November 27, 2012
The Jewish TribuneNovember 20, 2012
By Mike Cohen
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It has been nearly a decade since Dora Wasserman passed away at the age of 84. The founding director of Canada’s only Yiddish theatre production left quite a legacy and in Montreal the appropriately named Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre (DWYT) at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts continues to thrive.
The DWYT recently rolled out an impressive I ? YIDDISH Series. This marks the second year such a program exists, aimed at celebrating and preserving Yiddish theatre, language and culture through an ambitious year-long program of staged readings, a mini-film screening, concerts of treasured music and sing-a-long.
Dan Laxer, a veteran producer and radio host and longtime friend of the DWYT, has been appointed coordinator of Yiddish Theatre for the 2012-2013 Season.
“My goal is to help the DWYT continue to thrive as a centre for Jewish culture and theatrical arts and as an integral part of the Segal Centre,” says Laxer. “Dora Wasserman brought this dream of the Yiddish Theatre to life and passed it onto her daughter Bryna. I hope to learn from the stalwarts, who knew and worked with Dora, to keep the flame alive and pass it on to the next generation.”
Laxer attended Jewish People’s and Peretz Schools (JPPS) and Bialik High School so he speaks and reads Yiddish.
“Not fluently, mind you,” he confessed. “But I do pepper my daily conversation with Yiddishisms and have always, and still do, use Yiddish when I’m on the air. I’m only learning now, however, what a richly poetic language Yiddish is, to say nothing of its comedic flavour and how even idiomatic Yiddish has no equal.”
Laxer said there has always been a core – a very loyal core – Yiddish Theatre audience in Montreal.
“But there is another, younger audience, that is creeping in,” he said. “The next generation, the younger members of the DWYT, those who have perhaps gone through the Young Artists for Young Audiences YAYA program, and then graduated onto the mainstage, or who have perhaps followed their parents into the DWYT, have formed another core group. Some call themselves the youth and young adult division, others have formed a group called Urban Shtetl. They bring a modern sensibility to the Yiddish classics.”
The list of programming, which will be in Yiddish with English supertitles, is quite diverse and includes:
• Di Komedyant, or the Sunshine Boys, by Neil Simon will be showcased Nov. 13 (8 p.m.) as a staged reading. It has been adapted into Yiddish by Miriam Hoffman. Bryna Wasserman, Dora’s daughter, is the director. Aron Gonshor and Sam Stein star.
• Les Belles Soeurs by Michel Tremblay hits the stage Dec. 3 and 4, (8 p.m.), also as a staged reading and presented on the 20th anniversary of the Yiddish Theatre’s celebrated adaption. It has been translated by Goldie Morgentaler and Pierre Anctil as Di Shveigerin and directed by Rachelle Glait, with the original Yiddish Theatre cast.
“I would also like to see theatre goers from other cultures come and enjoy what we have to offer,” said Laxer. “You can go see opera in languages not your own – Italian, French, German. Why not see theatre in a language not your own – like Yiddish? Even Dora used to say that theatre transcends language. Indeed, Michel Tremblay felt that the DWYT version of his Les Belles Soeurs was the best adaptation he’d ever seen. So like dancing the Hora at a wedding, that core DWYT audience is an ever-widening circle.”
Other highlights include A Chanukah sing-a-long on Dec. 16 (7 p.m.), a mini-Yiddish Festival on Jan. 13, an evening with Centaur Theatre founding director Maurice Podrey Jan. 22 (8 p.m) and an evening with crowd favourite Mendy Cahan, on May 7 and 8 (8 p.m.).
The complete schedule can be accessed at www.segalcentre.org. For more information, call (514) 739-7944.