THE GLORIOUS PERIOD OF YIDDISH
THEATRE
In the years 1910-1911 in New York,
there existed eleven Yiddish theatres. In the province, in virtually
every big city, such as Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit,
Chicago and Newark, there existed a permanent, large company.
In the province one was paid greater
wages than in New York, because every actor wanted to play Yiddish
theatre in New York, but the greater wages were made by those who
played in the province.
After the season five or six New York
companies used to tour the province, virtually all of them doing
colossal business. In that time a young actor, Morris [later
Maurice] Schwartz, played in the Second Avenue Theatre, under
Kessler and Wilner's management.
The young Morris Schwartz already was
a good actor and very ambitious. He used to carry booklets under his
arm, writing, translating plays. He vibrated with ambition and
talent.
David Kessler, the star and manager of
the theatre, felt that the young Morris will go far ...
David Kessler then proceeded with
Samuel Schneier, a very good actor with a fine figure. Schneier was
in the style of Morris Moshkowitz. Ray Schneier, his wife, was one
of the leading ladies in that theatre.
Although the young Morris Schwartz had
then played side, small roles, his talent brought him through all
hardships. At that time they staged a musical, German comedy, "Alma,
vu voynstu?" ("Alma, Where Do You Live?"), by Adolf Phillip. The
comedy had no great success. It was pulled after the first couple of
performances. But the young Morris had a scene there, where he
imitated the Yiddish stars Jacob Adler, David Kessler, Boris
Thomashefsky, Max Rosenthal and still others. With his slimmer,
thinner figure and burning eyes, and mainly with these imitations of
the aforementioned actors, he won over the entire Jewish public, and
the play, "Alma, Where Do You Live?", became a great success, due to
Morris Schwartz's imitations.
His imitations became the talk of New
York. In every shop, home, in the streets, they talked about the
young Morris Schwartz. His great success did him no good in the
theatre, because the jealousy in Kessler intensified. But the
manager, Kessler's partner, Max Wilner, saw in the young Morris a
future, great power. And Wilner protected him, so he would suffer
less.
Wilner went so far that he took to
rejecting his star, partner and stepfather David Kessler, due to
Morris Schwartz.
The discord and frequent quarrels
between the two partners, David Kessler and Max Wilner, became
repetitive and stronger. Once it was strikingly evident.
Once David Kessler and Max Wilner were
heard screaming and fighting. One even heard chairs flying. The
screams became louder and louder, especially the throwing of the
benches.
The whole company gathered around
the room where the beatings and the screams came from. But the
door was closed. They were afraid that one of them would become
a cripple from the blow, until the actors, with the help of a
couple of healthy stage workers, broke through the door and
opened it. There they found Maurice Schwartz, sitting
quite comfortably, reading a newspaper. They asked him, where
were David Kessler and Max Wilner, and he answered in a
cold-blooded manner: "How do I know? I've been here for over an
hour." They immediately knew that he alone played the entire
beating scene and entirely copied both voices, Kessler's and
Wilner's.
As he was not allowed to play important roles, in the summer, we
together took over the roof garden of the Second Avenue Theatre.
I then was the music composer ,
although in the same situation as Maurice Schwartz, although I
then already had written music to several successful plays. But
all were in surrounding, smaller theatres. I felt happy that I
was able to pour out my musical soul on the roof garden, and the
young Morris Schwartz was jealous of the stars at the time,
mainly of David Kessler, and he played all the first and most
important star roles, to which he was not allowed winter.
I enjoyed myself that summer on
the roof garden as a true composer, and Morris Schwartz enjoyed
himself as a shbstars star.
Among the frequent visitors to the
roof garden, there came an attractive, healthy, elegant young
woman. She used to come often and by herself. Her appearance
caught the attention of the entire locale. I used to give
Schwartz a wink from the orchestra, that she was already here.
Once I said to him: "My heart tells me that she will be Mrs.
Schwartz." In a short time she became the only wife of Morris
Schwartz.
THE YIDDISH ART THEATRE
The Yiddish Art Theatre was born of itself. Maurice
Schwartz, the builder of the "Yiddish Art Theatre," even did not
dream that he would be able to create an art theatre. He was
enthusiastic to play good theatre, but it should be a theatre where
no shund plays should dare to enter. About this he was even to
afraid to think about it.
In the year 1918 the manager Max Wilner, with Maurice
Schwartz as a partner and star, took over the Irving Place Theatre,
the former German theatre. Schwartz was taken and determined to play
better and different Yiddish theatre. This could be seen from the
composition of the company: Jacob Ben-Ami, Ludwig Satz, Jechiel
Goldschmidt, Celia Adler, Anna Appel, and even more important,
serious actors.
His first play at the Irving Place Theatre was "Der
man un zayn shotn (The Man and His Shadow)," by Z. Libin.
Although they played the play a little better, quieter, with more
direction than in Kessler's Second Avenue Theatre, the play
nevertheless was not satisfactory enough for the public, and not for
Maurice Schwartz. However, they felt in the air that it is something
different, a new way, a new tone.
