Yiddish Women Playwrights Series
by Kadye Molodowsky
פֿעסטיװאַל פֿו זון
קאַדיע מאָלאָדאָװסקי זון
Present onlookers can speak directly to victims of historical tragedies from the top of a tower built by a young boy and a magical architect. But what if people aren’t willing to engage with the messy complications of the past? Merging theatre for young audiences with frank modernism, Kadye Molodowsky’s nearly-forgotten Nuremberg-era masterpiece dreams of a world that understands the importance of looking back in order to move forward — a world where all the windows face the sun.
Translated by Sabina Brukner and Faith Jones.
NYTF is proud to present the second installment of its Yiddish Women Playwrights Series.
About the Series
Along with groundbreaking productions of plays too-long ignored, the festival features a series of readings and lectures built to bolster your relationship with the women of Yiddish playwriting.
The series began in April of 2021 with Chava Rosenfarb’s The Bird of the Ghetto.
Ale Fenster tsu der Zun and all subsequent plays in the Women Playwrights Series will be completely free to stream for 96 hours following their premieres — no barriers, no silences. Just unprecedented access to some of the greatest brains you haven’t picked.
About the Playwright
Kadye Molodowsky was a groundbreaking Yiddish dramatist, theatre critic, and poet — the first and only woman playwright to be published in the Yiddish theatre during the interwar period in Eastern Europe.
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 hekht, the first in a line of well-received books of poetry.
While her plays were never performed on the Yiddish stage, works like Ale Fentster 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.
Molodowsky immigrated to the United States in 1935 and moved to Tel Aviv in 1949, where she edited Yiddish literary journal Di Heym. She passed away in 1975.
Featuring
Rachel Botchan; Rebecca Brudner; Spencer Chandler; Motl Didner; Kirk Geritano; Avi Hoffman; Maya Jacobson; Daniel Kahn; Lea Kalisch; Rebecca Keren; Avram Mlotek; Lauren Schaffel; Dylan Seders Hoffman; Tatiana Wechsler; Hy Wolfe; and, Mikhl Yashinsky
Creative Team
The creative team includes Goldie Morgentaler, translator; Motl Didner, producer and videographer; Suzanne Toren, director; Dylan Seders Hoffman, assistant director; and Eileen F. Haggerty, production stage Manager/stage directions.
NYTF’s Yiddish Women Playwrights Festival a series celebrating the Yiddish works of women writers. Following The Bird of the Ghetto, the festival will feature readings of plays by Kadye Malodowsky, Marie Lerner, and Miriam Karpilove. The series is curated by NYTF Literary Manager Sabina Brukner.
Podcast Interview
For our interview, we’re talking with NYTF Literary Manager Sabina Brukner. We will learn about the start of NTYF’s Yiddish Women Playwrights Festival, The Bird of the Ghetto, her life and upbringing in Yiddish culture, and of course, we chat about the great Chava Rosenfarb, one of the greatest post-war Yiddish Writers.
National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene would like to express gratitude to the Performers’ Unions: Actors’ Equity Association, American Guild of Musical Artists, American Guild of Variety Artists, and SAG-AFTRA through Theatre Authority, Inc. for their cooperation in permitting the Artists to appear on this program.
The Bird Of The Ghetto is a benefit for the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene through permission from Theatre Authority, Inc.
No Registration Required
Winter 2022
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