SECURING THE LEGACY

The Thomashefskys Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater

THE PERFORMANCE

A dark stage, an orchestra tunes in the shadows, a single spotlight shines on the face of . In this intimate setting, we are at once transported into a vivid dreamscape of music and memories that light up the world of Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, two Jewish teenage émigrés who became groundbreaking impresarios and megastars of the Yiddish theater in America…and the grandparents of Michael Tilson Thomas.

Their story is at once a quintessentially Jewish story and an American tale. The lives and dreams of the Thomashefskys were shared by generations of immigrants who came with nothing and wanted to become something. Through story and song, they helped their “landsmen” navigate the changing social realities of their times. They explored what was exciting and what was frightening about their new lives. They raised questions about the nature of American society and the costs of freedom. And their audiences adored them for it.

Having learned the melodies and back stories “...an excellent use of its first-hand from his grandmother and as heir to medium: a well-researched more than 300 musical scores, scripts, writings documentary presented as live and memorabilia, Michael Tilson Thomas theater. A book couldn’t have has reclaimed this rich theatrical heritage and captured the Thomashefskys’ brought it back to life on the stage where it music… it couldn’t have belongs. communicated the spark of a In The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a live performance.” Life in the Yiddish Theater, the extraordinary rise New York Times, April, 2005 of Boris and Bessie and the innovative art forms they created unfold in a kaleidoscope of show- stopping songs, dramatic and comedic pieces straight from their repertoire, mingled with first-person accounts of life backstage. At the heart of the production is Tilson Thomas, a master raconteur, who weaves these elements together with insider tales only he knows.

The production also draws on the talents of an outstanding cast of four Broadway performers who capture the charisma and chutzpah of these two larger-than-life personalities with such vitality and heart you could swear you were backstage on Second Avenue or in the Thomashefskys’ living room. A 30-piece ensemble strikes up overtures, ballads, marches and popular hit tunes from the original musicals. Period and family photos, theater posters projected overhead, audio recordings and rare footage recreate the sights and sounds of the era.

This extraordinary production has played to standing ovation crowds and critical acclaim in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami and Tanglewood. After 10 years spent rescuing and reconstructing the scores and scripts from fragments scattered around the country, and creating and performing this tribute, the time has come to preserve this chapter in Jewish and American life so that this legacy may be shared with generations today and those to come. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS STORY Between 1880 and 1920, two million Eastern European Jews arrived in the United States. The presence of these new immigrants transformed American society as much as it did Jewish life and identity.

The emerging Yiddish theater founded on American soil by the Thomashefskys not only reflected those transformations, it was an engine of them, turning one-time shtetl dwellers into urban “greenhorns.” Moreover, the Thomashefskys’ original productions gave rise to new forms of theatrical expression that stretch from the Lower East Side to Broadway and Hollywood. Musically, you can hear the echoes of Eastern European cantorial, klezmer, operetta and village folk tunes as they blend with new American sounds, creating a fusion that would inspire the likes of Irving , George Gershwin and future Broadway composers. The record of this early history of the Yiddish theater and how it shaped Jewish identity and America’s popular culture is largely unknown. Only one piece of film footage of Boris Thomashefsky late in his career and a few audio recordings exist. Just a handful of veterans of the Yiddish stage remain alive and only a tiny number of Yiddish theater troupes still perform here or around the world. Until recently most of the scripts and scores were uncatalogued, gathering dust in archives and attics. As a result, the major contributions of the Thomashefskys have remained unexamined and largely hidden from public view.

The live performances of The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater “Thomas and his collaborators do have allowed audiences to experience first-hand what the Yiddish theater artists the actual music of the shows that played the always meant to do. They make you theater houses of New York’s Lower East Side, and forget your troubles for an evening, other American cities from Boston to Chicago plunge into another world and feel and even San Francisco. In doing so, they have your own more fully in the end.” opened a doorway for audiences into the world of these new immigrants, their ancestors. Music is San Francisco Chronicle, one of the most direct ways to evoke and transmit June, 2008 what it feels like to be alive in a time and place. By rescuing the cultural expressions that gave rise to their new identity as Americans, we open a “conversation” between the generations.

