Last March, the West Coast premiere of the Yiddish Purim musical Di Megileh of Itzik Manger enjoyed a huge success, with four standing-room-only performances at the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay. In celebration of the 2015 Purim season, the New Yiddish Theater, in conjunction with the 30th Jewish Music Festival, takes pride in presenting a reprise with the same all-star lead performers and an updated choral arrangement. Performances will be given at 8 pm on February 26 & 28, March 1 & 3, with a matinee on Monday, March 2 at 1:30 pm. As before, all of the spoken and sung Yiddish will be super-titled in English.
"Our production team was as surprised as anyone that the entire run of this show sold out last season," said Laura Rosenberg, co-producer and music director. "But what convinced us to reprise the production this year was the overwhelming response from our extremely diverse audience. As poet
Itzik Manger wrote in the libretto's prologue: Di Megileh is a story for everyone."
Di Megileh of
Itzik Manger, long beloved by Israeli and New York audiences for its catchy songs, sparkling humor, political satire and the tale of star-crossed lovers separated by fate, was written by
Itzik Manger, one of the 20th century's greatest Yiddish poets, with music by
Dov Seltzer, one of Israel's top composers. Di Megileh recounts the biblical Book of Esther from the eyes of Esther's jilted lover, Fastrigoseh the tailor, in a version of the Purim story that was never taught in Hebrew school!
Multi-award-winning composer and musician Joshua Horowitz has written brand-new choral arrangements for this production. Recipient of more than 40 awards for his work as both composer and performer, his recordings with Veretski Pass, Budowitz, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Rubin & Horowitz and Alicia Svigals have achieved international recognition.
Renowned actress Naomi Newman again will play the narrator. Newman was a concert singer, television actor, improvisational theater director and psychotherapist before founding the Bay Area's A Traveling Jewish Theatre. For more than three decades with TJT, she rotated hats among director, playwright and performer, winning awards in each field. For her contributions to cultural life in the Bay Area, Ms. Newman received a Tikkun Award, a Millie, and Theatre Bay Area's Community Leadership Award.
Rising young performers on the Yiddish theater scene portray three of the pivotal roles in the show. Appearing as Esther, the new Queen, is Heather Klein, American soprano and Yiddish chanteuse who performs as a soloist across the U.S. and internationally. Klein has focused on a lesser-known genre: Yiddish classical song, which she presents in her second CD, "Shifrele's Portret." Berel Alexander plays the role of Esther's jilted lover, Fastrigoseh the tailor. Berel, a native of rural Humboldt County is a singer/songwriter and bandleader with a background in Jewish music. His original songs have taken him to the Sundance Film Festival the past three years. Eliana Kissner appears as Vashti, the deposed Queen. A classically trained singer, she performs with Safra, a Jewish Middle Eastern ensemble, and writes and perform her own music, much of it inspired by sacred Jewish texts.
Akhashveyrush, the King, will be portrayed by Linda Hirschhorn, noted singer/songwriter, cantor, composer and storyteller, whose Jewish women's a cappella ensemble, Vocolot, celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2012. Her latest solo recording, "Amazed" (2014), is a collection of original folk, blues and gospel songs.
Josiah Polhemus plays the villain, Haman. An actor, writer, director and teacher for the past 25 years, Polhemus has appeared at the
American Conservatory Theater in Good with
William Hurt, Charley's Aunt, A Christmas Carol and Hamlet. He also has been seen at Theatreworks, Shotgun Players, Encore Theater Company, Z-Space and Shakespeare/Santa Cruz.
Joel Fleisher appears as Mordekhay, Esther's uncle; and Laura Sheppard as Haman's wife, Zeyresh. Others supporting leads are Gerry Tenney and Evelie Delfino Sáles Posch.
The whimsically staged concert presentation will be directed and choreographed by theater veteran and dance master Bruce Bierman. The band, under the baton of Laura Rosenberg, consists of Candy Sanderson (violin), Stu Brotman (bass), Barbara Borden (percussion), and Jim Rebhan (accordion).
Itzik Manger is frequently acclaimed as the greatest Yiddish poet of the 20th century, and his work on biblical themes, the Holocaust, Israel, and the Jewish/Yiddish culture of Eastern Europe is some of the richest, most thoroughly enjoyable, and most influential exploration of Jewish thought and feeling produced in the 20th century. Manger was born in 1901 in the then-Austrian-Hungarian Empire, but he moved frequently and lived in Romania, Poland, France, England, and finally in Israel. He began publishing his poems and ballads in 1921. When he moved to Warsaw a few years later, he found himself in the spiritual and intellectual center of Ashkenazi Jewry, where he achieved his most productive years. It was in Warsaw that he published several works including Songs of the Megileh, on which Di Megileh is based, presenting a modern commentary on classic Bible stories that placed his characters in contemporary Eastern Europe.
Performances of Di Megileh will take place at the JCC East Bay located at 1414 Walnut Street in Berkeley at 8 pm on Thursday, February 26; Saturday, February 28; Sunday, March 1, and Tuesday, March 3. There will be a reduced-price matinee performance on Monday, March 2 at 1:30 pm.
Tickets priced at $25 - $30 for evening performances, and at $12 - $15 for the 1:30 pm matinee on Monday, March 2 may be obtained online at
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1143403 or via the 30th Jewish Music Festival website,
http://www.jewishmusicfestival.org.
