How Do You Say 'Tradition' in Yiddish?

[elleng]

'Yiddish was the language spoken by Tevye the milk peddler and the other shtetl characters depicted in the stories that inspired “Fiddler on the Roof,” yet in this country the landmark musical has never been performed professionally in that savory and supple tongue. Until now.

On Sunday, “Fiddler,” first produced in 1964 on Broadway and for a time its longest-running musical, will have its Yiddish-language premiere at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan, which is also the home of the century-old National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene.

This production is directed by Joel Grey, who does not speak Yiddish, and performed by a cast of 26, three-quarters of whom also do not speak the language.

A Yiddish speaker might wonder if someone had gotten farblondjet — goofed or become lost and confused. But the decision, it turns out, was artistically deliberate.

In auditioning some 700 actors, Mr. Grey and the other creators emphasized theatrical experience and talent over fluency. That forced them to spend several weeks before and during rehearsals getting all aboard to pronounce the Yiddish words correctly, with intonations that capture that lost world’s context and flavor.

Just to underscore his approach, during rehearsals Mr. Grey put up an 8-foot by 6-foot banner that read: “Fiddish Spoken Here.”'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/theater/fiddler-on-the-roof-yiddish-folksbiene.html?

[Itchinjim]

1. "Medical school"

[htuttle]

2. Oy, the beards in that show

When I was a boy, my mother worked on the makeup crew for a community theatre production of Fiddler. I went to enough rehearsals to just about have it memorized at one point. That moment when Fruma-Sarah appears shrieking onstage scared me every time I saw the production.

My mother was the beard specialist. She had to make dozens of huge fake beards by attaching these little ropes of fake beard hair to sort of a gauze/mesh backing material to create sideburns, stache and beard, etc.

For years afterwards, we would find little 2-4 inch long fuzzy worms around the house that were just chunks of that beard hair...it got everywhere.

on edit: Forgot to mention -- I would love to see this version. I hope they have one available on video at some point.

[elleng]

3. OY!!!