Out of this often comes an absurdity.
Plays that are in New York are played with success. They are
staged with distortion and perversion. It is from them, like
the Americans say, neither fish nor fowl.
It also feels there that there are also
missing first-class actors (in American-speak, stars), who
should be able to hold a theatre on their shoulders. There
are good ensemble actors in such cities as Warsaw and Paris.
There is only a deficiency at the "head," stars, who should
sustain and hold together the companies.
When these evils are avoided, Guskin
believes, the Yiddish theatre in the European countries will
be increased and will take root in the life there. In
Warsaw, he says, there are places for a couple of good
Yiddish theatres. The public loves theatre and is prepared
to support it, but simple theatres are lacking.
Guskin believes that thanks to the
friendly relationship that now exists with the Yiddish
theatre family in Europe, it is possible perhaps to send out
from time to time entire troupes from here to there. He
presented this plan yesterday at a meeting of the Actors'
Union, which was called together to listen to his report
about the peace that he concluded with the Artists' Union in
Warsaw.
In London there now exists only one
Yiddish theatre, the Pavilion, which Joseph Kessler has
maintained for the last few years. Kessler now is ill, and
in the theatre there Boris Thomashefsky plays. Paris, which
has a much smaller Jewish population, like London, has two
Yiddish troupes. Even in Berlin there now plays a Yiddish
company with Minnie Axelrod, who at times has played in
America as a star.
Returning home, Guskin is an enthusiast
for -- America. When he left the old country twenty-six
years ago, she was poor and returned [back to Europe]. He
found her even poorer and more broken.
About the peace that Guskin had
directed between the local actors' union and the Warsaw
Artists' Union, it has already been reported in the
"Forward" through a special correspondence. In Paris, the
local organization of Yiddish actors agreed to unanimously
to elect him as an honorary member and presented him with a
membership card. This is the only souvenir that he brought
back from his trip to Europe, and he values it more dearly
than any gift he would have otherwise received there.
Tuesday Guskin got off the ship, and
Wednesday he already went back to work. There was "plenty of
trouble" waiting for him and, if we are not mistaken, he
traveled out on the road to settle theatre disputes.
At the next meeting in the Actors'
Club, Guskin was received by the many actors who came to
hear his report. Jean Greenfield, the President of the Union
who represented him in his absence, greeted him, as did
Jacob Kalich, A. Teitelbaum and Ludwig Satz. Louis Goldstein
was the chairman.
|