goldstein/shmulik

Lives in the Yiddish Theatre
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE INVOLVED IN THE Yiddish THEATRE
aS DESCRIBED IN zALMEN zYLBERCWEIG'S "lEKSIKON FUN YIDISHN TEATER"
1931-1969

Shmulik Goldstein

Born in November 1908 in Lodz, Poland. Father -- a craftsman. He learned in a cheder and attended evening courses. He worked as a boot stitcher. He began his theatrical activity in a drama circle of the young Bundist organization "Tsukunft", as "Shadchan" in Sholem Aleichem's "Nor a doktor". For about two years, from 1925 until 1927, he acted in drama circles, and when the poet Moshe Broderzon formed the Yiddish theatre studio for the "Folks-party", he was taken in as a member of the drama circle with the professional unions. Then here G. gave lectures for gifted teachers about Jewish history and general theatre history, Sheyne Miriam -- plastic, Prof. Zazula -- diction, Levkovitsh and Lolek Yellin -- makeup. Later from the theatre studio there was assembled the initial formation of the small-arts theatre "Ararat", which began its activity on 25 October 1927 in Lodz, then moved over to Warsaw and made a summertime tour across the Polish province. In 1935 G. guest-starred with "Ararat" in Paris, Belgium and London, returning to Warsaw (where the main actors of the program were Groderzon, Oberzhanek, Nudelman and the funny pessimist). Here the troupe performed until the outbreak of the Second World War.

G. then fled from Lodz to Bialystok, which was under Soviet control. Here he was found with Dzigan and Shumacher (prior members of "Ararat"), and they revived the small-arts stage under the name "Bialystoker Miniature Theatre". Due to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, they had to take to wandering across the Soviet Union, and that, ne und, across the various cities of

the Russian steppes (without Dzigan and Shumacher), after with Lola Folman, Itzhak Perlov, Khayele Shiper, Khayele Luksemburg, Yoel Bergman). G. was sent to Kazakhstan in "The Trudovoy Army", where he for seven months was regisseur of a Russian dramatic circle, then we migrated out to Tashkent, where he acted for a short time (1944) in small-arts in Yiddish with Sidi Thal and her troupe, united again with Lola Folman, with whom he acted until 1946, and, he then returned as a Polish citizen, to Poland.

Here G. joined the troupe of Moshe Lipman, which took to acting in Upper Silesia, later with the arriving Ida Kaminska, then with Dzigan and Shumacher (not under the name "Ararat") with whom he traveled to Paris, where he acted for four years in Yiddish nightclubs and became in 1952 brought by the "Joint" to America.

For several years, G. worked in New York in shops. At first in 1960 he began to singularly perform in special programs, and he became engaged during Dzigan's visit to America and Mexico. G. participated afterwards in the cooperative troupes of Bozyk, Soshana et al, and in Gottesfeld's "Gvald, ven shtarbt er", and Goldfaden's "Beyde kuni lemel", performing in concerts and toured for three yers with Ben Bonus' troupes across America and Canada in the Farband tours. G. further joined Dzigan's troupe, and he came in 1968 to act across America and Canada in "Hot a yid a lendele".

G.'s son, Harry Gold, acts on the English stage and had especially excelled in "Oliver Twist". He also acted in the role of "Shlomele" in Ida Kaminska's offering of "Mirele efros" during her guest appearance in 1967 in New York.

M. E.

Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 6, page 5645.