Vilna Troupe - WikiHQ

The Vilna Troupe (; ; ; ), also known as Fareyn Fun Yiddishe Dramatishe Artistn (Federation of Yiddish Dramatic Actors) and later Dramă şi Comedie, was an international and mostly Yiddish-speaking theatre, one of the most famous in the history of Yiddish theater. It was formed in and named after the city of Vilnius (Vilna) in the Russian Empire, later capital city of Lithuania. Distinctly Modernist, and strongly influenced by Russian literature and by the ideas of Konstantin Stanislavski, their travels in Western Europe and later to Romania played a significant role in the dissemination of a disciplined approach to acting that continues to be influential in the present day.

Early years

thumb|Vilna Troupe plays "Der dibek" ([[The Dybbuk), Poland, 1920s]]

Founded in 1915 or 1916 during World War I, the troupe began with the deserted Vilna State Theatre as their base, toured Kovno, Białystok and Grodno, and soon moved to Warsaw. Their uniform Lithuanian Yiddish stood in contrast to the mix of dialects often heard in Yiddish theater at the time. Early versions of the play were written variously in Russian and Yiddish, but Russian director and method acting pioneer Stanislavski (who first encountered the work in Russian) made several suggestions to Ansky. One of these was that for the sake of authenticity the piece should be in Yiddish. Stanislavski's death prevented the play from being produced at the Moscow Art Theater. At the time of Ansky's death, on November 8, 1920, the play was complete but had never been professionally produced. Its unanticipated success established the play as a classic of modern Yiddish theater. Their 1923 London production of Sholem Asch's The God of Vengeance at the Pavilion Theatre, Whitechapel was shut down by the censor (who had originally passed it based on an English-language synopsis). The play includes a portrayal of a lesbian relationship, which is the most favorably portrayed relationship in what is otherwise dark play. Among the members of the troupe was Joseph Green, later a Yiddish-language filmmaker.

Bucharest

In 1923, the Vilna troupe came to Bucharest at the invitation of Isidor Goldenberg of the Jigniţa Summer Theater. At the time, the troupe included actresses Hanna Braz, Luba Kadison, Helena Gotlib, Judith Lares, Hanna Mogel, and Miriam Orleska, and actors Alexander Stein, Joseph Buloff, Aizik Samberg, Joseph Kamen, Jacob Waislitz, Leib Kadison, Shmuel Sheftel, Benjamin Ehrenkrantz and Chaim Brakarz. The director of the company was Mordechai Mazo. Author, businessman and Zionist activist A. L. Zissu was instrumental in helping the transition and was reportedly the company's main financial backer after 1923. Zissu was the brother-in-law of the Romanian poet Tudor Arghezi.

According to playwright and cultural promoter Israil Bercovici, their disciplined approach to theater impacted not only Romanian Yiddish theater but Romanian theater generally. Their audience went beyond the usual attendees of Yiddish theater: they drew the attention of the Romanian-language press, the Romanian theater world, and of "men of culture" generally. An August 23, 1924 article in the daily newspaper Adevărul noted: "Such a demonstration of artistry, even on a small stage such as Jigniţa and even in a language like Yiddish ought to be seen by all who are interested in superior realization of drama." Romanian literary critic Paul Cernat argues that the Vilna Troupe acted as a ferment for the local avant-garde, Expressionist environment, and by extension, for cutting edge Romanian literature. Cernat noted that while most Romanian avant-garde shows were "simple playful curiosities", "expressionist aesthetics were not without consequences on the [new Romanian] theatrical texts".

In Cernat's view, the Vilna Troupe accomplished this in tandem with various local companies and promoters. Among the latter, he cites Zissu, Benjamin Fondane, Ion Marin Sadoveanu, Armand Pascal, Sandu Eliad, Scarlat Callimachi, Dida Solomon, George Ciprian and various authors affiliated with Contimporanul magazine. Citing cultural historian Ovid Crohmălniceanu, Cernat also concludes that the branch of Expressionism favored by the company followed a distinct path, having its roots in Hasidic Judaism.

The Vilna Troupe was instantly made notorious by its staging of The Deluge, a work by Swedish-born dramatist Henning Berger, which was positively reviewed by the prominent literary magazine Rampa. The Deluge was a headliner by the company, until it was replaced by Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths (August 1924) The situation was aggravated when the actors had to take a break from performing at the Jigniţa, following the death of its female owner, Sofia Lieblich. During that period, several actors left their temporary home in Romania, most of them settling in the United States. The production was another critical success: writer Victor Eftimiu called it "a model of stylized realist theater", while dramatist Ion Marin Sadoveanu argued that it was comparable to "the best scenes" produced in France by the acclaimed director Jacques Copeau. On their 40th show with the play, the actors were rewarded with portraits specially drawn by caricaturist Jacques Kapralik.

