- Folksbiene
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The National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene is a professional theater company in New York City which produces both Yiddish plays and plays translated into Yiddish, in a theater equipped with simultaneous superscript translation into English. The company's artistic director is Zalmen Mlotek.
Folksbiene was founded in 1915 on New York City’s Lower East Side, and is thought to be "New York’s oldest theater company, English or Yiddish, commercial or not."[1] The era when it was founded is considered to be the height of Yiddish theater; at the time there were 15 Yiddish theatre companies in New York and many more worldwide. Due to the destruction of European Jewry by the German Nazis, the Folksbiene is one of only five professional Yiddish theatre companies still in operation; also in New York City is the New Yiddish Rep, and the others are in Bucharest, Warsaw and Tel Aviv.[2]
The company's 2006 production of Di Yam Gazlonim, a Yiddish adaptation of The Pirates of Penzance, by Al Grand, was nominated for the 2007 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival.
See also
Notes
- ^ Shephard, Richard F. and Levi, Vicki Gold. Live & Be Well: A Celebration of Yiddish Culture in America. Rutgers University Press, 2000, p. 56
- ^ Folksbiene: History
External links
Categories:- Off-Broadway
- Jewish American history
- Jewish theatres
- Jews and Judaism in New York City
- Theatre companies in New York
- Yiddish literature
- Yiddish theatre
- Organizations established in 1915
- United States theatre stubs
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