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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 3, 2009
Contact: Debra Caplan, producer/co-director
Phone: (617) 800-5138
Email: caplan@fas.harvard.edu

Yiddish Operetta Opens for a New Generation

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Nearly 70 years since the Yiddish stage was silenced by World War II, voices will rise again to revive Avrom Golfaden's Yiddish operetta, Shulamis, premiering at Harvard University's historic Agassiz Theater, Dec. 2-6.

This landmark bilingual production of Shulamis will premiere a century since the death of Goldfaden, considered by many critics the father of Yiddish Theater. Shulamis was the very last production of interwar Yiddish theatre in Warsaw in 1939.

While wandering thirsty through the desert, beautiful young Shulamis is rescued by handsome Avsholem, who swears to marry her upon his return from Jerusalem. When Avsholem fails to come for her, Shulamis pretends to go mad in order to keep her vow to him, yearning both for his return and for revenge.

According to producer/director Debra Caplan and co-director Cecilia Raker, the play is the story of a broken vow, and a young woman's loyalty to that vow over time. Shulamis has served as a metaphor for the Jewish people waiting for redemption, the two Harvard students said.

"Shulamis was the most popular Yiddish play of all time," said Caplan, a graduate student in Yiddish literature who also holds production credit for the show. "As the first full-scale production of this play involving young people since 1939, we are uniquely poised to bring this historically significant operetta to a new generation of artists and audience members who did not grow up with the Yiddish theater."

Caplan shares the directing credit with Cecelia Raker, an undergraduate student studying stage directing at Harvard, an accomplished director and actor who has worked extensively with the Lowell House Opera and Dunster House Opera at Harvard.

The return of Shulamis is yet another example of a resurgence of interest in Yiddish among young people. Caplan noted an increasing number of young people are studying Yiddish, the lingua franca of European Jews for centuries. Colleges, high schools, synagogues, music festivals, and Jewish community centers worldwide are devoting more programming concerning Yiddish language and culture, once considered by an older generation to be dying or even dead. Harvard offers a thriving Yiddish language program (for details, click here.)

The production of Shulamis features a new English translation by renowned Yiddish translator Nahma Sandrow and a haunting musical score by Folksbiene artistic director Zalmen Mlotek.

"The music of Shulamis represents an unusual conglomeration of styles: 19-century opera, Yiddish folk music, Jewish synagogue chant, and popular music of the day," said music director Lidiya Yankovskaya. "The presence of so many influences creates the constant need for delicate balance in interpretation. However, when the balance is just right, the best qualities of each of these styles are combined into a new realm of expressivity."

All of the dialogue will be in English, while all of the 25 songs will be performed in Yiddish. English supertitles will be provided for all of the Yiddish material. Caplan said the production team chose to keep the music in Yiddish because "the music is at the heart of the show, and it simply does not sound the same in English."

"Keeping the music in Yiddish allows the audience to experience something akin to the original feeling of the piece, while the English dialogue makes the characters and story approachable," she said.

"A full production including orchestra, masks, and innovative choreography, Harvard's revival of Shulamis will charm and inspire both Yiddish theater aficionados and those who are new to the Yiddish theater," Raker said.

"I regard Shulamis as one of the biggest and brightest diamonds yielded by the rich mine of Yiddish culture," said cast member Anton Eriera. "I can't get the music out of my head, and my heart!"

Performances will be Dec. 2, 3, 5, and 6 at 8 p.m., with a matinee Dec. 6 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 general admission, with $10 discount tickets for students and seniors.

All performances will take place in Harvard's historic Agassiz Theater in picturesque Radcliffe Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Agassiz Theater is located just a few blocks from the Harvard Square T Station at 5 James Street, Cambridge, Mass.

For more information, please visit our website at www.shulamis.org

Sponsored by the Office for the Arts at Harvard, Learning from Performers, Harvard's Center for Jewish Studies, the Harvard Library Judaica Division, and the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation.

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Special Note: in conjunction with this production, Harvard will host an academic symposium, Goldfaden and the Yiddish Theatre: Shulamis and its Legacy. The program will be Dec. 4, noon - 3:30 p.m. at the Agassiz Theater, Radcliffe Yard.

The symposium will feature a roundatble with Joel Berkowitz of SUNY Albany, translator Nahma Sandrow of CUNY Bronx, composer Zalmen Mlotek of the Folksbiene Yiddish Theater in New York, Alyssa Quint of Princeton, and Seth L. Wolitz of the University of Texas at Austin. The session is free and open to the public.
website by Shauna Gordon-McKeon, 2009