And it is through these “conversations” that our children and their children will come to know and appreciate this strand of their heritage. They will come to understand what was lost and what was gained in the collision between old world values and new world demands and how those choices and experiences shaped their own family histories. It is these conversations, like the ones between the young Michael Tilson Thomas and his grandmother Bessie, that form our values and our sense of where we come from. SECURING THE LEGACY Michael Tilson Thomas is the only direct living link to the Thomashefskys, their repertoire, the musical scores, the stories and their legacy. To assure continued access to this experiential tribute and secure the Thomashefskys’ place in the history that is carried forward, Michael Tilson Thomas and The Thomashefsky Project and its partners propose to produce a television program from live performances filmed at the New World Symphony in Miami in April 2011. They have assembled a world-class production team, musicians from the New World Symphony, an outstanding cast, and secured a commitment for a national prime-time PBS broadcast as part of the 2011–2012 season of .

B r o a d c a s t A u d i e n c e “…the Yiddish stage took on social issues too controversial for the great performances is broadcast nationally tame Broadway of the times— on nearly 360 local PBS stations that reach women’s rights, birth control, 85–97% of all US TV households. On average assimilation, class struggle. This more than 2 million people tune in to each great was theater high and low all at the performances program. Repeat broadcasts in same delirious time.” subsequent years reach additional viewers.

Los Angeles Times, July, 2005 The production partners (The Thomashefsky Project, New World Symphony, and great performances) will develop and implement a promotion plan to attract the largest audience via advance distribution of program videos, music CDs, press materials and program guides to print, radio, television and on-line media, Jewish cultural and communal organizations, and university music and theater departments.

R e a c h i n g A d d i t i o n a l Audiences

Once the film is produced, it will be made available for educational and home video distribution. There are also plans for a website to link visitors, educators and scholars to a database of Michael Tilson Thomas’ collection of scripts and scores and memorabilia bequeathed to him and primary source materials on the Thomashefskys and their era located in other collections. Program information will also be featured on WNET’s great performances website. An educator’s guide to the broadcast program and the history of the era is also envisioned.

Performance photos by Stefan Cohen People’s Theatre masthead courtesy the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. All other images from The Thomashefsky Project/MTT Collection of Yiddish Theater Text and images copyright ® The Thomashefsky Project 2010 Concert hall within the New World Symphony campus. designed by Frank Gehry. Opening January 2011.

The Thomashefsky Project proposes to work with educational and cultural institutions to disseminate the program and ancillary materials to public libraries, high schools, colleges and universities, music schools, Jewish communal organizations (Jewish Community Centers, synagogues, Jewish day schools, adult education centers) and encourage local screenings of the performance, lecture series and programming related to the Thomashefskys and their contributions.

It is our hope that the increased visibility of the Thomashefskys’ story will spur further research into this rich history and their contributions, as well as its inclusion in Jewish Studies and cultural studies curricula and related books. Through these efforts, the creative wellspring of the Thomashefskys will be available once again to inform and inspire the lives and aspirations of all those participating in the evolving American experience.

To realize this dream, the Thomashefsky Project is seeking to raise production funds from individual donors, corporations and foundations committed to opening this important window onto Jewish and American history for audiences today and tomorrow. for more information about the production, please contact: Joshua Robison Richard Koenigsberg Linda Steinberg Executive Producer Production Accountant Executive Director The Thomashefsky Project The Thomashefsky Project The Thomashefsky Project (415) 673-3993 (212) 453-2510 (415) 887-8547 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.thomashefsky.org PRODUCTION PARTNERS

The Thomashefsky Project The Thomashefsky Project was founded in 1998 to rescue, communicate and preserve the story of the Thomashefskys and the contribution of the early American Yiddish theatre to American cultural life. Through its work, many disintegrating scores and scripts have been located, catalogued, preserved and reconstructed to recreate as true a version of the original works as possible. The stage production, The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater, was developed based on the dramatic, visual and musical elements from this unique collection. The Thomashefsky Project will oversee the development of the website and the design and distribution of all related educational materials. The Thomashefsky Project is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy Established in 1987 under the artistic direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, the New World Symphony prepares gifted graduates of distinguished music programs for leadership positions in orchestras and ensembles around the world. The New World Symphony has launched the careers of more than 800 young musicians now employed with orchestras and ensembles worldwide.

The live performance of The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater will be staged in the concert hall of the New World Symphony’s new home. The Frank Gehry-designed building is an extraordinary environment that promises to become a global hub for creative expression and collaboration, and a laboratory for generating new ideas about the way music is taught, performed, and experienced.

Great Performances great performances is the only continuing primetime performance showcase on American television. Now in its 37th season, great performances presents a diverse repertoire of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries. Its programs have received every major television honor including 64 Emmy Awards and four George Foster Peabody Awards. great performances, produced by THIRTEEN for WNET.ORG, is responsible for the PBS broadcast. THE CAST & PRODUCTION TEAM

Michael Tilson Thomas (Conductor and Narrator), the grandson of Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, is Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, Artistic Director of the New World Symphony and Principal Guest Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra.

