|
Bernard Young
(Boaz Yungvits)
|
 |
|
Born in March 1870 in Nowy
Dwor, Poland. His father was a contractor, his mother an
ashet-khil; he knew Gemara, and on
Shabbat afternoon he would pre-listen to the
children's Gemara page. At is home he also often used to
listen to the cantors.
At the age of twelve he went
to learn with the Yanover rabbi, afterwards returning to
learn alone at the Beit HaMedrash, reading the Hebrew
Haskalah literature.
[Tur] and with a teacher
he learned Russian, Polish and German, and under the
imprint of Kalman Shulman's "Hrist bitr" he
attended a "Bar kokhba" production put on by the Tanzman-Spivakovski
troupe in the Eldorado Theatre, and he became a star in
the amateur theatre. A year later, he
traveled to London, and there became an understudy for
the local Yiddish troupe (Adler, Gradner, Max Rosenthal,
Aba Shoengold).
In 1899 he came to America
and became a member of a dramatic club, where Koppel
Sender was performing at Turin Hall (4th Street)
Goldfaden's "Doctor Almasado," in which Y. debuted as
"Bartelo" and later also toured across the province to
act in the play.
In 1891 he entered as a
professional actor with Adler at the Poole's Theatre, and
there he had the opportunity to act "[Hrif']" in Gordin's
"Der yidisher kenig lir (The Jewish King
Lear)," then he |
acted with with Adler at the
Roumanian Opera House and at the Windsor Theatre,
where he was the first "Bar hina" in the
then
great success of the opera "Bit-David (House of
David)."
From 1900-1909 he
acted at the People's Theatre and had already
held an important position as an actor. In 1909,
he became a partner in the Thalia Theatre (with
Kessler), acted there for two seasons,
then with Kessler in Brooklyn's Lyric
Theatre, and in 1911 staged his adaptation of H. Meisel's play, "The
Bigamist," under the name "Zayn veyb's
man."
In 1911 he traveled
to America and [nisht torndik areynforn] in
Russia, guest starring in Lemberg, Czernowitz,
Iasi, Bucharest, where he for the first time
performed in Jacob Gordin's "Eyts hada'as (Tree
of Knowledge)." He
returned to America where he, as a partner,
helped build the Second Avenue Theatre, and he
acted there during the 1911-12 season.
In the summer of
1912 he traveled to his wife Clara Young who
was in Warsaw,
and there staged at the Elizeum Theatre with
Anshel Schorr and Rumshinsky "Dos meydl fun der
vest (The Girl of the West)" under the name "Di amerikanerin."
He returned in the middle of the 1912-1913
season, and Y. retired from his partnership in the Second
Avenue Theatre and went back again with Clara
Young to Warsaw, where he took over the Kaminski
Theatre and there also put on with Rakow,
Rumshinsky's "Khantshe in amerika," Phillips'
"Alma vu voynstu," and for the first time on the
Yiddish stage the German opera "Puptshik."
For a certain time
Y. took a break from his acting and
occupied himself completely with directing the
plays for Clara Young ,and with the business of
these productions.
At the start of 1915
he came to Odessa and put on for the first time
at the Bulgarov Theatre his adaptation of the operetta
"Di dame fun maksim" under the name "Madam
hoplya," and in the same year went on a tour across Rumania, again
returning to Odessa, taking over the Nowvy
Theatre, and at the end of 1915 here he put on his
own musical comedy "Jakele blofer"
("Jakele
blofer, a comic opera in three acts from Boaz Yungvirts, published by T. Jacobson and M.
Goldberg, Warsaw, 1926," p. 51, 16°],
in which he acted over a hundred times.
In 1916 he acted in
Yekaterinoslav, and for four weeks in Moscow and
Peterburg. He again traveled to Odessa, and here
in the
beginning of 1917 put on Itzak Katzenelson's
musical comedy "Anna bleyb."
During the March
Revolution he acted, after a lengthy forbiddance,
in Kiev in the Solovtsov Theatre, and afterwards across
other cities of Russia.
At the end of 1920
he came back to New York and together with
William Rolland for the 1921-22 season
Brooklyn's Liberty Theatre, wherein he brought
Clara Young from Romania, and on 1 October 1921
staged for the first time in America his comedy
"Jeykele blofer" (music by Sholom Secunda), the
European operetta "Dos holand veybkhen," and the
musical comedy "Berele tremp" by Israel
Rosenberg (later adapted by Y.).
In 1922-23 he acted
in Toronto in the Standard Theatre.
