Yiddish Empire : the Vilna troupe, Jewish theater, and the art of itinerancy / Debra Caplan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Caplan, Debra, author.

Contributor:

Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan), publisher.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

VÌĐilner trupe.

Traveling theater--History--20th century.

Traveling theater.

Theater, Yiddish--History.

Theater, Yiddish.

History.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (327 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor, Michigan : University of Michigan Press, [2018]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Yiddish Empire tells the story of how a group of itinerant Jewish performers became the interwar equivalent of a viral sensation, providing a missing chapter in the history of the modern stage. During World War I, a motley group of teenaged amateurs, impoverished war refugees, and out- of- work Russian actors banded together to revolutionize the Yiddish stage. Achieving a most unlikely success through their productions, the Vilna Troupe (1915-36) would eventually go on to earn the attention of theatergoers around the world. Advancements in modern transportation allowed Yiddish theater artists to reach global audiences, traversing not only cities and districts but also countries and continents. The Vilna Troupe routinely performed in major venues that had never before allowed Jews, let alone Yiddish, upon their stages, and operated across a vast territory, a strategy that enabled them to attract unusually diverse audiences to the Yiddish stage and a precursor to the organizational structures and travel patterns that we see now in contemporary theater. Debra Caplan's history of the Troupe is rigorously researched, employing primary and secondary sources in multiple languages, and is engagingly written.

Contents:

Prologue : the sun never sets on the Yiddish stage

Spectacular failures : Jewish theater as cultural frontier

Jargon art : from refugees to artistic visionaries

Interlude I : rogues and rebels

Between two worlds : The dybbuk goes global

Interlude II : love and romance on the road

Nomadic chutzpah : the Vilna Troupe's accidental avant-garde

Interlude III : a family affair

The Vilna Troupe nexus

Interlude IV : The dybbuk in Auschwitz

Epilogue : Jewish theater, world theater.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-310) and index.

Description based on information provided by publisher

Has Supplement:

Supplement (work): Caplan, Debra. 1 online resource (2 audio files, 3 video files, 35 digital images) Yiddish Empire.

ISBN:

9780472123681

0472123688

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.