ERC > LEXICON OF THE YIDDISH THEATRE  >  VOLUME 5  >  MICHAEL KATZ


 

Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre
BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE WHO WERE ONCE INVOLVED IN THE Yiddish THEATRE;
aS FEATURED IN zALMEN zYLBERCWEIG'S  "lEKSIKON FUN YIDISHN TEATER"


VOLUME 5: THE KDOYSHIM (MARTYRS) EDITION, 1967, Mexico City

 

Michael Katz
(incomplete translation)


 

Born in 1908 in Vilna, Polish-Lita. His father was a manufacturer. He learned in a cheder, then in the Vilna Jewish Real Gymnazie. From childhood on he had a leaning toward the stage. He began in small roles, and in 1933 he traveled with the "Vilna Troupe" on a tour, with whom he toured across the Polish province for a long time. He returned to Vilna, [where] he had worked daily with his father in a manufacturing workshop, and in the evening played in the "Unzer Theatre" on 8 November. Here he played for a series of years.

S. Bliacher characterized him this way:

"Michael Katz, a round [runder], circular [keylechdiker] young man, had with his extravagance, an elegance in character roles. Every time when the director (of "Unzer Theatre") used to direct an actor, they immediately would invite Katz with his young friends, unmarried members, whom they would strongly exploit in the theatre..... In the Polish times they had paid them one złoty a night. In the beginning he did not, because he was not a masterpiece of the theatre. Later he became a ern-frage. ...a small wage, which is how the boys and young people went on strike... The director complained to them. They had voted a percentage of the revenue, but that percentage, that they also often would not earn the złotys... this had been Katz, as well as his colleagues, who did not pay much attention. What can one do, that the business was generally bad, they were with leytn immediately."

And about his last stage leg and tragic end, Sh. Bliacher writes:

"In 1939-40, Katz was a member of "Octave (sp)" and played responsible roles and mad his way to the first place in the theatre, in ...

  • Sh. Bliacher -- "Eyn un tsvantzik un eyner," New York, 1962, pp. 38-44; 67-69.


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 5, page 3812.
 

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