Maurice Schwartz then searched for and searched for
his happiness in foreign gardens ... He staged "Mrs. Warren's
Profession," by Bernard Shaw; "Uriel Acosta," by Karl Gustow; "The
Robbers," by Schiller. But this was the fruit of a foreign garden,
until he staged Peretz Hirshbein's "Dos farvorfene vinkl (The
Faraway Corner)." The play, "The Faraway Corner," was for the
Yiddish Art Theatre what Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Garden" was for
the Moscow Art Theatre. They saw a new kind of Yiddish theatre. The
contents, the direction, the place for acting -- everything together
is far, far away from the old Yiddish theatre.
"The Faraway Corner" laid the foundation for the
Yiddish Art Theatre. Years earlier Peretz Hirshbein founded a
company in Russia, and went on to play in his repertoire, among
which, "The Faraway Corner" was one of his repertoire. It is likely
that years before Boris Thomashefsky bought from Peretz Hirshbein
the rights to play "The Faraway Corner." But at that time when he
played his "Torah'le," "Pintelekh," and "Dos bintl
grins," would such a fine idyll, such as "The Faraway Corner,"
positively fail.
Maurice Schwartz arrived with the play, "The Faraway
Corner," at the right time. This Yiddish theatre then was rife for
such a play. Then they had already played plays by Sholem Asch,
David Pinski, Osip Dymow. People embraced "The Faraway Corner," like
with a jewel. The play lasted more than three months, because they
did not go away, but ran to see "The Faraway Corner."
SHOLEM ALEICHEM'S "TEVYE THE
DAIRYMAN"
"The Faraway
Corner" from Peretz Hirshbein, created the
Yiddish Art Theatre. The name "Art Theatre" did
not come from any one person, but from the
people, the audience, who came out of "Faraway
Corner" and said: "This is art. This is an art
theatre." And so they began to call it the "Art
Theatre."
The existence of
the Yiddish Art Theatre became even more
available when they staged Sholem Aleichem's "Tevye
der milkhigher (Teyve, the Dairyman)." In
the comedy Schwartz was exalted as a great
Yiddish artist. Through his directing and
excellent acting, Sholem Aleichem's play first
received its first fix.
Maurice Schwartz
felt that for a great and important task, he had
to be the director, regisseur and star of the
Yiddish "Art Theatre," and he then brought out
new playwrights, such as Berkowitz, Leivick,
Nadir, Sackler, Zeitlin, Gottesfeld. He also
staged plays from the world-literature, from
Ibsen, Andreyev, Gogol, Gorky, Checkhov, Toller,
Lope De Vega, Strindberg, Romain Rolland,
Bernard Shaw, and also important set designers
and painters, such as Boris Aaronson, Marc
Chagall, Sam Leve, Van Rosen, and great
musicians, such as Joseph Achron, Boris Moross,
Secunda and Rumshinsky.
Maurice Schwartz,
in all his years of the existence of his Yiddish
"Art Theatre," was a great contrast of the old
Yiddish theatre. Until Maurice Schwartz had the
Yiddish theatre, very little was given about the
art of light, that is, the lighting of a play.
With the decorations' side and lighting effects,
Maurice Schwartz devoted virtually as much time
and energy and perhaps even more time, than to
the play itself. Although a large part, almost
the greatest part, Schwartz during the
rehearsals devoted himself to the emphasis and
true Yiddishness of Yiddish. This theatre became
Maurice Schwartz's "home." He went home only to
eat a sleep for a few hours.
The "Yiddish Art
Theatre" became not only the home of better
Yiddish theatre, but the home of better theatre
in America.
When Maurice
Schwartz used to leave America for a season or
two, he took with him the "Yiddish Art Theatre." |
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They made
several experiments to create a Yiddish art
theatre without Maurice Schwartz, but it
turned out to be a great failure. It lacked
not only the great actor Schwartz, but the
building, the tone-giver, the heroic power.
Schwartz became a symbolic figure in the
theatre arts.
They say that
to be an "atheist," an epicurist, one needs
to first be a hospitable man, a believer.
Schwartz indeed went far away from the old
Yiddish theatre. But he made it through and
played virtually every one of Goldfaden's
until "Chinke-Pinke." He went through
the theatre from being a role writer to the
biggest pedestal of theatre art. Not
everyone who learns music is a good
musician. Maurice Schwartz is a natural
musician. His keen hearing and sense of
music had helped him a lot in his art roles.
For example, in "Blacksmith's Daughters,"
when Schwartz sings, working at a quadrille:
"Meydl, meydl,
meydl,
I love you so;
Meydl, meydl, meydl,
I went before you in grief."
Maurice
Schwartz filled his pauses with shabby
tenors of popular religious melodies, or
cantorial prayers, and it enters into the
hearts of people, because it comes from a
people's musician like Maurice Schwartz.
