The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene to Celebrate Immigration and More This Spring

The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) presents a number of unique shows this spring and summer as part of its 2017 season - the company's 102nd consecutive season.

Propelled by the audience-bridging success of last year's breakaway hit musical in Yiddish, "The Golden Bride," NYTF has stepped up as the associate producer of the Broadway-bound "Indecent," the scintillatingly original and timely drama that chronicles a touchstone of the Yiddish theatre, Sholem Asch's "God of Vengeance." Folksbiene is actively involved in cultivating wide audiences for "Indecent" by emphasizing the continued impact and relevance of Yiddish culture on American popular culture.

In the spring, NYTF will launch an ambitious audience engagement program focused on sparking wide-ranging conversations among many ethnic groups about the traditions and challenges of immigration in America. These events lead up to the opening of "Amerike -- The Golden Land," a new revival of Zalmen Mlotek and Moishe Rosenfeld's beloved musical that traces the fascinating story of Jewish immigration and assimilation. This brand new production, directed by Bryna Wasserman, will begin performances on July 4. Tickets at www.nytf.org.

Co-hosted by the Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place, and other arts organizations in New York that cater to diverse ethnic audiences, these precursor events -- supported by study guides for teachers -- will explore our common stories (and the complicated matrix of challenges and rewards that all groups face) of coming to America and pursuing the American dream.

In addition, "Amerike -- The Golden Land's" appealing score, filled with authentic Yiddish tunes of the day, will illustrate how the songs of immigrant cultures both responded to and even influenced American popular culture... a process that continues to this day.

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Among the spring highlights are:

APRIL 26 TO MAY 13
The world premiere of "Old New Year," developed by Lost & Found Project, a contemporary theatre (and NYTF resident company) that mines the experiences of young Russian Jews based in New York. Led by Anya Zicer and founded in 2011, the award-winning Lost & Found Project calls itself a docu-theatre troupe that creates stage productions based on a verbatim technique that delves into the cultural psychology of highly assimilated post-Soviet Jews, most of whom are first-generation Americans with varying degrees of awareness of their Jewish and Russian identities.

Written by Boris Zilberman and directed by Bryna Wasserman, "Old New Year," traces the interconnecting stories of several tenants in the same New York City apartment building. Performances take place in a Harlem loft (to amplify the site-sense archeology of the play)

From April 26 to May 13, 345 East 104th Street. Tickets $35: www.nytf.org.

WED APRIL 19
"Der nes in geto" ("The Miracle in the Warsaw Ghetto")

To commemorate the 74th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, NYTF presents a reading of H. Levick's 1944 drama that chronicles the historic act of resistance which kept Nazi forces at bay for 30 days in the spring of 1943. The play was originally produced in New York just 18 months after the uprising.

In Yiddish with English and Russian supertitles.

Wed April 19, 7pm.
At the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Tickets $15: www.nytf.org.

THUR/SAT MAY 4 & 6
"A Night in the Old Marketplace"

The Grammy winner and klezmer superstar Frank London conducts a new version of his ambitious new musical, based on the dramatic poem by I. L. Peretz.

A mad mash-up of psychedelic klezmer, Kurt Weill, and folk tunes from the Old Country gone electric, "A Night in the Old Marketplace" tells the story of the Badkhn, a traditional Jewish wedding jester, who, over the course of one long night, challenges G-d's authority by attempting to resuscitate the dead and bring on the end of days.

Conceived and directed by Alexandra Aron, composed by London, with book and lyrics by Glen Berger ("Spiderman: Turn off the Dark"), the concert version of "A Night in the Old Marketplace" is performed in English.

Thur May 4, at 8pm
Sat May 6, at 9:30pm
At the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Tickets $30: www.nytf.org.

SUN MAY 21
"Di kishefmakherin" ("The Witch")

Directed by Folksbiene Associate Artistic Director Motl Didner, with musical direction by Zalmen Mlotek (Folksbiene's artistic director), this dynamic concert version of Abraham Goldfaden's legendary musical is part of Folksbiene's Rescue Project of Lost Songs and Music, a worldwide initiative of identifying and restoring lost and forgotten works of the Yiddish theatre canon. This 1879 operetta, by the Father of Yiddish Theater, is believed to be the first Yiddish theatre piece produced in America, by a then-14-year-old Boris Thomashevsky. Featuring a newly orchestrated version of Goldfaden's strikingly tuneful score, this thrilling fairy tale story of an innocent young heroine, her wicked stepmother, a local witch, her dashing fiancé and an itinerant peddler, comes to surprising life before your eyes. Performed in Yiddish with English supertitles.

Sun May 21, 2pm.
At the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Tickets $25: www.nytf.org.

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For more information, call The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene at 212/213-2120, or visit www.nytf.org.

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