A growing collection of in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories about the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture offer a rich and complex chronicle of Jewish identity.
“No One’s Going to Be Interested in Tevye and His Five Daughters”: Boris Aronson Sending Scripts to His Son at Camp
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Marc Aronson, son of Yiddish theater set designers Boris and Lisa Aronson, shares a story from the summer he went to camp in California, when his father sent him 2 scripts to look over, including one for a play based on Tevye. Marc told his father that no one would be interested in Tevye's story, and luckily Boris disregarded his advice and produced Fiddler on the Roof.
This is an excerpt from an oral history with Marc Aronson.
This excerpt is in English.
This interview is part of the Yiddish and the Arts: musicians, actors, and artists series.
Other video highlights from this oral history
“No One’s Going to Be Interested in Tevye and His Five Daughters”: Boris Aronson Sending Scripts to His Son at Camp
1 minute 15 seconds
Lisa Aronson's Artistic Background and Escape From Austria in 1939
4 minutes 54 seconds
Colored Xerox and 3-Dimensional Paintings: Examples of Boris Aronson's Artwork
2 minutes 51 seconds
Boris Aronson’s Funny Stories about Maurice Schwartz and Distance from Yiddish Theater
2 minutes 4 seconds
Boris Aronson's Cane-Carving Job in the Catskills
2 minutes 29 seconds
Boris Aronson's Physical Appearance
7 minutes 1 second
The Universality of Fiddler on the Roof and Its Revolutionary Impact on Broadway
6 minutes 29 seconds
Boris Aronson's Set for Maurice Schwartz's Ten Commandments
2 minutes 1 second
Boris Aronson's Involvement in Art and the Kultur Lige in Europe
6 minutes 34 seconds
Father's Interest in Japan
2 minutes 23 secondsMore information about this oral history excerpt
Themes in this oral history excerpt:
- Marc Aronson
- Boris Aronson
- California
- Tevye and His Daughters
- Fiddler on the Roof
- Summer camp
- Childhood
- Family history, stories about ancestors
- Theater
About the Wexler Oral History Project
Since 2010, the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project has recorded more than 500 in-depth video interviews that provide a deeper understanding of the Jewish experience and the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture.
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