caplan is a third-year graduate student pursuing a PhD in Yiddish Literature at Harvard, where her interdisciplinary work focuses on Yiddish theater and Jewish performance around the world. Last spring, Debra directed and produced Di Gantse Velt iz a Teater - an evening of six Yiddish theater scenes performed in the original Yiddish at Harvard. Debra began her career as a Yiddish director while an undergraduate at Hampshire College, where she translated, directed and produced the world premiere English-language production of Itzik Manger's 1938 musical The Magic Mirror, or Hotzmakh's Shpiel (2006) at the National Yiddish Book Center.



Cecelia Raker, Co-Director

Cecelia Raker is a member of the Harvard College class of 2011, pursuing a Special Concentration in the conception and direction of socially impactful theater and opera. Her interest in Yiddish Theater began last year in a seminar with Professor Ruth Wisse and then as an actor in Debra Caplan's Di Gantse Velt iz a Teater. It was love at first taste, and she is delighted to bring her experience in the larger theater and opera world to this project. Last year she was the associate stage director for the Lowell House Opera's Otello, and in the summer of 2008 she traveled to Italy as stage manager and technical director for International Opera Theater's world premier of Emily Wong's Romeo e Giullietta. Most recently, she worked as a directing intern for the 2009 summer season at Shakespeare & Co. in the Berkshires. There she assistant-directed Hamlet, Twelfth Night (Or What You Will), and Measure for Measure and worked extensively with Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer to write and produce a series of monologues about Shakespeare's impact on revolutionary moments in history. Cecelia is thrilled and honored to be working with such a brilliant team of artists, and would like to thank Debra, Ben, and most of all the Source of all this wonderful creativity.



Nahma Sandrow, Translator

Nahma Sandrow is author of "Vagabond Stars: A World History of Yiddish Theater," "'God, Man, and Devil': Yiddish Plays in Translation," and other books and articles about Yiddish and other theaters. She wrote the books for "Kuni-Leml" and "Vagabond Stars," two award-winning off-Broadway shows based on Yiddish theater material. Four of her play translations from Yiddish have been performed, as well as a play by Susan Yankowitz based on a commissioned translation from the French. This translation of "Shulamis" was partly funded by a PEN-nominated grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, and she has just won an NEA grant to translate David Pinski's "Yankl the Blacksmith." A retired professor at City University of New York, she has lectured at Harvard, Oxford, the Young Directors Lab of Lincoln Center, the National Yiddish Book Center, and the Smithsonian. She is a member of the BMI Librettists Workshop and the Dramatists Guild.



Zalmen Mlotek, Composer/Arranger

Zalmen Mlotek, an internationally recognized authority on Yiddish folk and theater music, is a leading figure in the Jewish theatre and concert worlds. Mr. Mlotek brought Yiddish-Klezmer music to Broadway and off-Broadway stages as co-creator, music director, and conductor of Those Were the Days, the first bilingual musical honored with a Drama Desk Award and nominated for two Tony Awards. In addition, he was co-creator, music director and conductor for the production of The Golden Land, an off-Broadway hit that toured nationally and which was brought to Italy under the sponsorship of Leonard Bernstein. In 1998 Mr. Mlotek took over the co-artistic directorship of the Folksbiene Yiddish Theater in New York City; the longest continuously operating Yiddish theater company in America and presently the only professional Yiddish theater company in the United States. Mr. Mlotek has given master classes and has performed in London, Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Cracow, Amsterdam, Moscow, St Petersburg, Kiev as well as throughout the United States and Canada. Mr. Mlotek has also spoken as an invited guest lecturer at Columbia University, the Jewish Theological Seminary, Yeshiva University, Hebrew Union College, the University of California at Berkeley, and Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv. He lectures and presents internationally at Klezmer music festivals around the world, as well as Jewish Choral festivals and Cantorial Conventions in the United States and all over the world.



