Theater
The beginnings of Jewish theater are connected
with folk and European traditions. During the Purim holiday,
Jews would
act out Biblical scenes in costume, known as the purimshpil.
According
to rabbinical tradition, Orthodox Jews were not allowed to
participate
in any other form of theater. Rabbis condemned taking part
in the
theater even as early as Talmudic times, when Judaism was
resisting
Hellenic culture.
The first modern Jewish plays, modeled on the
purimshpil, were first
performed in the late eighteenth century among supporters of
the
Haskalah movement. None of these were performed in formal
theaters,
however. In the 1830's, Jews in the larger cities, despite
rabbinical
bans, attended theaters and comprised a significant
proportion of
theater-goers overall. Jewish comedians would perform in
wine cellars
and pubs, putting on short satirical skits and singing
songs. They were
called "singers from Brody" (Polish, spiewacy brodscy)
because the most
famous of them, B. Broder and W. Ehrenkranc-Zbarazer, were
from Brody.
Both became actors in the first professional theater group
in Iasi,
Romania, founded in 1876 by A. Goldfaden.
Soon, more such traveling artistic troupes began
appearing. Despite
the tsarist ban in effect from 1878-1905 on performances in
Yiddish,
they continued performing in a "pseudo-German" language at
cafes, or
outdoor cafes in the summer, in the cities throughout the
Kingdom of
Poland and Russia. One of the first of such performances was
Szmendrik
by A. Goldfaden, staged in 1880 in Lublin by the
Spiewakowski Troupe of
Odessa.
The first permanent Jewish theater was founded in Lwow
by J. B.
Gimpl in 1888 (in existence until 1922). In 1910, there were
already
approximately 360 itinerant theater groups, both
professional and
amateur. Most staged popular vaudevilles and comedies that
were not of
particularly high quality.
In 1900, A. I. Kami�ski, together with his wife, E. R.
Kaminska,
founded an itinerant theater with an ambitious repertoire.
This group
helped establish Kaminska as the leading Jewish actress.
Before the First World War, other theater groups were
founded,
including Kaminski's permanent theater on Dynasy Street in
1913; in
1914, the Hebrew-language theater Ha-bima, founded by N.
Cemach, run by
J. Wachtangow, which was at first an itinerant group, having
its
headquarters since 1917 in Moscow; after a European tour
that lasted
several years, the theater stayed in Palestine in 1926; in
1916, Trupa
Wile�ska (Wilno Troupe), modeled on the Stanislavsky method.
|
Jewish theater blossomed during the 1920's and
1930's, especially in Warsaw. Lighter pieces, farces and
revues were
staged by small theaters such as Azazel and Folks Teater
[Yiddish,
"People's Theater"], cabarets Ararat and Di Yidishe Bande
(Yiddish, "The
Jewish Band", 1933-34, 1937), the avant-garde puppet theater
Khad Gadyo
(Yung Idish), as well as many other theaters and acting
groups,
including Sambatyon, a Jewish theater of miniatures and
grotesques,
founded in 1926 in Warsaw by I. Nozyk. There were also two
premieres of
musical pastiches by Sambatyon, directed by I. Nozyk, with
set design by
W. Weintraub (1891-1942), an artist associated with the
Chaliastre
group. Despite his short life, his accomplishments
influenced the
formation of the Jewish avant-garde, which included the
experimental
Yung Teater, active during the years 1932-37 and founded by
M. Weichert;
Varshaver Idisher Kunstteater (1922-24, 1926-27, 1938-39),
which also
went by the name WIKT; Varshaver Nayer Idisher Teater
(Yiddish, "New
Jewish Theater in Warsaw", 1929-31) under the direction of
J. Turkow;
Teatr dla Mlodziezy (Polish "Theater for Young People",
1937-39, founded
by K. Segalowicz; artistic director: M. Mazo).
Plays in Yiddish or Polish were also staged in Warsaw by
some
theaters whose owners were Jewish, such as Elizeum,
Eldorado, Centralny,
Nowosci and Scala. A Yiddish-language theater press
developed, as well
as two Jewish drama schools and trade unions for Jewish
actors. The
beginnings of theater for the Jewish public, though in
Polish, were the
undertakings of M. Arnstein. He translated and directed
plays such as
Bog zemsty (Polish, The Vengeful God) by S. Asz, Dybuk by S.
An-Ski, and
Golem by H. Leiwik, with set design by A. Pronaszki and K.
Adwentowicze
in the title role. Jewish dramaturgy was occasionally
presented to the
Polish public as well: in 1925, Dybuk by S. An-Ski was
staged in
Arnstein's translation at the Szkarlatna Maska theater; at
the Elizeum,
Mirele Efros by J. Gordin was directed by W. Siemaszkowa in
1929.
Most of the acting groups still traveled, since there
were few
permanent Jewish theaters in Polish cities. In Krakow, there
was the
Krakever Yidish Teater (Yiddish, "Krakow Jewish Theater",
1926-36), run
by J. Turkow until 1927. In Wilno, there was an amateur
avant-garde
puppet theater called Majdim, founded by A. Bastomski, which
existed
from 1933 to 1941. In Lwow, the amateur studio "Maska" was
founded in
the early 1930's. In Lublin, an amateur group associated
with the
"Ha-zomir" Society (Hebrew, "Nightingale", 1916-17) staged
performances,
though it did not have its own theater. In Lodz, the Jewish
theater
Scala was founded in 1912. In Gdansk during the years
1934-38, a group
of Jewish actors founded by H. Glowinski was active, with an
outstanding
director, S. Wajnsztok, who had been an actor with the Wilno
Troupe
earlier.
|
In 1939-41 in the Warsaw ghetto, three
Yiddish-language theaters were operating legally: Eldorado,
Nowy Azazel
and Melody Palace; there were also two Polish-language
Jewish theaters,
Femina and Nowy Teatr Kameralny. They staged Jewish plays,
as well as
Polish and foreign ones, and anti-fascist satires, despite
Nazi bans.
Illegal performances were also organized, most often on the
premises of
social welfare offices. Artistic life in the ghetto was a
manifestation
of civil resistance, and provided a means of earning a
living to Jewish
actors, writers and artists. Most of them perished shortly
thereafter.
The first postwar performance was an evening of Jewish
songs,
performed by D. Blumenfeld, which was organized in Lublin in
1944 for
Holocaust survivors. In 1946, two permanent Jewish theaters
were
founded: in Lodz (whose director was I. Kaminska) and in
Dzierzoniow
(later in Wroclaw), where three itinerant troupes began
operating.
Polish Radio broadcast two-hour programs in Yiddish three
times a week,
featuring Jewish actors.
As Stalinization progressed, between 1947 and 1950, the
Jewish
cultural life that was being reborn was subject to communist
ideology.
Most of the theater groups were disbanded. The only one to
survive was
the E. R. Kaminska State Jewish Theater, based in Warsaw
since 1955.
(A.C./CM)
|