Laughter. Tears. Curtain. A Yiddish Theatrical Salon

Tuition: $200 | YIVO members: $150**

This is a live, online course held on Zoom. Enrollment will be capped at about 25 students. All course details (Zoom link, syllabus, handouts, recordings of class sessions, etc.) will be posted to Canvas. Students will be granted access to the class on Canvas after registering for the class here on the YIVO website. This class will be largely conducted in Yiddish, with discussion at times taking place in English. Readings will be in Yiddish.

Instructor: Mikhl Yashinsky

Four classes. Four acts. One drama to remember. As the saying goes, "Di gantse velt iz a teater." But for us: the Zoom room is a theatre—or rather, a theatrical salon that we will fill with our voices, our presence, and our interpretive powers as we together read and discuss a powerful four-act Yiddish play. No acting experience required—we will not be performing the play, but rather assigning roles and reading it aloud as a group, as was once done in Yiddish literary salons. At least intermediate Yiddish reading ability is required, as we will be reading the play in the original Yiddish. Discussion will likely take place in a mixture of Yiddish and English. As we read and discuss, progressing through one act per session, we will also learn something of the play's history, the playwright, and Yiddish theatrical terminology. The specific title to be chosen based on the numbers of students enrolled for the course, but it will be a rare treasure from the Yiddish theatre's extraordinary repertoire.

Yiddish Level:
As the play read aloud by students in class will be in the original Yiddish, it is appropriate for those who have taken the equivalent of level Beys or above, or for those who completed Beginner IV Yiddish, Intensive Beginner III&IV Yiddish, or above in fall 2021.

Course Materials:
The instructor will provide all course materials digitally throughout the class on Canvas.

Born in Detroit and educated at Harvard, Mikhl Yashinsky is an actor-director, writer, and Yiddish teacher and translator. He recently appeared with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene in the Drama Desk-winning Yiddish Fiddler on the Roof, directed by Joel Grey, and in The Sorceress (a New York Times Critic’s Pick), for which performance he was hailed by the Times for giving a “keen, if malevolent, psychology” to the title role. Forthcoming publications include his translation of the memoirs of theatrical pioneer Ester-Rokhl Kaminska (Syracuse University Press), and In eynem (Yiddish Book Center), a new Yiddish textbook he co-authored. He has taught Yiddish at the University of Michigan and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and taught the language this summer through YIVO’s Summer Program. In 2019, he was named to the Forward 50, the historic newspaper’s annual list of “influential, intriguing, and inspiring” American Jews. www.yashinsky.com

**Become a member today, starting at $54 for one year, and pay the member price for classes! You’ll save on tuition for this course and more on future classes and public programs tickets.