Lidiya Yankovskaya, Music Director

A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, Lidiya Yankovskaya began her studies on piano at the Russian Specialized Music Schools and as a singer in the St. Petersburg Children's Choir at age five. Soon thereafter, she also began playing the violin. Lidiya recieved her B.A. in Music and Philosophy, Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College. Upon graduation, she also received the Francis Walker Prize as the top pianist in her class. Currently, Lidiya is pursuing a degree in conducting on a Dean's Scholarship at Boston University under the tutelage of Dr. Ann Howard Jones and David Hoose and continuing her studies in piano and vocal performance. This year, in addition to her work with Shulamis, Lidiya will be serving as the Associate Conductor of Juventas New Music Ensemble, as Assistant Conductor of the Zamir Chorale of Boston, and as Music Director of Little Night Music with the Boston Opera Collaborative. Until 2008, Lidiya was the Music Director of the Vassar Mahagonny Ensemble, an instrumental and choral ensemble (about 55 instrumentalists and 24 singers) focusing on music written in the last 100 years. Other recent appearances include serving as conductor for a performance of Mozart's Zauberflöte at Brandeis University and music directing the premiere of the opera Victory Over the Sun by Russian avant-garde composer Georgy Firtich.




Russell Huang, Asst. Music Director

Russell Huang is a sophomore at Harvard College concentrating, for the time being, in physics, and is very excited to be working with the cast and crew of Shulamis as assistant music director. Any such skills he may possess are all to be attributed to the hard-working constancy of his parents and the fortunate fad of playing Mozart to babies in the womb.



Gabrielle Orcha, Choreographer

Gabrielle Orcha loves to explore the intersection between drama, dance and Judaism. Credits for regional theatre include collaborations with The Olney Theatre in Maryland for the production of Fiddler on the Roof (2007), a dream job, which earned her favorable reviews in "The Washington Post" and "The Washington Times." Also at the Olney, Gabrielle choreographed Jacques Brel (2006) and the musical adaptation of Call of the Wild, which completed its nine month National Tour in 2008. A two time alumna of the School at Jacob's Pillow, Gabrielle studied with dance pioneer Katherine Dunham in 2002 and was awarded a full scholarship by the American Dance Guild in 2003. Selected runner up for the National Student Playwriting Award (KCACTF 2006) for her play Song of Miriam, which she wrote, directed, produced and choreographed, Gabrielle had the honor of performing her signature role at the Kennedy Center in D.C. Locally, last May, Gabrielle was commissioned by Citi Performing Arts Center to perform a duet inspired by her beloved Grandmother at Boston's Shubert Theatre. A highlight: Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel requested that she choreograph the American premier of his unpublished play, Once Upon A Time, which she and her dancers performed at the Tsai Center in 2007. A 2002 National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts merit award recipient in the disciplines of Poetry and Choreography/Dance, Gabrielle and her company, Orcha Dance Theatre, completed their fall tour of Dancing Through The Torah (Part I), an epic undertaking that presents, through dance, each weekly Torah portion and major Jewish holiday. In the 2010 Spring/Summer, Orcha Dance Theatre will perform the work in its entirety.



Anna Elena Torres, Set Designer & Poster Artist

Anna Torres is a muralist and master's student at Harvard Divinity School, focusing on Yiddish literature. She has studied art formally at RISD and Swarthmore College, and taught mural-making to young people in Philadelphia and Boston. Her set for the Harvard Yiddish Players' first production, "Di Gantse Velt iz a Teater," is on display at the Workmen's Circle/ArbeterRing in Brookline, MA. She'd like to thank the incredible 'Shulamis' team, her family, and Andy.




Michael Zellman-Rohrer, Lighting Designer

Michael Zellmann-Rohrer is a senior in Harvard College. He lives in Mather House and is a Classics concentrator, currently writing a senior thesis on a Byzantine Greek manuscript. Shulamis will be his 40th Harvard production as a lighting designer. He also serves as vice president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club. Michael's main academic interest is ancient languages and literature: he reads nine languages, including Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Akkadian, and Sanskrit.



