Spotlight

National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene

Celebrating the contributions of women playwrights to the Yiddish theatre

Women playwrights have captured the spotlight at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene – at long last. The Yiddish Women Playwrights Series, scheduled to proceed on June 21, 2022 with a FREE streamed production of Kadya Molodowsky’s Ale Fenster Tsu der Zun (All Windows Face the Sun), highlights revolutionary, feminist works from writers whose contributions to the Yiddish theatre have long been overlooked, ignored, and locked away. 

The series began last Spring with a virtual reading of Chava Rosenfarb’s Bird of the Ghetto. Based on a true story and presented in Yiddish for the first time ever, the play chronicled the tragic true story of Jewish resistance fighter Itsik Vitenberg and was presented during the anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

This Summer, we’re celebrating Kadya Molodowsky – a groundbreaking Yiddish dramatist, theatre critic, and poet.

Molodowsky was a fair critic, reviewing high-brow stage works along with low-brow “shund” with equal dignity. She also wrote feminist poetry and modernist plays at a time when very few Yiddish writers dared to. In 1927, Molodowsky released Kheshvendike Nekht (Nights of Heshvan), the first in a line of well-received books of poetry. 

Nearly forgotten works like Ale Fenster Tsu der Zun were recognized posthumously as strokes of genius, successfully blending modernism with children’s theatre in a way that had never been done before. 

We’re so excited to share her work with you virtually this June on our Folksbiene! LIVE digital streaming library. Stay tuned for more information!

Stay tuned!

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