BRYNA WASSERMAN ORAL HISTORY

CHRISTA WHITNEY: This is Christa Whitney, and today is April 8th, 2016. I'm here with Bryna Wasserman in New York City at the Museum of the City of New York. We're going to record an interview as part of the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project. Do I have your permission to record?

BRYNA WASSERMAN: Yes.

CW: Thanks. So, I'd like to start actually with your grandparents' generation. What do you know about them?

BW: Very little. Life seemed to have started with my mother Dora, and she revealed very, very little about her parents, except that they were almost like 1:00"Tevye." They were six girls, and each one took an artistic bent, and would say that her father inspired them all and was a storyteller. That I do know.

CW: Do you have a sense of Zhytomyr and what that world was like at all?

BW: Uh, it's all DNA. So being Dora's daughter, by definition, meant that the -- your history, your soul, your heritage was instilled at a very early age, without it being a process of learning. It was a process of being. 'Cause that's what my childhood was all about. It was a very, very creative time. We had come 2:00to Canada and -- from very trying times. Dora was part of the Moscow Art Theatre, studied with Mikhoels, was shipped to Kazakhstan and Jambyl during the war with the whole theater company, so they were spared. My father was in Siberia, and therefore the two of them were spared the atrocities, but their families succumbed. So, being the product of that generation, being born in a DP camp, in Puch, in Vienna, where my mother and father were very, very active -- and ended up staying there for a long time. It was really a transit situation, 3:00but Dora stayed because she entertained the people who were in the DP camp, and I was born there. So, we stayed there for two years. So that's my early life. But it was always surrounded by theater, art, literary personalities, and it was very full. We didn't even know we were poor or impoverished. We assumed that everybody lived like this. But I would say we were the -- in looking back, had so much richness around us that we weren't even aware of how difficult the situation was.

CW: Just to go back to your mother's early life, can you just, for an audience that might not know, explain what GOSET was?

BW: The Moscow Art Theater was a revival of Yiddish theater. The feeling was to contemporize Yiddish theater that they knew and make it relevant and exciting. And she was part of that world. She was in the later half of that world. But, it was quite difficult to be part of that company, but she was accepted. And she has a wonderful story about how she was accepted, and what her audition was. So, they asked her to steal a little penknife that was on a table. And she stood up and said, "Just because I'm from the country, you want to make fun of me, and you want me to steal? And that's against my -- what I have learned." And she 5:00actually went into a rage about the theatrical exercise, and ran out. And of course they looked back, and the knife was gone. So, she was immediately accepted into the school. And those are the wonderful stories that I grew up with. She recalls those years with so much love and passion. And the way she would describe it, they would have herring and borscht and potatoes, but they had art and theater. And that passion was not only transmitted to her children, but to her community that later grew to be the Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre.

CW: How did your parents meet?

BW: Fabulous question. My parents met in the theater. One night my father came 6:00to the theater, saw her onstage, carried her home, because it was winter and cold, and that rest was history. So, they spent sixty years together without ever having a formal marriage. So, that was an exciting time for them. And she had very fond memories. Until, of course, she had a trip back home and discovered a lot of what she imagined and how she felt in her youth was not the same anymore. And that trip was very significant in her life.

CW: Is the family -- was the family frum [pious], that she came from?

BW: Interesting. She was obviously brought up under the regime, the -- of no 7:00religion. Her father was frum, but when we talk -- and my father's father was frum. He was a tailor. But it means different things today. Even those who rebelled against religion were still very religious, by today's standards. So, there was an enlightenment. There was a period where Yiddish thrived, and that's the world they lived in.

CW: So, can you -- I mean, obviously you were born there, so you don't -- you were very young. (laughs)

BW: Yes.

CW: But what do you know about the Vienna transit camp?

BW: I do know that my father was in charge of supplies, and at that time could 8:00have accumulated some financial means. But, of course, my mother would never let that happen. So, she was the artist, he supported her. Which, when we're thinking about 1945, 1950, here's a very strong woman who is determined to keep her art, her music, her culture alive. And she had a very hard-working husband who supported that. And their -- that lineage really passed on to myself. So, I will -- (laughs) I will attribute my strength and stubbornness to Dora. (laughs)

CW: Can you describe what she looked like?

