Sound Salon

press release: Yiddish Empire: The Vilna Troupe, Jewish Theater, and the Art of Itinerancy

Monday, October 29, 2018, 5:30pm, 126 Memorial Library, 726 State St.

Yiddish Empire tells how a group of itinerant Jewish performers became the interwar equivalent of a viral sensation, providing a missing chapter in the history of the modern stage. Achieving a most unlikely success through their productions, the Vilna Troupe (1915– 36) would eventually go on to earn the attention of theatergoers around the world. Caplan’s history of the Troupe is rigorously researched, employing primary and secondary sources in multiple languages, and is engagingly written.

Debra Caplan is assistant professor of theater in the Dept. of Fine and Performing Arts at Baruch College, City University of New York.

Hosted by the Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture. Free and open to the public.