Krystal Bly, Costume Designer

Krystal Bly began her forays into costume design at the age of seven when she designed the fairies chorus costumes for a high school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Recent costume design work includes Verdi's Otello for Lowell House Opera (March 2009) and Spring Awakening for Zeitgeist Stage Company (May 2009). In addition she has worked on The Secret Garden for The New England Conservatory Light Opera Club and costumes historical interpreters on the freedom trail. Krystal graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music (2007) with a Bachelor's of music in Vocal Performance and lives and works in Cambridge as a designer, seamstress, actress and singer.



Jennifer Munoz, Stage Manager

Jen Munoz is a 5th-year graduate student at Harvard in Jewish History. After making her first foray into Yiddish Theater managing props for Di Gantse Velt iz a Teater in the Spring of 2009, she is excited to be working again with the Harvard Yiddish Players as Stage Manager for Shulamis. Her work on gender in Judaism has given her profound insight into the central themes of this operetta. She thinks the well is definitely yonic.



Joseph Munoz, Technical Director

Joseph Munoz is a 5th-year gradate student in Astronomy at Harvard. After a long hiatus from the stage, he made his first return to theater since his memorable portrayal of Felix the Hot Rodder in his middle school's production of Ducktails and Bobbysocks as a prop manager for Di Gantse Velt iz a Teater. While uncertain how his Spanish/Italian Catholic upbringing prepared him for Yiddish Theater, he is excited to be in charge of making sure the positions of the Sun and stars on stage are astronomically correct at all times.



Tegan Sutherland, Props Mistress & Costumer's Assistant

Tegan Sutherland has been involved in theatre, both on-stage and off-, since she was knee-high to a grasshopper. Some recent projects include: "Oh, Kay!", "Fiddler on the Roof" and "The Big Show". She would like to thank the cast and crew for the opportunity to work with them.



Grace Field - Shulamis

Grace Field is a classical singer who is excited about making her debut with the Harvard Players this season for Shulamis. She completed her degree at Rice University recieving a Bachelors in Music, and also did post graduate studies at Texas State specializing in opera performance. She has done many roles including Carrie, Carousel, Rose Hoffman, Working, Mae Jones, Street Scene, Governess, Turn of the Screw, and many others. She is thrilled to have just recently moved to Boston, and this next season is performing with the MetroWest Opera company in the Magic Flute as Papagena.



Elliott Rosenbaum - Avsholem

Elliott Rosenbaum (Avsholem) is a sophomore at Harvard College concentrating in History with a secondary in The Classics. Hailing from Bethesda, MD, he is excited to be performing in his first Yiddish Theater production. At Harvard, you may previously have seen him as Man 2 (the Baritone) in Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World, Man 1 (the Baritone) in the original production The Other Side of the World, or as Michael Mather in The Freshman Musical 2012: Recall!. Elliott performed throughout high school with The Musical Theater Center in Rockville, MD, Act Two Productions in Germantown, MD, Walt Whitman High School, culminating with a National Capitol Area Cappie Nomination for Featured Actor in A Musical for his portrayal of Mereb in Aida, which won the Cappie for Best Musical. Aside from theater, Elliott sings as a baritone in the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones, sang with the Harvard Glee club during their 2008-2009 season, and studies voice with Mr. Tom Jones. Thanks to Mom, Dad, Eve, Eli, Meghan, the Black Goblins, the Vtones, and his friends for all their support!