BW: Interesting question about what Dora looked like. She was beautiful. She was 9:00-- felt the beauty on the inside, and people loved to love her because she thrived on it. She didn't demand it, she gave into it. So, she was a magnet. And, you know, Nana Mouskouri, is she beautiful? She's a beautiful woman, but -- and she attracted to the very end very young people. And a lot of admirers, but by whose standard are we talking about in terms of beauty? That inner soul came through.

CW: Was there a feature, an outstanding feature of hers physically that was -- 10:00you think of?

BW: I think she had a glow, a presence, a presence of her own self, which is an important aspect of the physical attributes. But I don't think she focused on her physical -- she had beautiful skin. And, she became whoever she wanted to be at the time.

CW: So, do you know why your parents decided to come to Montreal?

BW: My father had a sister who had lived in Canada, and at that time you needed a sponsor. I think there was a choice at one point of Israel or Canada, but the fact is that there was a relative who was eager to sign the papers that allowed 11:00them to come to Canada. It was cold. It was difficult. It was, as I said, an unusual time for all immigrants. We were not ever sure of who was a relative and who wasn't. Everybody was an aunt. We were all in the same situation. Unlike Americans who'd come here in the thousands at the turn of the century, Canada -- Montreal specifically -- mass immigration happened right after the war. So, Yiddish was prevalent. It was a language you spoke. It was the first language that I spoke. But there was a feeling of hope. Culture was extraordinarily 12:00important to everyone. The door was always open to other immigrants. 'Cause there was a flow of immigrants. And everyone knew you could spend the night, or someone who was supposed to spend the night spent two years in a place to sleep. And, we as children always knew to say we'd already eaten. 'Cause the food was for everyone else. And to this day, it's very difficult for me (laughs) to eat first before I'm sure that everybody else has eaten. So there was this richness of culture, parallel to this poverty.

I'll give you an example. We went to a Yiddish day school. The teachers never knew if they were gonna get paid or not, because nobody could pay tuition. There 13:00were always artists, writers, journalists in the home. And they always knew that that's where they could go. And she would take the sheets off the beds and give it to the first immigrant that walked through the house. But we didn't think that was unusual. That was just part of how we survived. My father would -- he was a very strong man, and a very physical man. Let alone chopping trees in Siberia, but he would weather Montreal storms and walk to save some money so that he could provide for us. But he worked very hard. He became a furrier, working in a factory. And, I don't remember any of that being difficult. I remember those days as being quite wonderful.

CW: Did you ever visit the factory?

BW: Yes! And there was fur all over the floor, foremens, and eventually, as a child, when he took some work home, I'd be in charge of putting the elastic bands into the wrists of the fur coats. So that that idea of working hard and being able to then support a family. But again, it was community, and I think that was important. There was an organization then that I remember called the Jewish Public Library, which was fascinating that a group of immigrants who could think of so many things to build -- hospitals, synagogues, whatever -- for social needs built this incredible library that also had an auditorium where my 15:00mother performed and started her children's theater.

CW: So, can you say -- was it the Peretz shule that you went to?

BW: Yes.

CW: So, what was that like? Who were your teachers?

BW: We had lerer [teacher] Shtern, who drew little katshkelekh, little ducks, on everybody's paper. Going to school and coming from school was relatively dangerous, in terms of -- nobody was gonna assault anyone, but this wasn't exactly mainstream Montreal. This was cold flats. This was we opened the oven door for heat, or there was a central heating system, and -- I was told I was sick a lot. My sister took care of me. She may have been five and I was three. 16:00But that was okay. It was community. We lived on the streets of de Bullion, now very fashionable neighborhood. (laughs) Regentrified. But at the time, we were immigrants. The first place we lived in was a boardinghouse, where you shared kitchens or bathrooms or you lined up, which was interesting in itself, a whole interesting world. And, we grew up healthy and strong and motivated. And so, those were not terrible times. As I say, they were, looking back at it, quite wonderful. And maintained those same friendships till today. So, my mother's friends, as they grew older, and she passed away, we maintained those friendships.

CW: So how old were you when you came to Montreal?

BW: Two.

CW: Okay. (both laugh)

BW: I was born in '48, and we came to Montreal on a ship in 1950.

CW: So, can you describe the public library, the JPL at that time?

BW: It was a hub of culture. The director's name was Rome, who had an incredible vision. Even at that time, Quebec had two divides, English and French, and he was very immersed in the French community, and that was very important. My mother's often said she's not sure she could have reached the level that she did 18:00anywhere else. Because there were the two divides, they -- it was clear that culture was emitted through language, that culture and language were necessary. And therefore, this Yiddish hub, this Yiddish theater, could blossom and grow. And what is interesting is both theaters -- both the Folksbiene in New York and the Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre -- grew out of amateur theater company, and involved community. Language and community was important.

