Full Description
Before World War II, there were 12 Yiddish theaters in New York City. Now there is only one, the Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre. Dan Katzir (Out for Love, Be Back Shortly, SFJFF 1998) has created a poignant, tightly structured portrait of Zypora Spaisman, founder and grand dame of Folksbiene, who died in 2002. Beginning in December 2000, Katzir follows the Folksbiene’s quest for a midtown theater space in which to mount their critically acclaimed 1916 play The Green Fields, written by Peretz Hirschbein. Structured in eight parts like a celluloid menorah, Yiddish Theatre: A Love Story goes behind the scenes to interview the troupe’s octogenarian thespians and its younger members who are preserving yiddishkeit in a city with stiff competition for audience members. Spaisman was an extraordinary woman--tenacious, dramatic and with the stamina of a 30-year-old. Her love of Yiddish theater and her efforts to make it accessible were born out of her passion for her language. Katzir is a natural-born storyteller and fills in the details of Spaisman’s life with other juicy tidbits from the world of Yiddish theater, including the fact that Mel Brooks got his start there, and a rare interview with actor Seymour Rexsite.
