KLEYNKUNST! WARSAW'S YIDDISH CABARET SCHEDULES 4 NYC PERFORMANCES
KLEYNKUNST!, a new work of music and theatre, brings to life Warsaw's
brave and brilliant Yiddish cabaret from 1921-1941. The show will
be performed at 92ND STREET Y MAKOR/STEINHARDT CENTER (35 West 67th
Street, NYC - 212-415-5500 -
http://www.92y.org/
) on Sunday, March 11th 4:30 pm, as part of Makor's MANifest Festival,
and at HELEN'S RESTAURANT, CABARET & PIANO LOUNGE (169 Eighth Avenue,
NYC - 212-206-0609 -
http://www.helensnyc.com/
) on Tuesday March 20th at 7:00 pm. Then, in honor of Yom Hashoa,
Holocaust Remembrance day celebrated on April 15th, shows will be
performed at HELEN'S RESTAURANT, CABARET & PIANO LOUNGE on Thursdays,
April 12th and 19th at 7:00 pm, both shows followed by a special Q
& A with the audience.
Extensively researched and written by cantor/singer/actress/educator
Rebecca Joy Fletcher, performed together with Broadway veteran Stephen
Mo Hanan, with seasoned Broadway director Michael Montel, and music
director Bob Goldstone at the helm, KLEYNKUNST! transports the audience
to a time when Yiddish culture was at its peak and the most creative
and daring young Jewish theater artists had the world at their fingertips.
They drew on American jazz and Tin Pan Alley, German cabaret, Hasidic
niggunim and Argentinean tango to create their witty, hip and subversive
cabarets.
By affirming the rare and vibrant culture of Warsaw's
kleynkunst teaters, KLEYNKUNST! serves as a window into a world
that no longer exists. It pays homage not only to the victims of
the Holocaust, but also to one of the many vital worlds that died
along with them.
Fletcher spent the last five years researching the
history of Jewish cabaret in Poland, Israel, Paris and Berlin. She's
uncovered songs and sketches that have not been performed in sixty
years. She states: "Researching, creating, and now performing KLEYNKUNST!
has been a revelation and a gift. Together with my amazing team,
I try to breathe life into a way of life and a cutting edge cultural
movement which was abruptly snuffed out."
KLEYNKUNST! explores the roots of Modernism, the power
of art for a disenfranchised, impassioned community, and the necessity
of making music, even inside destruction. "I set out to create something
both vital and steeped in history," Fletcher states. "This is not
a sweet and easy look into the little traditional shtetls of Jewish
Eastern Europe. It is not enough to present well researched work;
it is not enough to foster nostalgia."
KLEYNKUNST! is about the dissenters -- those secular
hipster Yiddishist cabaret artists who sought to explore, dissect,
and make sense of the rapidly changing world around them. Ms. Fletcher
explains further, "As an artist and a Jew, I cannot assimilate the
horrors of the Holocaust. But I can do this - I can create a vital,
dynamic, and emotionally charged window in to the life that existed
before. New Jewish performance must revitalize us, must wake us
up - to our history, to the present and to ourselves."
KLEYNKUNST! is performed in both Yiddish and English.
By seamlessly integrating English lyrics, it is made accessible
and engaging for both non-Yiddish speaking and non-Jewish audiences.
Makor performance tickets are $15 (food and drink
available, no minimum)
Helen's performance tickets are $22 (plus $15 food/drink minimum)
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