CW: So, when you were growing up, who were the sort of adults, artists, that as a kid you had relationship with or remember?

BW: What I do remember is a meeting at our home with people like -- I'm gonna 19:00say Pesach and the last name is -- escapes me at this moment. Ida Maze, who was a poet. What I do remember is that they were going to start a Yiddish theater in Montreal, and they all argued about who would take on the leadership and who would be the star, and which actor was gonna get which role. And Dora, my mother, left and never came back again, and it never happened. So, a lot of what happened in New York -- New York had an earlier start. Of course, it started at the turn of the century and had fourteen thriving Yiddish theaters, of which the 20:00Folksbiene was just one of them. Dora brought the GOSET theater ideals to what she was working on. So we never went through the shund [literature/art/theater of inferior quality], the musical, the operetta, the -- she went right into it with the drama and the serious Yiddish plays that she had done, of course, in Russia. So, there's a different history, and I'm grateful for it.

CW: Why?

BW: I think there's a -- a richness of the background. And there were no options. It wasn't that -- like, the Folksbiene was the more serious element of 21:00the hundred-year -- you know, the 1815 -- 1915, excuse me -- theater scene. But at the same time, you could have had the gamut of what we call today shund. Okay, I've shund. That wouldn't have been part of any of the history that I experienced. And basically, when I went to the theater, it -- I knew the theater was getting bigger and stronger by the seats that I would have to sleep on. So first it was a folkshul [Yiddish secular school] bench in a school auditorium. And then the seats became cushier, and then the residency at the -- what is now -- well, was the Saidye Bronfman Centre, which is now the Segal Centre -- as the 22:00seats came more and more comfortable, I knew (laughs) the theater was getting stronger and stronger. So, it was quite an amazing childhood.

CW: What was she like as an actress, as an actor?

BW: Beautiful. She was a singer. She started off studying voice and music, and then became a very serious dramatic artist. But she had vision. That made her a great director. If you don't have imagination and you don't have vision, you can't direct, and you can't create something. You'd only be one cog. And she had the vision to involve the French community, who loved her. She had the vision to 23:00translate plays into Yiddish, but of course put on the Yiddish canon. She became the mother, then the grandmother, to hundreds of young people. And she was tied to her art. So, the next question would be how was she as a mother? So, we know she was an artist, and she had to feed that soul. We as children didn't have milk and cookies when we came home from school. We didn't -- dinner, I don't really remember meals. But there was a pot of either borscht or soup on the stove that she threw whatever she could into it, and then we would, I guess, 24:00have it when we came home from school. But that wasn't Dora. So Dora's gifts to her family and to her extended family was herself. And, it's -- it was a gift that till today I'm thankful for.

CW: Did you have other mentors, you know, other than your mother and -- from the community, when you were growing up?

[BREAK IN RECORDING]

BW: It is a community that really contributes to one's life. I can't say that about today yet, but I can say it about those early years. So, teachers lerer Tenser, lerer Zipper, of the Peretz shule, the parents of other children -- 25:00because we didn't distinguish between our parents and somebody else's parents. The Fishmans, the Candibs. So, it was principals of schools -- there were no divisions at the time.

CW: So you said earlier people would come into your home. Can you paint that scene for me?

BW: Sure. We went from a boardinghouse to a cold flat to finally one of these wonderful homes that had the outdoor stairways, and the -- we're talking about five below and ten below zero. (laughs) But we had finally come to a home with some central heating. And it was attached to the Jewish Public Library, so that was a second home. And as people came as immigrants and, as I said, there was this wonderful writer [Danielek?], who came for a week. And these were railway 26:00apartments, so you would have a little room on the right, you'd have the living room, and then the kitchen and then a room off that which would have been considered my room. And he wanted to write a book. And so, I moved in with my sister. He moved into that little room, and in some way became a mentor. I don't think that book was ever published. But, certainly we felt he was part of this family.

[BREAK IN RECORDING]

BW: Any time a theater company would come to Montreal and they needed a child, I would take the part. And to this day I remember Yablokoff, who then became the director of the Hebrew Actors' Union, and needed a little girl and would say, 27:00"Okay, just listen to the man in the booth." Because there was a prompter. So I didn't know what I was going to say (laughs) at any one time until the prompter would read the script, and then of course I'd have to repeat it. So those were introductions to the American, or New York theater scene, coming to visit Montreal.

