Rediscovered Masterwork ONE OF THOSE Featuring Peter Van Wagner To Be Presented Tonight At YIVO

Paula Prilutski's rediscovered masterwork ONE OF THOSE, a proto-feminist drama about an independent woman living in an unfree world, will be presented tonight (Monday) at 7 pm at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in a newly commissioned English translation (from the original Yiddish) by writer/director Allen Lewis Rickman. This one-night-only event is another of YIVO's Treasures from the Archives.

In ONE OF THOSE, Judith Zaltsman, 21, cannot resign herself to the recent loss of her mother; nor can she bear her father's second wife taking her mother's place. Unable to remain at home, and with no options available, the strong-willed Judith makes choices she will forever regret. And despite her best efforts and the help of family and friends, Judith will find herself unable to escape the chains of her history.

Under the direction of Allen Lewis Rickman, the cast of ONE OF THOSE features Peter Van Wagner (Isaac Ginsburg on "Boardwalk Empire," "Rescue Me," the upcoming OTHELLO at the Delacorte), Yelena Shmulenson ("Orange is the New Black," "Boardwalk Empire," "The Knick," A SERIOUS MAN), Lisa Hammer ("The Venture Bros.," THE SISTERS PLOTZ, THE NETWORKER), Jacqueline Sydney ("Seven Seconds," FILMIC ACHIEVEMENT, "The President Show"), Susan Barrett ("30 Rock," "Shades of Blue"), Kevin Sebastian ("Blue Bloods," "Bull"), Daniel Robert Sullivan, (JERSEY BOYS in Las Vegas & Toronto), Boris Zilberman ("I'd Kill for You"), Regina Gibson (THE GOLDEN BRIDE), Anna Zicer ("The Americans"), Abby Goldfarb (York's MILK AND HONEY), Susan J. Jacks(Forbidden Broadway), Lauren Milberger ("The Following"), Ruthy Froch (DRAGON SLAYER), and SAMANTHA MAURICE (ARE YOU SATISFIED?)

Though originally presented by the legendary Esther-Rokhl Kaminska, "The Mother of Yiddish Theater," in her own theater in Warsaw in 1912, ONE OF THOSE, says Rickman, "feels incredibly modern. There are no heroes or villains; as Renoir put it, 'everyone has his reasons.' In fact, everything about this play - the themes, the constantly-surprising characters, the subtlety of the exposition, the naturalistic dialogue - everything except the authenticity of the milieu - makes you think it was written much later than 1912."

Playwright Paula Prilutski's fate during World War II remains unknown to this day.

Director Allen Lewis Rickman adapted, directed and wrote supertitle translations for three plays in Yiddish for the Folksbiene (including the Drama Desk-nominated Yiddish PIRATES OF PENZANCE) and two for New Yiddish Rep. He directed DANCING ON NAILS Off-Broadway and his own musical CHRISTMAS AT THE SMALL EMPIRE for Centenary Stage. He is also an internationally produced playwright, and his work has been presented in six languages. Allen's co-written farce OFF THE HOOK was published in French in L'Avant-Scene Theatre. His revue THE ESSENCE: A YIDDISH THEATER DIM SUM has toured widely and was published in an anthology co-edited by the late Harvey Pekar.

YIVO's collections are the primary source of the documentary history of East European Jewry and the surviving record of millions of lives of Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The Library of the YIVO Institute is proud to possess one of the world's largest collections of Yiddish theater works from 1850 to 1950, the period that coincided with the flourishing of Jewish theater in Europe and the United States.

Admission to ONE OF THOSE is $15 ($10 for YIVO members & students) and tickets are available at https://yivo.org/Yiddish-Play-In-Translation. The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is located at 15 West 16 Street (between Fifth & Sixth Ave.) and tonight's special event will benefit their new online class OH MAMA I'M IN LOVE! THE STORY OF THE YIDDISH STAGE.

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