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
 

Berta Gutentag
(Axelrad)

 

G. was born in Rumania. Her parents were the actors Abraham and Aneta Axelrad. At the age of four, when her parents had acted in Gimpel's troupe in Lemberg, she had begun to act in children's roles. By day she attended school, and by night she acted in the theatre in order to support her mother.

Goldfaden says that at times she acts in a role as an adult young lady, and he engaged her for his troupe in Bucharest, where he was not only her teacher but her guide. At the same time that she took singing lessons, she took to playing clavier and declarations. Later she toured with a Yiddish troupe in Vienna. From there she was engaged with her mother for London in the Pavilion Theatre. Here she became known to actor Chaim Gutentag and together traveled with him and an entire troupe to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she married him. Gutentag became the director of the troupe, and she acted in Argentina for eighteen years, making tours across Germany, England, France, Rumania and Austria from time to time.

In 1922 she came to America and she acted here since then in various troupes. In 1929 she guest-starred in Argentina, and in 1929-30 acted in Boston with Hollander.


Sh. E.

B. Gorin -- "History of Yiddish Theatre", Vol. II, pp. 198-9.

 


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 1, page 471.
 

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