CW: Were there writers that came to the house?

BW: Yes. Actually -- and now it's going to -- now I'm gonna have to think of some names. Besides -- it's gonna -- there was Rokhl and there were two other -- Rokhl and the editor of the Canadian -- of the "Keneder Adler," the Canadi-- of 28:00the "Keneder Adler." So, it was quite interesting, and some of the names are failing me at this moment. But the environment lent itself to publishers of newspapers, of -- ultimately, anyone who came to the library would also come to our home as well.

CW: Wolofsky?

BW: Well, and -- yes, sure.

CW: "Keneder Adler," yeah.

BW: Yes. But there is one more name, and it will come to me, hopefully by the end of this interview.

[BREAK IN RECORDING]

CW: So, what were your parents' reactions to you starting to act yourself?

BW: For me there were no alternatives but to follow my mother's footsteps. My older sister had a little more freedom. She was the first one to live the more Canadian life and have friends, and, as I said, was responsible for my wellbeing at a very early age. So, we were very close and very connected, to this day.

[BREAK IN RECORDING]

CW: Well, I wanted to ask about your own study of theater. So can you just tell me a little bit about your training?

BW: Sure. There were no choices of whether I would be involved in theater and in Yiddish theater. That was obvious from the time I was born and brought to the 30:00theater and told it's more important than even going to school. So many a night, as I said, was spent sleeping on a bench, and learning more than any school could teach you. But I did want to get a professional education. And having experienced theater all my life, Yiddish theater all my life, and having the experience of the [Yiddish?] Mikhoels being handed down made me really interested. But this is what I was told: You have to be a teacher first, because you need a profession to fall back on. Sure. (laughs) And you know what, she was not wrong. There were times teaching was a very important part of my life. But 31:00once I had that degree and once I had permanent certification and would put on the plays in these schools, "Oliver" or whatever else, there was always extracurricular work, whether it was at Pripstein's Camp in Montreal at sixteen -- I don't remember a time of not working. And came to New York, and wanted to study at NYU. And there were five directors in the class. And I walked in and I said, "I think I'd like to come to your school." And the -- Mel Shapiro, at the time, laughed. He said, "Well, we started a week ago, and all these other people had to audition and had to bring actors and scenes, and what makes you think you 32:00can just walk through the door and just have all this?" Well, we spent a good two hours, three hours, talking, and from that point on I was the one who walked through the door and (laughs) ended up in this class of very talented directors. And stayed on to get a bachelor's, master's. And it was probably the best years of my life. Living in the Village in the '70s, Theatre of the Ridiculous, Theatre of the Absurd, the Wooster Street project, Richard Schechner. It was glorious. And I do recall renting an apartment on Eighth Street, corner Sixth Avenue, over what was then Whelan's Drug Store, across the street from Nathan's Hot Dogs. And you had to go through one door and then another door, 'cause it 33:00was a walk-up. And there was a drunk sit-- you know, lying between the two doors. And my mother came to visit, opened the door, stepped over the drunk, and she said, "This is life!" (laughs) So there was this fabulous connection to what I was doing. So, I had to pay for my room and board, because certainly my parents didn't have the means to do it. So, by day I'd go to school, and by night work at Yiddish theater, whether it was the Folksbiene or whether it was what was then Rothpearl's resurgence of theater with Jacob Ben-Ami. This is the time I began to meet the last generation of New York artists, whether it was 34:00Sholom Secunda, just before he died. [Miriam Kressyn]. They are gone. The Bozyks. They are gone. I'd have a jolly old time at Yiddish theater, and at the same time had the opportunity of seeing fortune in men's eyes. The theater of the street, Bread and Puppet Theater, the -- this was an incredible time to be in New York. And, added to what then became this artistic director of the -- (laughs) of the Segal Centre. I couldn't have asked for a better childhood or a 35:00better youth. I was very fortunate.

CW: I'd like to just talk about some of these people a little more. Could you describe Ben-Ami, for example? What was he like?