In an article for the leftist magazine Lupta, Victor Eftimiu also expressed his opinion that the cultural renaissance heralded by the Troupe could enforce cultural patriotism and nationalism among Romanian Jews, and thus make "Jewishness" prove itself more worthy than "the braggadocios" of other nationalist discourses. Writing in the Warsaw Yiddish-language Literarishe Bleter during the run of Der zinger fun zayn troyer, Joseph Buloff was amazed at the positive reception that Yiddish theater received among the gentiles of Bucharest. Buloff noted that the Romanian actor Tanţi Cutava was equally comfortable acting in French and Yiddish as in his native Romanian, that he often heard ethnic Romanians singing songs from the Yiddish theater over a glass of wine, and that Romanian writers and artists invited Yiddish actors to their get-togethers, all of which apparently formed a stark contrast to Warsaw at that time.

Dramă şi Comedie

"The wandering troupe from Vilna will stay put... after an era of prolonged touring", reported Integral. "They will fix on a program, which will no longer oscillate between melodrama and an expressionist mural. Apparently, the prospect launched today is precise: a new group tending to go along the route of modern innovation. 'No compromise with lack of taste—no compromise with bad taste': a shout that justifies an existence and would be worthy of realization."

The "no compromise" slogan came from the statement of program, really more of an artistic manifesto, with which the reconstituted group launched itself. The same document also declared the troupe's intent "to offer the masses and intellectuals simultaneously an institution of culture". The new troupe included such actors as Braz, Kadison, Lares, Orleska, Stein, Buloff, Kamen, Waislitz, Sheftel, and the Kadisons from the 1923 roster, plus Noemi Nathan, Yokheved Waislitz, Jehuda Ehrenkranz, Samuel Iris, Simkhe Natan, Sholom Schönbaum, Henry Tarlo, and Simi Weinstock.

However, Dramă şi Comedie would play only one full season of theater (1925–26), with some remnants struggling on another year. Their productions, beginning with Alter Kacyzne's Der dukus ("The Duke") and including Nikolai Gogol's Marriage, After the sudden and unexpected death of actress Judith Lares, director Mazo left for Warsaw, and then Vilna. The troupe continued briefly with Luigi Pirandello's Man, Beast, and Virtue in the 1926–27 season. In mid 1926 Buloff and Luba Kadison left the troupe and, at the invitation of Maurice Schwartz, emigrated to the United States, where they joined Schwartz's Yiddish Art Theatre in New York. The rest of the troupe returned to Bucharest, and then went to Cernăuți (Czernowitz; Chernivtsi), where A. Stein directed a production of Leonid Andreyev's play "Der gedank" (Thought). In October of the same year, David Herman staged and directed I. L. Peretz's Bay nakht afn altn mark (At Night in the Old Marketplace), with stage design by Weintraub, music by Joseph Kaminski, and choreography by Leah Rotbaum. In late summer 1926 they were at the Liptzin Theater performing Rasputin and the Czarina.

In March 1929, they were playing Chone Gottesfeld's Parnose ("Business") in The Bronx, New York. The production moved in May to the Yiddish Folks Theater at Second Avenue and East 12th Street, near the center of New York's main Yiddish Theater District of the time. Director Jakob Rotbaum began his professional career staging Eugene O'Neill's works with the troupe in 1930.

Shows continued to be produced in Bucharest under the Vilna Troupe name even after 1927. Following the breakup of Dramă şi Comedie, a play The Flood was put on at the Baraşeum theater, which was loosely the story of the Vilna troupe.

In January of the following year, the fate of the company was also discussed by Sebastian, in his column for Cuvântul. The writer, who had followed the Vilna Troupe's activities over the previous decade, was reviewing Joseph Kamen's return to the Romanian stage with another group of actors. Remembering his impression of the original troupe's shows, Sebastian spoke of its "melancholic destiny": "ever since then, death, dissipation and perhaps fatigue have passed through all these things. [J]udith Lares, who sleeps her eternal sleep in some town in Transylvania. [Buloff], who confronts an infamous public in America. Stein, lost in some place I don't recall." Among the plays performed were Sholem Aleichem's Kapores, Mikhail Artsybashev's one-act Jealousy, Der Tunkeler's Should I Marry, or Shouldn't I?, and Veviorke's A Philosopher—A Drunkard.

Members

Sonia Alomis (alternatively Alumes)
Alexander Asro
Jacob Bleifer
Joseph Green (originally surnamed Greenberg)
David Herman (director)
Leib Kadison
Abraham Teitelbaum
Miriam Veide