Wolf Zilberberg
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Born on 11 November 1885 in
Lodz, Poland, to Orthodox parents. Received a
traditional Jewish education, then completed Konshtat's
school, and the business courses with the
industrial-technical business school, later working as
an employee in the aktsiengezelshaft hayntsel un
kinitser. For a short time, Z. wrote about theatre
in the "Neue Lodzer Zeitung".
Under the influence of
Spivakovski, in July 1904, he entered into his troupe,
and in the span of several years acted in various other
troupes. 1908 -- acted in Odessa with Spivakovski-Krause,
and after meeting with Peretz Hirshbein founded
(together with Verite) the "Hirshbein Troupe", in which
he acted and stage directed for several plays, including
his translation of Yuskevich's "In shtot".
After the "Hirshbein Troupe"
fell apart, Z. acted for four years in Lodz's "Grand"
Theatre for Zandberg, and there he directed his
translation of Anri Bernstein's "Israel", under the name
"The Anti-Semite" and participated in Hebrew as "De
Silva" in a tour with Zaslavsky across Russia. From 1914
until the October Revolution, he acted and stage
directed in various Yiddish troupes and later assisted
in the founding of the "first Yiddish artists
union", and the Yiddish cooperative troupes under the
supervision of the union. He also founded in Kharkov
(together with Boymvol, Rafelski and Shriftzetser, with
the help of the Jewish social circles and political
parties) the theatre "Unzer vinkl", where he directed
and acted. |
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When the troupe stopped its
activities (due to the march of Denkin's army), Z.
entered in as a bookkeeper in a Yiddish cooperative
bank. Later he acted again in this abandoned theatre,
which went over to Vitebsk and then to Minsk.
In September 1921 Z.
returned to Poland and acted for a short time in Lodz
and in Warsaw, then guest-starring in "Vikt" in Lemberg.
In 1923 he entered into the "Vilna Troupe", where he
acted for a season. Later he immigrated to London,
founding there a troupe under the name "Folks-teater",
and then went to Vienna, where he participated as
"Rabbi" in Sidney Goldin's film offering of Sackler's
"Yizkor", and in the offering of Toller's "Hinkemann" by
the guest-starring troupe of New York's "Yiddish Art
Theatre", and then returned back to London, where he
acted until 1930 in the Pavilion Theatre.
Z. also translated "Zind" by
Pshibishevsky, "Di nisht revaksene" by Nikodemi, "Der
mbul" by H. Berger, "Hinter moyern" by Henry Nathanson,
"Der mirazh", "Di froy, vos hot derhrget", and "Potash
un Perlmuter", which he had staged in various troupes.
Sh. E.
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Sh. Kutner -- Zikhrunus vegn der
hirshbein-troupe ("Teater-zikhrunus", editor Z. Zylbercweig),
Vilna, 1928, pp. 86-9.
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Avraham Levinson -- "Unzer vinkl"
(same, pp. 39-45).
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Zalmen Zylbercweig -- "Yidishe
aktyorn oyf der hebreisher bine. (same, pp. 53-4).
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