BW: When I met him, he was in his nineties. He did a play called "Yoshe Kalb," which I didn't direct, but I stage-managed. And just being in his presence was very exciting. I would also add Ida Kaminska to the list, and have many stories about each one of these people. I remember Sholom Secunda telling me that he had a very meager existence till he played the rabbi in "Fiddler." He was in "Duddy 36:00Kravitz." He began to get these fabulous film parts. And he said, "Bryneleh, if I knew that growing a beard would get me all these parts, I woulda done it a long time -- (laughs) I would have done it much earlier!" So, every time I had an opportunity to work with him, I would say, "Di bord, di bord, di bord zol mir zayn [the beard, the beard, let's have the beard]." So, there are incredible stories with --

CW: So, what was Ben-Ami's presence, as you describe it?

BW: I think because he had the stature of being such a fabulous actor in any world, by the time I met him he was -- in "Yoshe Kalb" he was the judge, and he had to have the script open and pretty much read the script. But you knew when you met him that he just was an artist. Miriam Kressyn was in a production as 37:00well. She did an excellent job. But she was way be-- she was a lot older than the part should have been. And to a certain extent, that killed a lot of Yiddish theater -- it was a closed shop. And I was told how lucky I was to be able to be taken into the Hebrew Actors' Union. And I took it.

CW: Did you visit the building? Can you describe that?

BW: Oh yeah. I had to be at the building, sign my Hebrew Actors' Union contract, let alone the fact that I was -- equity and the -- whatever (laughs) else was going on at the time. So living in these two worlds was kind of fascinating. But 38:00there's a world of stories of actors who would argue with each other and then go out to dinner. They'd argue about billing, about who took the last curtain call: No, you go. No, you go. I wish I had a camera to just roll, keep rolling, because it's a world of -- that is gone.

[BREAK IN RECORDING]

BW: Mina Bern, Shifra Lerer, Zypora Spaisman. And I'd suggested, because they were getting older, that perhaps they could do a play together that would allow them to play all the roles that they had played since their youth, and that I would just put three dressing-room props onstage. And each one of them could go 39:00through the gamut of the parts that they played. Couldn't get it going because they would argue about who would play what part, who was the little boy, who was the little girl, who would get the first billing, who would get the second billing. And in the end, they wouldn't do it. But then they'd go out to the hairdresser together. And then they would call each other. So (laughs) this was a very fascinating time. Really, it was exciting and fascinating.

CW: Were there any of that world that you really became more friendly with, was particularly special for you?

BW: I admired the Bozyks. I used to call them "two-shirt performers." In other words, it was all giving it up to the audience. And that generosity of spirit -- 40:00Reizl Bozyk would kind of manipulate her husband onstage as to where he should go, because he was so involved in the scene and so into the moment that she sort of led him with whatever blocking he ever kept. So, I admired that extraordinary involvement with the audience. And they understood what it was like to give. And, there was some mentoring going on at the time. And that was very special.

CW: What was the reaction to you, you know, this young, Yiddish-speaking --

BW: I wasn't as unusual, I think. I'm going back now to the '70s, this 41:00particular time, and one was passing on each -- each year, I would say. And I used to say, "God's casting." And sometimes the good would go very early, earlier than others, and some had the sustainability. And, it was just the privilege of having that experience. But then understanding that there was whole other world of -- it was a very exciting time for theater in general. I often look at today's theater movements and say, "What is it?" And I think today, it's the merger of electronics. And I'm not talking about slides and projections, I'm 42:00talking about real electronics into theatrical productions. And that's fascinating. But, I know there was a bumpy road in the last twenty, twenty-five years. And Yiddish theater's trying to find itself. There's a certain stability in Montreal. When Dora, at eighty, had a stroke, and I, due to family situation, was able to leave to go to Montreal and take over. So, first in her place, which was very tough place to be, sit in her chair. And then, take on the English 43:00theater and then build a performing arts center. But for a long time I questioned, How could she keep her spirits when she's lost language and mobility? But it was those last few years where she was honored with an Order of Canada, an Order of Quebec, a Masque Award, which is equivalent to our Tonys. So, she was content sitting in the audience or sitting at rehearsals yelling at me. Because if she didn't like something I was doing, she let me know. (laughs) And that was -- that was wonderful, because it meant her spirit was still there. She didn't give up. And she wouldn't give up to the end, you know. She wasn't prepared to write one of these, you know, do not resuscitate. She loved life, 44:00and she wanted it all until the end. And my mother and father died within three weeks of each other.

