|
the Jewish cultural union "Hmtib
(Benefactor?)" and performed with papers in various
cities in Romania.
In 1910 there appeared in
New York his drama, "Azra'el."
In 1913, through Jacob P.
Adler who staged K.'s and William Edlin's play, "Der yid
(The Jew)," about which B. Gorin said, that was adapted
form Anri Bernstein's play.
About the play, Sh. Yanovski
writes:
"We have seen ...the 'Jew'
in Adler's 'Dewey Theatre,' and we would like to see a
lot of shortcomings in this play when we would like to
see some kind of promise for the future. However,
unfortunately, isn't that the case? We wonder why these
young people have taken to making a drama. The play,
'The Jew,' is a morality play, a play filled with
agitation. It is a melodrama ...(The composer doesn't
know the people who are being portrayed), and therefore
what only comes out are shadows of people. The moral of
this was passed to young people: never to write a drama,
a history of people which they perhaps only heard of, or
never did ...been acquainted with them, to understand a
little bit of what is going on in their souls ..."
Y. Slonim writes about the
play and the acting:
"' 'The Jew,' which is the
fruit of the interconnected minds of William Edlin and
Leon Kuperman, is far, far from an art work. We want to
explain here immediately and at the beginning, that the
play is even far from literature... Art work is rarely
produced.... 'The Jew' is a 'Mexican binen' work
...The problem, which in the play raises, which is not
new, here is an interesting and a time question. The
technique is partly good... an intelligent viewer can
expose the play ...can enjoy spending the evening
...'The Jew' is a smooth play with several strengths,
but not a vulgar scene, with almost constant motion on
the stage.
...About the acting of the
actors, we do not have many compliments to make for
them. Many of them were simply incapable of secrecy. Mr.
Shoengold, who plays the role of the professor, does not
begin to know his role and did not know how to talk and
where to turn, almost all the actors did not sow what he
needed. Although in some scenes he made a lift to the
fire of "big Adler." Entirely good, but a little tight.
Frances Adler, Mr. Conrad, Mrs. Wilensky, also didn't
play badly. Mrs. Nathanson as Mrs. Brown, Mr. Schacht as
the poet, have tried to do their best. Schacht has been
really good at times."
In 1911 K. translated
Goethe's "Faust," which was ordered by him to be a
publisher Evalenko, as Evalenko was demoralized as a
suspect in relationship to the Czarist force, the
translation (another translation, but only for the first
part, from Ezra Fininberg, published in Moscow in 1937)
from the original German, with a component by the great
Goethe researcher, with a preface by the translator, a
short biographical sketch of Goethe, with a simplicity
and commentary, it only appeared in 1920 in "Malerman's
Literary Publishing Company," Philadelphia-New York.
Zalmen Raizen notes:
"Unfortunately the
translation of the great work of world literature is
absolutely unsatisfactory."
He turned back to America,
and K. on 29 March 1942 passed away in New York.
K.'s published plays:
(1.) Azra'el
A tragedy by Leo Kuperman
(3 acts with a prologue)
New York (1910, 54 pp.)
(2.) Faust
A tragedy in two parts, by J.W. von Goethe
The great Goethe researcher, by L. Kuperman
(First part, 1920, 298 pp.; Second part, 460 pp.)
Malerman's Literary Publishing Company
Sh.E. by Jacob Tikman.
-
Zalmen Reisen --
"Lexicon of Yiddish Literature," Vilna, 1929, Volume
3d, pp. 611-614.
-
B. Gorin -- "History
of Yiddish Theatre," Vol. 2, pp. 214, 270.
-
Y. Slonim -- "The
Jew" in Adler Theatre, "Theatre and Moving
Pictures," N.Y., 24 October 1913.
-
D.B. (Sh. Yanovsky)
-- In theatre, "Fraye arbayter shtime," N.Y., 25
October 1913.
-
Y. Rapoport -- Goethe
in Yiddish, "Vochnshrift," Warsaw, N' 14, 1932.
|
