Folksbiene LIVE! to Present Yiddish Sketch Comedy

This week, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (Folksbiene)-led by Zalmen Mlotek, Artistic Director, and Dominick Balletta, Executive Director-brings the stage to global audiences with Folksbiene LIVE! on Monday, April 6 with Kvarentin Shmarentin or Humor on Kovid קװi??רענטין שמi??רענטין: ?"ומi??ר i??ן i??i??i?? featuring LEYZER BURKO, Motl Didner and Elize-Rokhl Dorter, with musical interludes by Zalmen Mlotek.

Folksbiene LIVE! is an online celebration of Yiddish culture, featuring livestreamed theater, American Jewish performers, concerts, lectures, talks, and other events. The programming - which can be viewed at nytf.org - launched on March 17 with Artistic Director Zalmen Mlotek's Living Room Concert.

The Tony Award-nominated and Drama Desk Award-winning Folksbiene-in residence at the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in Battery Park City-is the longest consecutively producing theatre in the U.S. and the world's oldest continuously operating Yiddish theatre company.

Each episode is broadcast live on NYTF's Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/folksbiene/.

Folksbiene! LIVE is taking a break over the Passover Holidays-a great opportunity to catch up on past episodes, all available at nytf.org/live. Returning by popular demand on April 22 is Zalmen Mlotek's "Living Room Concert", kicking-off a regularly scheduled episode each week on Wednesdays at 7PM. Stay tuned by subscribing to NYTF's newsletter on its website.

But before the break, coming up on Monday, April 6, is:

Kvarentin Shmarentin or Humor on Kovid

Monday, April 6 (7:00 PM)

Experience Yiddish sketch comedy, Kvarentin Shmarentin or Humor on Kovid

קװאַאַרענטיןשמאַאַרענטין?"ומאָראָן?'ֿאָכּכּ, featuring LEYZER BURKO, Motl Didner and Elize-Rokhl Dorter, with musical interludes by Zalmen Mlotek. With English translation and subtitles

Danielle "Elize-Rokhl" Dorter has a degree in Music from SUNY at New Paltz, where she studied classical singing. She has appeared in various operas throughout the region, including Carmen, The Magic Flute, Il Trovatore, and Madama Butterfly. After meeting her future husband, Motl Didner, she began performing with him in the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene troupe in 2005. Danielle discovered her love for Yiddish repertoire and she is passing on this love to her two daughters, who both attend The Workers Circle shule.

LEYZER BURKO is a Yiddish lecturer at Indiana University Bloomington, currently in exile in New York City. He also works part-time on a Yiddish Dialect Dictionary. Leyzer is a founding member of the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene Troupe.

Zalmen Mlotek is an internationally recognized authority on Yiddish folk and theater music as well as a leading figure in the Jewish theatre and concert worlds. For the past 20 years, he has been the Artistic Director and conductor at Folksbiene. He brought Yiddish-Klezmer music to Broadway and Off-Broadway stages with the Tony-nominated Those Were the Days and Drama Desk-nominated Amerike - The Golden Land. He serves as Music Director for most Folksbiene productions, including the recent New York Times Critics Pick The Sorceress and Drama Desk-nominated musical The Golden Bride. His music can be heard in over two-dozen recordings and films and he has taught and performed all over the world and worked with countless singers. His vision brought the critically acclaimed award-winning Fidler Afn Dakh (Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish), directed by Joel Grey, for which he served as music director, to New York City. He will serve as musical supervisor for the International and National tour, which opens in Sydney and Melbourne in September 2020.

Matthew "Motl" Didner is the Associate Artistic Director of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. Associate Director of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish (Winner of Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards) directed by Joel Grey., Co-director The Golden Bride (Drama Desk Award Nominated: Outstanding Revival of a Musical and Outstanding Direction of a Musical). Other directing credits include The Sorceress, Fyvush Finkel Live! (Drama Desk Award-nominated: Outstanding Musical Revue), Robert Brustein's The King of Second Avenue, The Megile of Itzik Manger, The Pushcart Peddlers, The Marriage Contract. Yiddish coach An American Pickle starring Seth Rogen, The Immigrant at George Street Playhouse, New York City Opera's Angels in America. Motl was an inaugural Translation Fellow at the Yiddish Book Center and teaches Yiddish language classes and theater workshops at the Workers' Circle.