Join YIVO for scenes of romance, political symbolism, and low comedy in Nahma Sandrow’s translations, performed by Yelena Shmulenson and Allen Lewis Rickman. The program reflects the variety and range of Yiddish theater repertory, which Sandrow's new book, Yiddish Plays for Reading and Performance, illustrates through three full plays and nine independent scenes, with directors’ notes. The author will introduce and narrate the program, putting the scenes in the context of Yiddish theater history and dramaturgy.

This event will take place in person with a wine reception to follow.

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About the Participants
Nahma Sandrow, a playwright and librettist, is Professor Emerita at City University of New York. Her books include Vagabond Stars: A World History of Yiddish Theater and God, Man, and Devil: Yiddish Plays in Translation. Many of her translations have been produced professionally, and the award-winning shows she developed out of Yiddish material (Kuni-Leml, Vagabond Stars) enjoyed long off-Broadway runs before touring, receiving rave reviews in the New York Times and other major New York newspapers, as well as Variety and the Associated Press.

Yelena Shmulenson is perhaps best known as the icepick-wielding ‘Dora’ in the Coen brothers’ Oscar-nominated film A Serious Man (with Mr. Rickman). Other film and TV credits: Orange is the New Black (Inmate Boyle’, recurring), Blue Bloods, Madame Secretary, The Knick, Boardwalk Empire (as Mrs. Manny Horvitz’), Chicago Med, Robert De Niro’s The Good Shepherd, Romeo & Juliet in Yiddish, and Chinese Puzzle (w/Audrey Tautou). Stage credits include The Golem of Havana (LaMama/Miami New Drama), The Essence: A Yiddish Theater Dim Sum (Fringe/tour), two seasons at the Ellis Island Theatre, Covers, Knock, Old New Year with The Lost & Found Project, Tevye Served Raw (NYC) etc. She has also been a Yiddish coach/translator for numerous projects, has won three Earphones Awards for her recorded books (in English), and is fluent in five languages.

Allen Lewis Rickman is a Yiddish theater historian and translator as well as an actor, writer, and director. Acting credits include the Coen brothers' Oscar-nominated A Serious Man, Barry Levinson's You Don't Know Jack (with Al Pacino), John Turturro's Fading Gigolo (with Woody Allen), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (as Red Skelton), recurring roles on Boardwalk Empire and Steven Spielberg’s Public Morals, Relatively Speaking on Broadway (with Marlo Thomas); and he has worked extensively Off Broadway, in regional theatre, and in Yiddish theatre. He co-adapted and directed the Drama Desk-nominated Yiddish Pirates of Penzance, and two other plays each for the Folksbiene and New Yiddish Rep. His translation of Zolotarevski’s Money, Love, and Shame! was produced in New York by the Target Margin company. Plays he’s written have been produced in France, Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg, Sweden, Romania, and the U.S.; his co-written farce Off the Hook was published in French in L’Avant-Scene Theatre, and his revue The Essence: A Yiddish Theater Dim Sum was published in the anthology Yiddishkeit, edited by the late Harvey Pekar.