BY JENNA BAGCAL
Four actors and a stage manager
from Queens are part of a cast and
crew who are bringing a unique
twist to the beloved play "Fiddler
on the Roof."
From now until Sept. 2, the National
Yiddish Theater Folksbiene at Museum
of the Jewish Heritage in Manhattan
is playing host to America's first-ever
production of "Fiddler on the Roof" or
"Fidler Afn Dakh" in Yiddish since the
first time it was done 50 years ago in
Israel.
Academy Award-winning actor Joel
Grey is the director of the off-Broadway
play, which was translated into Yiddish
by Israeli actor/director Shraga Fried-man
in 1965.
Production stage manager Kat West
and actors Jennifer Babiak, (Bobe Tsaytl;
U/S Golde) Ben Liebert, (Motl Kamzoyl)
Adam B. Shapiro, (Der Rov/Ensemble;
U/S Tevye and Leyzer-Volf) and Kayleen
Seidl (Ensemble; U/S Tsaytl, Hodl and
Khave) are the Astoria residents involved
in this limited engagement. Though none
of the five are native Yiddish speakers,
performing "Fiddler on the Roof" in the
language that the characters in the play
would have traditionally spoken makes
sense to them.
"It's been an honor to be a part of this
cast," Babiak said. "It's such a beautiful
show and tells the story of people being
pushed out of their homes."
The actress adds that the fact that
they can see the Statue of Liberty from
the museum reminds them "what our
country is about."
"There's so much focus on the issue
of immigration now with people being
forced out of their homes," Shapiro said.
"'Fiddler on the Roof' addresses that,"
he added, speaking to the relevance of
the show in today's world.
Whittling down the cast to just 26
actors was a particularly long process.
West said that 800 people auditioned
for "Fiddler" when they were holding
auditions — the largest audition group
ever hosted at the Folksbiene.
"We had to add audition dates just
so we could see everyone," the stage
manager said.
Theater
Following the audition process, West
said that the actors went through a pro-cess
to learn dialogue and songs in
Yiddish. First, they learned the play's
words in English in order to understand
the story and react appropriately to the
dialogue. After they had memorized the
English, the actors were taught the songs
and dialogue in Yiddish. West shared that
she thought some of the songs, includ-ing
"Sunrise, Sunset" were "especially
moving" in Yiddish.
Many of the actors had experience
performing in other languages, but Yid-dish
was new to the majority of them.
Liebert talked about his experience per-forming
"Grease" in Germany over a
decade ago and how when he performed
the songs, there was "not as much em-phasis
on accuracy and intelligibility."
But this experience is different.
"Performing in Yiddish makes the
play somehow deeper, somehow more
profound and authentic," Liebert said.
The group said that the response they
received from theatergoers has been over-whelmingly
positive from those who speak
and understand Yiddish, but also from those
who are unfamiliar with the language.
"All the feedback has been so posi-tive,"
Seidl said. "My husband doesn't
speak Yiddish and he just got swept
up in it."
"The night of the first preview, we
got a huge response after the opening
number," Shapiro said. "We looked at
each other and said 'wow!'"
He, West and the other actors added
that knowing the language was not nec-essary
to enjoy the show. Supertitles in
Russian and English are projected for
all who come to see the show. But for
those who do understand Yiddish, the
experience is that much more special.
The cast said that audience members
came up to them after the show and
shared that the language in the play
was how their parents and grandparents
spoke to them.
"I was speaking to a gentleman who
was moved to tears. He said he felt
like he was watching his ancestors,"
Babiak said.
Those interested in seeing "Fiddler
on the Roof" in Yiddish can visit NYTF.
org for tickets and more information.
www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I AUGUST 2018 29
INVOLVED IN AMERICA’S
ROOF’
Photo by Jeff Smith
/www.qns.com