Christie Lee Gibson - Avigail

Christie Lee Gibson, mezzo-soprano, is an opera singer, theater artist, and experimental musician. Recent opera roles include The Dragonfly in L'Enfant et les sortileges with MetroWest Opera and First Soldier/Seneca's Friend in L'Incoronazione di Poppea with OperaHub. Christie has enjoyed putting three new shows on their feet this year as Helen/Farmer's Wife in The Caitlin County Hemp Wars, Auntie Maria in Molasses Panty Town, and the cover for Cancer Woman in Holy Ghosts. She has also played Pepa (Goyescas), Baba (The Medium), Bessie (Songspiel Mahagonny), and Papagena (The Magic Flute). Partial roles include Julia Meacham (Sacco and Vanzetti), Meg (Little Women), Mrs. Ott (Susannah), Ursule (Beatrice et Benedicte), and Melisande (Pelleas et Melisande), Christie and experimental instrument-builder Arvid Tomayko-Peters co-compose pieces for festivals and concerts around new England. She is a member of Fort Point Theatre Channel and works with them as an actor, director, and vocal coach. An alumna of Brown University, she currently studies with Patty Thom. Visit http://christieleegibson.com for more information on future performances.



Anton Eriera - Manoakh, Eleazar

Born and raised in Essex, England, Anton read law at Cambridge University and graduated with honours in 2008. In 2009 he successfully completed the Bar Vocational Course at The City Law School in London. Anton is currently working towards a Master of Laws Degree at Harvard Law School.

Anton's portrayal of Manoach in "Shulamis" is his debut performance in the United States. In England he recently played Fagin in The Girton Amateur Dramatic Society's production of "Oliver!" (The McCrum, Cambridge, 2008). Previous stage roles also include: Antonio Rodriguez, "Liberdad!" (The ADC, Cambridge, 2006), Drake, "Honk!" (2002), Rooster, "Annie" (2001), Seymour, "Little Shop of Horrors" (2000), The Artful Dodger, "Oliver!" (1999), and Mendel, "Fiddler on the Roof" (1996) (BJYC, Essex).

Anton is a member of the internationally renowned London Jewish Male Choir. He is also a member of the London-based a cappella group, "Kol Rina".




Joshua Wortzel - Tsigitang, Nosn

Josh Wortzel is a freshman in Harvard College, and he is very excited to be making his acting debut as Tsigitang in the HRDC's production of Shulamis! Josh hails from Washington Crossing, PA, where he has performed in local community theater and in the musical productions of several local high schools. Some of Josh's roles include Oliver Twist in the Yardley Player's production of Oliver and Harold Hill, the Beast, and Tommy Albright in Villa Victoria Academy's productions of The Music Man, Beauty and the Beast, and Brigadoon, respectively. Josh dedicates his performance to his Yiddish speaking mishpucha, and thanks them for giving him the chutzpa to get on stage.



Daniel Schwartz - Yoav Gidoni, Ensemble

When he is not singing and declaming in Yiddish, Daniel Schwartz is a PhD student at Brandeis University studying Russian Jewish History. Outside of his studies, he has maintained an active singing career in the Boston area. Recent highlights include Carmina Burana and the Brahms Requiem with the BSO, the role of Papageno in a Brandeis production of The Magic Flute, and a solo in "Baseball Pops" with the Boston Pops.



Richard Samuels - Avinadav, Azriel, Priest

Richard Samuels is returning to the Harvard Yiddish Players after joining them this April for their inaugural production, Di Gantze Velt Iz a Teater. Richard currently sings in Yiddish, Hebrew, and other languages as a bass in Boston's semi-professional Jewish a cappella group, Honorable Menschen. Before then, he sang a range of Jewish music in the Zamir Chorale of Boston and Cornell's Chai Notes. A software engineer by day, Richard is proud to be making Shulamis his first non-Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.



Jihae Lee - Ovadye, Well Woman

Jihae Lee is a junior in Adams House. At the College, she concentrates in Social Studies and Visual and Environmental Studies, Film/Video Production. Apart from singing and acting, she is actively involved on campus in human rights and anti-genocide advocacy, radio broadcasting, photography and filmmaking. In her spare time, Jihae loves to play guitar, dance hip-hop, shop, and watch every film in existence. This is her first opera production and a Yiddish one at that, so Shulamis has been a great learning experience and of course so much fun!



