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In the beginning of the third decade of the twentieth
century in Lemberg, there was founded the Yiddish
theatre studio "Maske," under the management of Heniek
Luft and Daniel Frankel.
Jonas Turkow writes in his
book "Farloshene shtern (Extinguished Stars)":
"The 'Maske' was an avante-garde theatre and quickly was in high esteem,
thanks to the serious, responsible attitude to theatre
arts. The theatre studio 'Maske' became popular in the
entirety of Eastern Galicia.
Around the "Mask" there was
grouped the Lemberg Yiddish literary world, such as:
Israel Ashendorf, Rachel Auerbach, Nokhum Bomze, Jacob
Schudrich, Sonia Friedman, Nachman Blitz, I. Nacht and
the fanatics of better Yiddish theatre -- the famous
lawyer Dr. Leib Landau. They had the literary oversight
over new young theatre. The artist-painter Fritz
Kleinman, I. Vits, M. Bukh, I. Shtreng and Otto were the
artistic advisors. They also used to paint the sets and
costumes for the 'Mask'. Bella Katz directed the
choreography.
The 'Mask' staged, among
others, 'In polish oyf der keyt' by Y.L. Peretz, 'Revizor'
by N. Gogol, 'Di takse' by Mendele Mokher Sforim,
adapted from Itsik Shiper and I. Gezunt, 'Di veber (The
Weaver)' by G. Hauptmann, 'Shylock' by Hashek, 'Di
hofenung' by Heyermans, 'Bunt in oysbeserungs-hoyz' by
Lampel, 'Sokrateses farteydikung' in the adaptation of
I. Ashendorf, 'Bontshe shvayg' in Chaim Nisencweig's
adaptation, 'Di kliatshe' by Mendele Mukher Sforim in I.
Ashendorf's adaptation, 'Der shotn', according to
Andersen, in Luft's adaptation.
The regisseurs of the 'Maske'
were Heniek Luft, Daniel Frankel and David Licht. Music
for all the offerings were written by Professor Henrik
Ginsberg.
The ensemble of the 'Maske'
consisted of intelligent, purposeful youths who became
professional actors in their time: Esther Gruber, Nathan Mayzler, Avraham Pliver, Severin Zwerling, Leib Tell,
Blanke Altshuler, Chanan Grosfeld, Rosa Reisman, and the
singers Julia Moretska, who later went over to the
Polish opera."
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Jonas Turkow -- "Extinguished Stars," Buenos Aires, 1953,
Vol. II, pp. 16-18.
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