Maurice
Schwartz was not a constant water [awk.]. he
always sought new ways. Many times he
wandered from style to style, until he had
in a short time wandered to modernistic,
futuristic productions, which had for a
short time caught on in Russia. It took a
lot of diligence and a spirit of
submissiveness to "Dos tsente gebot (The
Tenth Commandment)," "Di kishufmakherin (The
Witch)," "Khelmer khokmim (The Wise
Men of Chelm)," in a futuristic style. The
productions were strange to the public, and
more strange for the actors. Instead of
coming in through front of the door, people
crashed through a window, or through a
chimney; instead of carrying as usual a
couple of sacks of one color, one sack was
red, and the other -- green. A beard of a
Jew had ten colors .... The text, the
contents, is twisted upside down and with
the legs up. For example: Halkin, a Soviet
Jewish-Russian writer wrote a play on the
historical theme of "Bar Kokhba." The great
scholar patriarch, Elazar Hamudaʻi, is a
blacksmith, and Bar Kokhba is one of the
blacksmith's workers. But who then had the
habit of speaking a word against such
theatre craziness? First, it was then
considered the greatest spiritual art of the
theatre play, and secondly -- it comes from
Moscow!
Ab. Cahan, who
was a realist and hated all the subtle,
unnatural scenes and the futuristic style,
published in the "Forward," with sharp words
about such a kind of acting, that they make
such fine actors as Joseph Buloff, Bina
Abramowitz purimshpilers, clowns, comedians,
and the scenery, the sets, he called Cossack
furniture.
AB. CAHAN'S CRITICISM HAS
AN EFFECT
Maurice
Schwartz always had respect for the printed
word. He began, as always, to look for new
ways, and his natural, artistic sense led
him on the right path:
There was
printed in the "Forward" a novel from a
European writer, I.J. Singer, "Yoshe Kalb."
The first translation of the novel, "Yoshe
Kalb," became the talk of New York's Yiddish
readers. I had to wait impatiently for every
continuation. It kept the reader excited to
the highest degree.
When Maurice
Schwartz announced that he was going to
stage "Yoshe Kalb" in his Art Theatre,
success was felt in the air. Although the
main role of "Yoshe Kalb" was not played by
Maurice Schwartz but by Lazar Freed, he
strongly excelled in the role of the
Nyeveshe rabbi. With "Yoshe Kalb" there
began a new epoch for the Yiddish Art
Theatre, a play staged from a novel. |
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"Yoshe Kalb" was a Hasidic
spectacle. It had everything from the Nyeveshe rabbi. It
had all the virtues that a successful play needed to
have. It was exciting, interesting, a production for the
eye and for warm Yiddish melodies, and for genuine
Hasidic dance.
The tragedy and comedy
with the production was as one. "Yoshe Kalb" was played
in the time when the banks were closed. People could not
raise enough money for the possible needs, but at the
production of "Yoshe Kalb," it was packed. The question
everyone asked: "What's next?" What can Maurice Schwartz
produce after such a colossal success, like "Yoshe
Kalb"? Is not everything God a Father and when he wants
to ... keep it from door and gate. The same I.J. Singer
wrote a novel, "The Brothers Ashkenazi," which was no
smaller success than "Yoshe Kalb" as a novel in the
"Forward," and for the theatre "The Brothers Ashkenazi"
was even more popular than "Yoshe Kalb," because they
immediately translated it into English. The "Forward"
readers and those who have read the novel in English,
filled the Yiddish Art theatre for months.
"The Brothers Ashkenazi"
was the second production of Maurice Schwartz staged
from a novel. In "The Brothers Ashkenazi" the lives of
the Jews of Lodz at the time. Lodz then was a small
Paris. It swelled and groped with two kinds of Jews: The
German Jew and the Hasidic Jew -- The German Jew,
so-called, was the one who wore modern clothes, without
payes, with a sort coat, and prays not three times a
day, not even once, except for terrible horrors.
In the "Brothers
Ashkenazi" there is a struggle between the twin
brothers, Max and Jacob Ashkenazi -- one a Hasid, the
second a German, although both were born and raised in
Poland. It is reflected in the "Ma-Yafit Jew," who
pushes towards the Polish hervalye and Polish
militarists. The second life is his Hasidic atmosphere.
The two brothers are artistically played by Maurice
Schwartz and Samuel Goldinburg. They have conflicts,
scenes that this theatre used to squeak with excitement.
Singer,
knowing well these lives of Lodz manufacturers, has
portrayed the entire novel true and realistic, and the
two brothers -- Schwartz and Goldinburg -- artistically
divided both of the twin-brother roles. |
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Maurice
Schwartz as the
Nyeveshe Rabbi in "Yoshe Kalb." |
A great number of
non-Jews, who had read the novel in English, used to
come to the performances of "The Brothers Ashkenazi."
I.J. Singer wrote a new
novel that portrayed the fiery, mourning days of
Hitlerism, "The Family Carnovsky." As a novel in the
"Forward," it was a great success, but when Maurice
Schwartz performed it, only then did the whole thing did
the entire thing, the entire tragedy, "The Family
Carnovsky," receive its fix.
In "Family Carnovsky"
Maurice Schwartz showed how to stage a modern drama, in
which he played a Jewish doctor in Berlin, who Hitler
had let the doctor and his family that they are Jews.
Schwartz brought life into
Singer's novels with his stage direction and play. The
blessed, talented writer I.J. Singer and Maurice
Schwartz were a successful combination. |
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