The Remarkable Zalmen Zylbercweig
and his Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre

 

Direct from a Rumanian newspaper
Sunday, 19 August 1928.
"Rampa", Anul XIII, No. 3171. Translated from Rumanian.

Hebrew Theatre is Born in Botoşani
 

As the Iasi fluerat Goldfaden -- Gradner brothers performances. -- A representative buciuc in London -- The first Romanian actors in London. -- Modern Jewish Theatre -- Yiddish theatre crisis.

We received a visit at our newspaper by Mr. Zalmen Zylbercweig,  who is currently undertaking a very interesting study tour in Europe.

The mission of Mr. Zylbercweig is to study objectively the historical evolution of Hebrew theatre, which strange to say, with a valuable tradition of quite old, and despite the spread his extraordinary worldwide which has not yet been subjected scientific study, is only superficial. With support from the Hebrew Actors Union in New York and American Jews,  Zylbercweig - A young journalist in Poland, - is currently first undertaking a thorough research, in order to draw up an encyclopedia of Jewish theatre....

 


....Gradner thinks that business will be brilliant. In reality, things were quite different than what happened. The evening show at the garden was filled to the last...

....The day began with preparations to remove Goldfaden's literary magazine. Mrs. Librescu advised Goldfaden to quit literary magazines and poems, urging him to write more plays, so that the audience will be eager to show up, but no Jewish songs. Goldfaden has an innate talent for theatre. The school wrote a series of sketches in who successfully broke himself. He was even in manuscript a work with dialogue that could easily turn into play.. And following the advice of Mrs. Librescu, Goldfaden wrote his first song, "Grandma and Nephew" which was represented throughout the performances by Gradner in Botoşani
 in 1877. Then grown wealthy by merchants from Russo-shifts, thus Gradner did good business with his theatre performances. Prompted by the success, Gradner returned to Iasi, where....
 

Crisis in Yiddish Theatre

Yiddish theatre is currently passing through a difficult crisis. Audience interest in such shows becomes more limited due to the process of assimilation that you find everywhere. You should live new Gordon innovations designed to bring and to attract new audiences to the theatre. On the other hand, we have no actors so great that those who, in the olden days, made theatre ​​famous and [helped it] through a literary crisis. No more writing of good songs that are suitable to new public demands.

 
 


next:
Zylbercweig visits Czernowitz, 1934 >>
 


 


 

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