Our visit to the museum of NYC was a great experience. Not only have I not visited a museum in a pretty long time but I also had the great opportunity of learning about Yiddish theater, which was a huge attraction in the past. I’d like to share an interesting fact that I learned from browsing the exhibit. We understand that Yiddish was a great attraction so this comes along with the massive mixed audience. A challenge that I didn’t think would exist in Yiddish theatre would be the fact that actresses had to be aware of how they were portrayed. For example, the creators of Milk and Honey starring Molly Picon time and time again emphasized that they did not want the character to be “too Jewish for the American audience or too American for the Jewish audience.” Keeping this middle line between the both is indeed a challenge, one that perhaps may have attributed to her being such a successful actress.

Viewing the set templates as little cardboard models and extravagant costumes showed how sophisticated Yiddish theatre was. In a few of the drawings a class mate also pointed out that there were three entrances to the stage which may be a custom adopted from Roman Theatre.

Professor Caplan thank you for this opportunity, hope the class and yourself enjoyed the trip as well!