CW: What --

BW: But her legacy lives on. It's called the Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre, and for that I will thank the Segals forever, for their understanding that this was an important part of the fabric of Montreal. The uniqueness of the theater, the uniqueness that it stayed an amateur theater company, but in the real words of what an amateur theater is. And I often quote Uta Hagen, who says, "Amateur is 45:00for the love of." Chekhov was a doctor, you know? He was an amateur. Uta Hagen started off as an amateur, but in its purest form, the love of. And that's what Dora instilled. And there is the third generation on that stage today, of Dora's children, the next generation -- which was my generation. Some people were pregnant while they were onstage. And their children have continued to go onstage. Anywhere that I go in the world now, somebody says, Oh, I remember, I was one of Dora's classes. Or from LA to Halifax to Vancouver, Oh, I was in one of the plays. And when we had our international festival for the fiftieth 46:00anniversary of the Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre, we had a reunion, which was an extraordinarily interesting and special times, when each person had an opportunity to tell their story.

CW: What are the challenges of Yiddish theater today? Making Yiddish theater?

BW: I'm very hopeful. I know -- the reality is we cannot assume that people will start to speak Yiddish in the street to each other necessarily, and I'm about to cough. (coughs) Sorry.

CW: No, that's fine.

BW: The challenges of Yiddish theater in some way reflect the challenges of theater in general: Who's the next audience? Who are the next performers? What 47:00will it look like? Of course, we have an added layer of language. And I do believe that it may be even important now. I've often said that the first fifty years of the Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre were the easy ones. What are we gonna do with the next fifty years? I don't feel that now. I feel very hopeful. I feel very hopeful being at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene now. I feel hopeful that this generation that we have now are interested. They're curious. They don't have the baggage of the previous generation, of integration, of shedding their Yiddish culture. I think that they want to know. And I think 48:00theater is one of the safest and most expressive ways of reaching and connecting to your culture.

[BREAK IN RECORDING]

BW: I think the Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre has its home. I think that the National Yiddish Theatre, now at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, will have an enlightenment. I think that we will be a magnet to the next generation. And whether the plays are all in Yiddish, whether some of them are in English to attract an audience, some are bilingual, the supertitles help in both theaters. The longevity is due to the fact that we're always reinventing ourselves and 49:00looking towards the future. If you don't believe that that's gonna happen, it isn't gonna happen. So, I believe.

CW: Do you have people that you still speak Yiddish with daily?

BW: I'm excited to speak Yiddish to students who are studying at YIVO, who are studying Yiddish at the Book Center. I love to see the next class, that summer program of young people who come from diverse backgrounds. I think having non-- it's not just non-Yiddish-speaking Jewish people. We have non-Jews onstage. And I think that's a good thing. I don't think that's bad. The UN has recognized 50:00Yiddish as one of the endangered languages, because it didn't have a natural death. It follows all the requirements that they set forward as an endangered language. But recognizing the fact that it is an endangered language means that there are things that can be done about it. And that again, I'm very optimistic about it. And filling the Yiddish -- the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, with young people who have an interest in Yiddish -- our next production of "Golden Bride" has a young woman who studied Yiddish because she needed to for the play and now is taking a course at YIVO. So, that inspiration is very 51:00comforting, and, I believe, important. The language -- it's -- the pintele yid [the essence of a Jew] in Yiddish, and the word "yid," Yiddish. So you have the word "yid" in there. And it's that pintele yid that is vital to the future of our Yiddishkayt and the future of Yiddish theater.

CW: What advice do you give to the new actors coming in?

BW: I believe that performing in Yiddish is no different than any other performing arts. We don't want anyone to hide the fact that they may not be 52:00talented by trying to find this niche. In order for both theater companies to move forward, there has to be a desire and a need for excellence. So, you need all your skills and all your faculties. And, take on the challenge of the language as another element of what you're doing and understand that there's a rich culture and background there. Anyone thinking about the theater a hundred years ago to say, What would we do today if Chagall walked through the door and said, 'I'm doing your set'? Well, Chagall painted for the Yiddish theater, for 53:00the GOSET theater. So, that knowledge of Yiddish theater wasn't just the humor. Humor is important, I'm not negating it. It was the positive aspect of this very rich heritage that took risks. And we should be able to take them today.

CW: Well, anything else you want to add before we --

BW: Just that I'm truly happy about having this experience to talk to you through this fabulous venue. I admire the work of the Book Center and going beyond the written word and keeping the archives and -- it's vital for the next generation.

CW: Well, a hartsikn dank [thank you very much].

BW: A groysn dank [thank you very much].

[END OF INTERVIEW]

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