His recorded repertoire of more than 120 discs includes works by composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Prokofiev and Stravinsky, as well as his pioneering work with the music of Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles, Steve Reich, John Cage, Morton Feldman, George Gershwin, John McLaughlin and Elvis Costello. He recently finished recording the complete orchestral works of Gustav Mahler with the San Francisco Symphony.

Mr. Tilson Thomas’ television work includes a series with the London Symphony Orchestra for BBC Television, the television broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts from 1971 to 1977 and numerous productions on PBS great performances. Starting in 2004, Mr. Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony embarked on a multi-tiered media project, Keeping Score, which includes a television series, web sites, radio programs and programs in schools.

In February 1988 he inaugurated the New World Symphony, an orchestral academy for graduates of prestigious music programs. Over 800 graduates of the academy are now in musical leadership positions worldwide. They have been a primary institution in the use of Internet2 technology for long- distance learning. A new Frank Gehry-designed campus is scheduled to open in January of 2011.

Mr. Tilson Thomas is a Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France. He was Musical America’s Musician of the Year and Conductor of the Year, Gramophone Magazine’s Artist of the Year and has been profiled on CBS’s 60 Minutes and ABC’s Nightline. He has won ten Grammy Awards for his recordings. In 2008 he received the Peabody Award for his SFS Media radio series, The MTT Files. In 2010, President Obama awarded him with the , the highest award given to artists by the United States government. Judy Blazer (Bessie Thomashefsky) began her career as a young singer in opera, oratorio, and recital in New York City and throughout Italy. She moved into Broadway theater with leading roles in Me and My Girl, A Change in the Heir, Titanic, and Neil Simon’s 45 Seconds from Broadway. Most recently on Broadway, she was seen in LoveMusik, directed by . Off-Broadway, she was featured in Candide with the New York City Opera, The House of Bernarda Alba, Sweeney Todd with New York City Opera, The Torch Bearers , Lincoln Center’s Hello Again (Drama Desk nomination), The Roundabout’s Hurrah at Last and the New York City Center Encores production of Connecticut Yankee.

Regionally, she has played the title roles in Funny Girl at Sundance Theater, The Miracle Worker at George Street Playhouse, My Fair Lady at the Paper Mill Playhouse and the 5th Avenue Theatre in , Peter Pan at Artpark, and The Night Governess at McCarter Theatre. She has also been seen as Maria in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at the Long Wharf Theatre and as Lily Garland in On the 20th Century with the American of San Jose.

Ms. Blazer has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, as a soloist in Twyla Tharp’s Everlast with American Theatre, and she has performed in concert at Lincoln Center. Ms. Blazer has also been a featured artist on two PBS specials: Bernstein’s New York and In Performance at the White House.

Ronit Widmann-Levy (Various roles including Mme. Krantzfeld and Sophie Karp, co-star of Alexander, Crown Prince of Jerusalem) has received accolades for her operatic and concert performances throughout the world. A versatile artist equally at home on both concert and opera stages, Ronit has sung in opera houses and festivals in San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Berlin, Munich, London, Bangkok and Jerusalem. Since her debut in 1995, Ronit has regularly performed with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, at Carnegie Hall, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the New World Symphony. In fall of 2005, she embarked on a world concert tour of her CD Como la Rosa. Ronit Widmann-Levy’s repertoire includes the roles of Violetta, Constanza, Madama Butterfly, Micaela, Mimi, Liù, Gilda and Freia.

Eugene Brancoveanu (Various roles including Young Boris Thomashefsky and Leon Blank, co-star of The Green Millionaire) has performed in the San Francisco Opera’s Fidelio, Un ballo in maschera, Rigoletto, Carmen, Die Fledermaus, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Manon Lescaut, The Little Prince and L’elisir d’amore. He has performed with American Symphony Orchestra in Le Roi d’ys; and with the New York City Opera as Pandolfe in Cendrillon. He sang The Pilot in Portman’s The Little Prince, appeared as soloist in Brahms’ Requiem with Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and with Pacific Symphony Orchestra in a concert of Bernstein repertoire.

Creating Marcello in Baz Luhrmann’s La Bohème on Broadway, the honorary Tony Award winner also received a 2004 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award for his performances in the Los Angeles production.