In 1923-24 he acted
in the Yiddish Art Theatre in the role of the
"Polish Jew" in "Shabse Zvi," and then traveled
back to Warsaw, where he directed in Kaminski's
theatre Moshe Schorr's operetta "Di rumenishe
khasene (The Romanian Wedding)" in his own
adaptation, which then in the same year was part of
the repertoire for all Yiddish houses in
America.
In 1925 he directed
Clara Young who guest-starred in the Soviet
Union, and there he acted for two-and-a-half
years. By the time Y. in April 1927 staged
in the Aquarius Theatre in Moscow his own
Chasidic operetta ("Sha, der rebbe fort" (music
by Trilling and Rosentur). In September 1928 he
traveled to Argentina and there staged with
Clara Young several plays, and then
he guest-starred by himself in Gordin's plays.
In 1930-31 he acted
in Baltimore.
In 1931-32 he was in
Boston.
In 1932 he was in
Thomashefsky's Brooklyn Gaiety Theatre.
During the 1931-32
season in Toronto there was staged by Misha
Fiszon Y.'s comedy in three acts, "Di yidishe
kolonistn fun rusland."
In 1914 Y. had
published in "Di varhayt" several articles about
Yiddish theatre in Russia and Poland ,and in
Argentina in 1928 the Argentinean "Pnimer un
pnim'lakh vegn yidishn teater in ukraine."
Sh.E.
-
Noah
Prilutski -- "Yidish teater," Vol. II, p.
67.
-
Matias Rose
-- Klara yong in dzheykele blofer," "Di
tsayt," New York, 7 October 1921.
-
M. Osherowitz
-- Bronzvil un ihre tsvey theaters,
"Forward," New York, 7 October 1921.
-
B. Gorin --
Klara yong in liberty theater, "Morning
Journal," New York, 10 October 1921.
-
William Edlin
-- Di elegants fun klara young in der
opereta "dzheykele blofer," "Der tog," New
York, 18 October 1921.
-
Shmuel
Roshansky -- Klara youngs debut in teater "Ekselsior".
-
"Dzhekele
blofer" fun boaz yong. "Idishe tsaytung,"
Buenos Aires, 17 September 1928.
-
Sh. R. [Sh.
Rozhansky] -- "Sha, der rebbe fart!," "Idishe
tsaytung," Buenos Aires, 1 October, 1928.
-
Jacob
Botoshansky -- Klara young als a bukhur a
khvat, "Di prese," Buenos Aires, 26 October
1928.
-
Shmuel
Rozhansky -- A sheyn oyfgefirte piese in
teater "Ekselsior," "Odesa mama" fun boaz
yong, "Idishe tsaytung," Buenos Aires, 28
October 1928.
-
Sh. R. -- Der
debut fun boaz yong, "Idishe tsaytung,"
Buenos Aires, 5 October 1928.
-
Y. B. [Botoshansky]
-- Y. gordins ets hdet in "ekselsior" (debut
fun boaz yungvits), "Di prese," Buenos
Aires, 5 October 1928.
-
Boaz Young --
Vi azoy men hot geshpilt yidish teater in di
shreklekhe teg fun ukraine, "Pnimer un
pnim'lak," Buenos Aires, 213, 1928.
-
Sh. R. -- "Mzmzel
hoflia," muzikalishe komedye fun boaz yong,
"Idishe tsaytung," Buenos Aires, 9 November
1928.
-
Elchanan
Zeitlin --Der oyftrit fun klara yog, "Unzer
ekspres," Warsaw, 13 January 1930.
-
M. Kipnis --
"Sha der rebbe fort!," "Haynt," Warsaw, 22
January 1930.
-
B. K. [Karlinsky]
-- Klara yong oyf der bihne, "Der moment,"
Warsaw, 24 January 1930.
-
Tatiana F. [Fuks]
-- "Sha, der rebbe fort," Di neye piese mit
klara young, "Nayer folksblat," Lodz, 24
March 1930.
-
LE -- Klara
young als rbile, "Vilner tog," 1 April 1930.
-
A. V. [Vaserman]
-- Klara young in "dzhekele blofer," "Riger
tog," 4 May 1930.
-
K. [Kitay] --
Klara yong in "Odesa mame," "Frimorgn,"
Riga, 8 May 1930
-
-- N. --
"Odessa mame" mit klara yong, "Riger tog," 8
May 1930.
-
Kit -- Klara
yong in "Sha, der rebbe fort," "Frimorgn," Riga,
18 May 1930.
-
M. Mairites
-- Klara young in "Sha, der rebbe fort," "Folksblat,"
Kovno, 103, 1930.
-
Y.
Yerozalimski -- Dzhekele blofer, "Belgisher
tog," 24 December 1930.
|
|