From "Pomul Verde" to the Yiddish Broadway

One of the more subtle, yet powerful cultural links between Romania and the United States is the Yiddish theater, a dramatic tradition born in Eastern Europe that flourished in Lower East Side at the beginning of the 20th century thanks in no small part to some influential Jewish-Romanian actors, directors, and producers. We revisit this fertile tradition and honor its last great embodiment, Romanian-American thespian and Holocaust-survivor Moshe Yassur, the last member alive of the famous "Pomul Verde" Yiddish theater company in Iași (northern Romania), with a dramatic potpourri that brings back the lost glory of Romanian-Jewish stage.

Alongside Moshe Yassur, the performance will feature a group of New York City Yiddish theater artists – collectively known as Royter Kuter Teater – made of actor Allen Lewis Rickman, actor-singer Yelena Shmulenson, actor and translator Shane Baker, and singer, song-writer and researcher Miryem-Khaye Seigel, who will present a medley of scenes, memoirs, anecdotes, songs and musical interludes representative of the various stages of the Yiddish theater’s transatlantic journey.

Directors: Allen Lewis Rickman and Moshe Yassur

Actors: Shane Baker, Allen Lewis Rickman, Yelena Shmulenson, Miryem-Khaye Siegel 

Dramaturgist: Beate Hein Bennett

Original music: various composers and songs 

Musicians: Steve Borsuk 

Video design: Allen Lewis Rickman 

Duration: approx. 75-80 minutes

Language: In English and Yiddish with English supertitles