Theatre History Overview - Part 100 - American Yiddish Theatre

Yiddish theatre is theatre that is written and performed in the Yiddish language. It is mainly performed by Ashkenazi Jews because this language is native to them. The genres found in Yiddish theatre are broad.

Yiddish theatre came to the United States when Boris Thomashefsky, who was only 12, persuaded Frank Wolf to invest in bringing the two brothers of his co-worker, Golubok, from London to New York. The brothers arrived with four other actors. They performed the play Koldunye (The Witch) by Avrom Goldfadn. The performance took place at a hall on Fourth Street in Manhattan that Wolf rented.

Many Jews did not want this performance to happen. This is because they felt that Yiddish undignified. They tried bribing Jews who bought tickets into selling them back or trading them for beer. They even bribed the lead actress into claming she had a sore throat. However, their plans backfired. Thomashefsky's father padded him "in all the right places" and he went on as the female lead.

The Gulubok company continued in Manhattan. In 1896, Thomashefsky had a company that played in Baltimore. He met his wife, Bessie, when she went backstage to meet the lead actress and found that Boris had been playing the part. Bessie and Boris Thomashefsky married in 1891 and Bessie took over playing the female roles.

Between the years of 1890 and 1940, at least a dozen Yiddish theatre companies had performed in the Lower East Side of New York City (which includes Brooklyn and the Bronx). More than 200 Yiddish theatre companies traveled to other cities to give performances.

Stella Adler was born in 1901 to parents who were in a Yiddish Theatre company. These experiences led to her founding her own theatre. Yiddish theatre declines in the 1950s and the 1960s. However, it never died. Companies such as the National Yiddish Theatre in New York City, New York still exist.

If you enjoy my content, please consider becoming one of my patrons through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheatreGeek where I will be sharing more in depth content, answering your questions, sharing which types of software I use and how to find them, and more. By becoming my patron, you allow me to create more content about theatre and more theatrical content.