Sam Lyudner

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Lives in the Yiddish Theatre

SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE INVOLVED IN THE YIDDISH THEATRE
AS DESCRIBED IN ZALMEN ZYLBERCWEIG'S "LEXICON OF THE YIDDISH THEATRE"

1931-1969

Sam (Shmuel) Lyudner

L. was born in 1885 in Wolbrom, Poland, to very religious parents, who moved to Lodz.

As an only son, his parents had wanted him to make a [kli-kodesh], and L. had therefore learned with the prominent melamedim (religious teachers), and in yeshivas.

Being in Warsaw, he became excited by big-city life. L. broke himself away from his studies and he began to work with a turner. This, however, disturbed his father, and he traveled back to Lodz to learn further in the old city Beit HaMedrash.

By chance he attended the German theatre, and he developed a desire for the stage, and he soon became a frequent attendee of a Yiddish guest-starring troupe, where he also became an understudy, and he then traveled with several understudies to act in a small town, where he was a prompter for the production.

In 1904 as a [yude-sfr] -- became a professional prompter in a provincial troupe, which was put together for the chorus of Lodz's Yiddish theatre, and since then he has prompted in all the Yiddish troupes of Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Kurland, Bessarabia and the Ukraine, visiting over eight hundred cities and villages. A list of these places, together with a list of over seven hundred actors, which he prompted, L. has given over to the theatre museum in Ivye.

L. also wrote several one-acters and dramatized Tzvi Kahan's novel "Lodz in krig, oder, der lodzher zapasner soldat abraham milner", that was staged on 26 June 1915 in Lodz's Skala Theatre (Directors: Adler-Serotsky).

Several Yiddish plays, which were, that he authored, were published in Poland (including Z. Libin's "Gebrakhene hertser (Broken Hearts"), were issued and published by L., which had them also redacted.

Sh. E.