Patricia Birch (Stage Director) “Fiddler-Schmmiddler. has earned two Emmy Awards and five Tony This one really nominations in a career that crosses all raises the roof.” media. Other honors include Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Barrymore, Billboard Financial Times London, and MTV awards, as well as a Directors Guild April, 2005 nomination and the prestigious Fred Astaire Award for her choreography and direction of music driven projects ranging from Sondheim to the Rolling Stones. She has just been inducted to the Theater Hall of Fame.

She has created the musical staging for original Broadway and off Broadway shows including: Grease; You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown; The Me Nobody Knows; A Little Night Music; Candide; Over Here; Diamond Studs; The ; Pacific Overtures; They’re Playing Our Song; Gilda Radner, Live from New York; Zoot Suit; Rosa; Parade; Like ; and LoveMusik, with and , directed by Harold Prince.

Her direction and choreography credits include: Celebrating Gershwin at BAM and the televised concert production of On the Town with the London Symphony Orchestra; the Melissa Manchester musical I Sent a Letter to My Love; the original production of Maurice Sendak and Carole King’s Really Rosie; Joe Raposo’s Raggedy; The Snow Queen, a multi-media docu-musical about the Comedian Harmonists; and the Cy Coleman musical Exactly Like You.

For television, Ms. Birch has directed Natalie Cole: Unforgettable with Love and Celebrating Gershwin, both of which earned her Emmy Awards in direction; Dance in America for the 20th anniversary of PBS’s great performances; and Natalie Cole’s Untraditional Traditional Christmas featuring Elmo. Gary Halvorson (Television Director) is a director best known for capturing live stage performances and events as well as top-rated situation comedies. A selection from his extensive musical credits includes: great performances, Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2008: A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein, Keeping Score, The Merry Widow, Broadway Sings: The Music of Jule Styne, and ’s You’re The One live concert in Paris for PBS. He has also directed high-definition theater simulcasts for the Metropolitan Opera including: Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Massenet’s Thais, John Adam’s Doctor Atomic, Britten’s Peter Grimes, and Verdi’s Macbeth, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Bellini’s The Puritans, Puccini’s The Triptych and Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet. A short list of his situation comedy directing credits includes Friends, Roseanne, Everybody Loves Raymond and The Drew Carey Show. Halvorson was awarded an Emmy for “Outstanding Special Class Directing” for the 78th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and was nominated for “Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series” for his work on Everybody Loves Raymond.

Michael Bronson (Television Producer) has over 40 years of experience as an arts administrator, producer of television and radio programs, and arts management consulting in labor relations and media projects. An Emmy and Peabody Award winning television producer, he produced the first 10 years of the Metropolitan Opera’sLive from the Met television series; negotiated the Metropolitan Opera’s first long term international television distribution and home video distribution agreements; and produced television specials including Leonard Bernstein at 70 and Pavarotti and the Italian Tenor, opera productions for Houston Grand Opera (Nixon in China, Little Women) and The Washington National Opera, and theater productions for PBS’ award-winning American Playhouse series (Tru, Grapes of Wrath). Michael Bronson currently produces live concert programs for the PBS series, Keeping Score: MTT on Music. Michael Kantor (Television Producer) recently created Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America, the acclaimed six-part documentary series hosted by Billy Crystal that debuted on PBS in January, 2009. The series earned him an Emmy nomination for Nonfiction Writing. Kantor’s last major series, Broadway: The American Musical, was hosted by and was honored with the Emmy Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Series in 2005. That same year, Ghost Light Films created three hours of DVD extras for Twentieth Century Fox’s 40th Anniversary release of “The Sound of Music.” Mr. Kantor wrote, directed, and produced the award-winning profile,: In the Pocket, which aired as part of the series. With Stephen Ives, he co-directed Cornerstone: An Interstate Adventure for HBO. Kantor is also President of Almo Inc., which distributes The American Film Theatre series, including Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance (starring Katharine Hepburn), Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh (Lee Marvin), and Chekhov’s Three Sisters (Laurence Olivier) among its titles. In addition to developing new projects for television, Mr. Kantor currently serves as a Tony nominator.

Linda Steinberg (Media Designer and Executive Director, The Thomashefsky Project) Ms. Steinberg has directed the project since it was founded in July 1998, overseeing the research, cataloguing, translating and compiling of Thomashefsky-related materials housed in archives and collections across the country. During the prior decade, she was Director of The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. Earlier in her career she served as: Curator of Collections for the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, Associate Director of the Center for the Arts at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and Director of the Brandeis- Bardin Institute in Simi Valley, California. She has been a guest curator or arts consultant at: the Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York City; the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, New York City; Moore College of Art, Philadelphia; the Skirball Museum, Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Thomashefskys Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater