The 1920’s were known to be the height of Yiddish Theater. At that time, one could find anything from a comedy show to a dramatic Shakespeare play, all performed in Yiddish.

However, a less common type of production was puppet playhouse theater like the Modicot, or Mojicot theater.  It was the only Jewish puppet theater in the country.

The Modicot Theater was a narrow 4 story walk-up located on 12th street between 3rd and 4th avenue. Though small in size, it’s theater was described by Boris Aronson, a noted stage designer at the time, as the finest he had seen.

The two star players of the Modjacot Marionette Theatre were Yosi Cutler and Zuni Maud. Cutler came to the United Stated for the Ukraine at the age of 15 in 1911 and was a skilled painter and writer, published in Abraham Reyzen’s New Yiddish journal. Maud immigrated at the age 14 in 1905 from Lithuania. Maud abandoned his Yeshiva education for art school at Cooper Union and Baron de Hirsch Art School. Maud was also a skilled artists whose satirical illustrations were published in The Kibbutzer, a socialist journal.

The name for the theater came from combining the names Maud and Culter–Modicut. The theater opened on December 17th 1925.

Cutler and Maud used marionettes, a child like aesthetic, to satirize Jewish and general politics and culture. Their shows were an experience unlike anything previously seen in Yiddish theater.

The space itself was formerly a children’s clothing factory–and Maud and Cutler left the cutting tables and machinery on the floor for the effect. The seats were simple wooden benches, and the theater had little decoration about from surreal looking figures painted on set. This gave it both a childlike and sophisticated artistic feel.

 

 

Maud and Culter used fantasy and satire with politics and Jewish culture to bring their puppets to life. Early Modicut productions leaned more toward the side of comedic and folkloric, but in time they became more politically conscious with the onset of the Great Depression.  With this shift, their puppets became more grotesque and their sets more surreal. Their portrayals were often compared to the work of Chagall. The art and commentary found in these Modicut’s productions were extremely modern, while their language, themes and characters remained more traditional.

Sources:

http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt-modjacot.htm

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/the_drama_review/v043/43.3portnoy.html

http://www.albany.edu/judaic_studies/events_modicut.shtml

http://jewishcurrents.org/june-12-modicut-theater-1944

http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=1580