Janet Buchwald - Nurse, Well Woman

Janet Buchwald received her B.A. in theatre from Tufts University. She was a founder and Associate Artistic Director of the Boston Shakespeare Co. and Artistic Director of The Rhode Island Feminist Theatre. She is the co-author (with Anita Diamant) of "The Mikveh Monologues" and (with Diamant and Yavilah McCoy) "The Colors of Water: An African American Jewish Journey." Janet appeared in last spring's Harvard Yiddish Players production, Di Gantse Velt iz a Teater: An Evening of Yiddish Theatre and is thrilled to be participating in this exciting project.



Nicholas Taft - Khananye, Chorus

is returning to the Yiddish stage from the company's previous production of A Gantse Velt iz a Teater playing the absurdist Kuni-Leml (the real one, that is!). He has also been involved in the Hampshire College based a capella group, the Crazy Pitches and the Hampshire College Chorus, and is thrilled to have the opportunity to sing in Yiddish verse.



Vardit Haimi-Cohen - Ensemble, Well Woman

Vardit Haimi-Cohen continues to shock the Boston Yiddish theater scene after playing the rebellious Rivkele and the floozy Flossie in Di Gantse Velt iz a Teater in April 2009. When not causing Yiddish scandals, she works as a library assistant at Harvard Library's Judaica Division and is a MLIS candidate at the University of Illinois' Graduate School of Library and Information Science. She has performed in numerous choirs, including the Boston Choral Ensemble, the Yale Glee Club, and Yale's Jewish a cappella group, Magevet. Previous roles include Jack's mother in Into the Woods, Pangloss in Candide and Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun.



Elana Rome - Ensemble, Well Woman

Elana Rome is thrilled to be performing in HRDC's production of Shulamis. A native of Newton, MA, she graduated from Harvard College in 2007, and is excited to finally be making her Harvard theater debut...better late than never! As an undergraduate concentrating in psychology and math education, Elana sang with the Harvard Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, and directed the Opportunes, Harvard's oldest co-ed a cappella group. She currently sings with the Zamir Chorale of Boston.



Aiko Ruch, Dance Corps

Aiko Ruch has been dancing since she was 5 years old. She trained at the Classical Ballet Academy of Northern Virginia performing ballet and modern for several years until she moved to Boston to get her degree in physical therapy at Boston University. While getting her clinical doctorate in physical therapy, Aiko danced with Dance Theater Group (where she met Gabrielle Orcha), performed in the American College Dance Festival and completed her minor in dance. She danced with Rainbow Tribe for their 2005- 2006 season and with Dance Currents from 2006-2008 with choreographer Kathy Hassinger. She has been a teaching assistant for Boston Ballet's CityDance progam and has taught classes in anatomy, injury prevention and hip hop for her home dance studio in Virginia. Aiko is currently teaching at Step by Step Dance Studio in Waltham and works as an outpatient physical therapist for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Chelsea, MA.



Rachel Bertone, Dance Corps

Rachel Bertone, a native of Massachusetts, has been performing throughout the Boston area in a variety of venues for several years now. After training at the Boston Ballet and appearing in many of their productions, she attended The Boston Conservatory where she received a BFA in Dance. Since then she has worked with an array of dance companies (Prometheus Dance, Ballet Rox), theaters (The Reagle Players, The Lyric Stage Company, Fiddlehead Theatre) and films (Stiffs, Bachelor No.2). Rachel is also on faculty at the Boston Ballet and teaches dance throughout MA.



