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A Lodzer. Profession - a hairdresser.
According to Solomon Krause,
in his troupe in Vilna, P. was for around three months
in the chorus and also provided wigs for the theatre.
According to M. Myodovnik's
memoirs, there were in Lodz (in 1897-1898) "amateurs"
who also had a director, and and one of those directors
was P., who had the profession of a wigmaker. The
"amateurs" often used to arrange productions, and on
holidays perform across the province around Lodz, as
well as Brzeziny, Pabienice, Zgierz et al. When he
returned from the province, the "amateurs" again would
find employment with their prior profession.
Provincial actors in Lodz
sometimes used to farforn oder tsu milikhn [see
"Lexicon", p. 1315] or to P., who used to put out money
for the troupes, create the permissions, by himself act
and often by himself he also put together troupes, which
later had acquired a name on the Yiddish stage in
Russia.
Michael Gelbart recalls in
his memoirs, that when he was a choir boy with a cantor
in Lentshitz, there came there two "Germans", who had
persuaded several choir boys with a cantor's daughter to
travel with them to Kutno, in order to become Yiddish
actors there. In Kutno two people, Pshigoda and
Zilbering, they received pnis with written
posters, in which it was with large letters announced
their performances in the following way:
"Welcome
To the great wonder theatre from Warsaw is here
They are performing the historical play
BAR KOCHBA
With heavenly singing
Large and small
May you come to give
S'vird zeyn vonder shehn
Men hot nokh gimals azons gethon zehn".
Apparently, P. was a
co-director for the "troupe", the actor Moshe Feder
recalls, as a theatre director in Lodz in the years
1908-10. With black walls, dressed in a black hat, a
cane in hand and a cigar in his mouth. P. used to hold "khshub'dik",
speaking with a "laboring" voice, and begin to act in
all the main roles, especially his pet role of "Der
Vinder Mentsh (The Wild Man)" by Gordin. P. used to
organize troupes, at first with amateurs, later with
professional actors, and acted in Lodz and in its
environs, especially during the summer in Lodz's Gertner
"Paradis" and "Leshnitshavka".
M. E. from
Moshe Feder and Solomon Krause.
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M. Myodovinik
Meyne teaterzikhroyges, "Der stern", Minsk, Num' 23,
1926.
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Michael Gelbart -- "Fun
mshurrim-leben", New York 1942, p. 91-95.
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