Halee C. Beucle, Dance Corps

Halee Beucler graduated Magna Cum Laude from Connecticut College with a BA in Dance in 2008. It was there she had the fortune of studying with and performing in the works of faculty members David Dorfman, Lisa Race, Heidi Henderson, Lan-Lan Wang, Robyne Watkin, Adele Myers, and guest artists Jeremy Nelson, Eddie Taketa (Varone), Amii LeGendre, Nick Leichter, and Andy LeBeau (Taylor). Halee has also spent summers at the American Dance Festival and Bates Dance Festival, in addition to touring as an intern with David Dorfman Dance in Russia and Poland. Her choreography has been presented at the American College Dance Festival and with the Brooklyn-based dance collective AUNTS. She has performed the work of Lisa Race (Race Dance), Laura Dean's "Tympani" as part of ADF's Past/Forward project, as well as working with Zenas Hutcheson Dance, bnw:dance, BE Dance Collective, Talya Epstein, and most recently Gabrielle Orcha. She is excited to be a part of the production of "Shulamis" and looks forward to all there is to gain from the experience!



Matt Corriel, Vocal Coach

Matt Corriel is the Resident Songwriter and Tutor of the Dramatic Arts in Adams House at Harvard College, as well as Director of Harvard's Freshman Arts Program and the instructor of a co-curricular course called "How Songs Work." He is the award winning composer/lyricist of several published musicals and has music directed with organizations including the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, Boston Children's Theatre and Camp Broadway. Visit http://www.mattcorriel.com to learn more about him.



Sean Goller, Assistant Producer

Sean is a sophomore in the College who is thrilled to finally be involved in an production that caters to both his interests in theater and Yiddish. Sean comes from a Yiddish speaking family, and is currently in his second year studying the language. He is so pleased to finally be immersed in the language of heritage, and couldn't imagine a more entertaining way to continue his discovery of Yiddish texts and culture. Thanks to the cast and crew!



Steven Jaret, Production Design & Light Board Op

Steven Jaret is a 1st year Ph.D. student in the department of Earth and Planetary Science. He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where he also studied planetary geology. When not doing geology Steven has worked as a technical assistant at the Fernbank Science Center planetarium in Atlanta, Ga. In Jewish life, he served on the executive board of the University Tennessee Hillel, and a Hebrew teacher at Heska Amuna Synagogue.



Alex Valente, Rehearsal Pianist

Alex Valente is currently a sophomore in Quincy House. His past experience includes accompaniment for the Harvard Noteables, serving as a pit orchestra pianist for various shows, and assistant music directing for other various productions.



Eric Bornstein, Mask Maker

Eric Bornstein is an award winning mask maker who has studied with masters Agung Suardana in Bali, and Donato Sartori in Italy. He received his MLA in Fine Arts along with the Thomas Small prize from Harvard University. His masks have appeared at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum, the Fuller Craft Museum, the Kennedy Library/Museum, the Boston Lyric Opera, the Boston Ballet, the Society of Arts & Crafts (Newbury Street), King Richard's Faire, Revels, and First Night Boston. He teaches classes in making and performing, and offers performances and residencies to schools throughout the state through Young Audiences of Massachusetts. Local and national media have described him as "a man of many talents" and his masks as "phantasmagoric," "magnificent," "Stunning, finely crafted... first-rate," and "gorgeous." For more information please visit www.behindthemask.org.



Dmitri Slepovitch, Additional Orchestrations and Editing

Dr. Dmitri "Zisl-Yeysef" Slepovitch is an ethnomusicologist, clarinetist, pianist, composer, conductor, and Yiddish singer, a founding member of the Minsker Kapelye Ensemble, Minsk, and Tamevate Kapelye / Foolish Band, New York. He serves as an Assistant to the Artistic Director at the National Yiddish Theater - Folksbiene, New York. He combines performance, teaching, and research of Ashkenazi Jewish music and other Eastern and Central European musical traditions. Dmitri Slepovitch has performed with Aaron Alexander, Michael Alpert, Paul Brody, Arkady Gotesman, Psoy Korolenko, David Krakauer, Frank London, Pete Rushefsky, Selim Sesler, Yale Strom, and Theresa Tova. For more information, please visit his website.