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Theatrical producers and directors

 Subject
Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings

Found in 11 Collections and/or Records:

Esther-Rachel Kaminska Theater Museum Collection

 Collection
Identifier: RG 8
Abstract

The collection contains play manuscripts, programs, playbills, posters, photographs, correspondence, agreements, scrapbooks, clippings, printed ephemera, and memorabilia relating to Yiddish theater primarily in the early twentieth century, especially the interwar period. Also included are items of printed ephemera related to Yiddish film, Hebrew theater, and a broad range of Jewish performers, including cantors, singers and dancers. Geographically, the materials originate predominantly in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe, including parts of the Russian Empire and, later, the Soviet Union; and, to a lesser extent, the United States, especially New York City. Also included are materials from Western Europe, Palestine (Eretz Israel), South America, and other regions around the world. Among the theater personalities represented in the collection with significant amounts of material are Herz Grossbard, David Herman, Joseph Winogradoff, Rudolf Zaslavsky, Zygmunt Turkow, Jonas Turkow, Moyshe Lipman, Ida Kaminska, and Esther Rachel Kaminska. The theater groups best represented include the Varshever Yidisher Kunst-Teater (VYKT; Warsaw Yiddish Art Theater), founded by Zygmunt Turkow and Ida Kaminska; the Vilna Troupe; Yung Teater / Nay Teater (Warsaw; Vilna), under the direction of Michael Weichert; the Moscow State Yiddish Theater (known by its Russian acronym "GOSET"); Maurice Schwartz's Yiddish Art Theatre, of New York; and the Hebrew theater "Habimah." A wide variety of other professional as well as amateur theater groups are represented with smaller amounts of material.

Dates: 1887 - 1942; Majority of material found within 1900 - 1939

Jacob Mestel Papers

 Collection
Identifier: RG 280
Abstract

The collection of Jacob Mestel consists of the general, professional and personal correspondence of Jacob Mestel, manuscripts of plays by other authors, manuscripts of poetry, essays and plays by Jacob Mestel, translations of plays into Yiddish, production material, clippings, theater programs, personal documents, and theater photographs.

Dates: 1910-1958

Kurt Hirschfeld Collection

 Collection
Identifier: AR 7066 / MF 608
Abstract

This collection contains materials related to Kurt Hirschfeld and others concerning the theater, plays, director's scripts, photos, and set designs.

Dates: 1910-1966

Kurt Hirschfeld Correspondence Collection

 Collection
Identifier: AR 25708
Abstract

The Kurt Hirschfeld Correspondence Collection largely contains correspondence sent to theater director Kurt Hirschfeld by authors and dramatists as well as personal acquaintances. Much of the collection centers around the production of theatrical works as well as news of his correspondents, among whom numbered well-known German-language dramatists and authors. A few letters of Hirschfeld's as well as letters to his wife following his death are also included, as are some unpublished manuscripts of poems and essays of his correspondents.

Dates: 1907, 1938-1992; Majority of material found within 1946-1964

Papers of Abraham Goldfaden (1840-1908)

 Collection
Identifier: RG 219
Abstract

This collection contains manuscripts of some of the earliest Yiddish plays, correspondence between playwright, poet, and director Abraham Goldfaden, the father of Yiddish theater, and various actors and writers, as well as some family correspondence, newspaper clippings on Goldfaden and his impact on Yiddish theater, articles by Goldfaden on a variety of topics, and various other theater materials, such as title pages of plays, programs and song sheets. The collection illustrates Goldfaden’s great and ongoing influence on Yiddish theater.

Dates: 1872-1956

Papers of David Pinski (1872-1959)

 Collection
Identifier: RG 204
Abstract

This collection contains documents relating to David Pinski’s role as a Yiddish writer, playwright, essayist, translator, editor, literary critic, and author of novels, plays, short stories, essays, and poems. There is personal and professional correspondence, manuscripts of novels, plays, poems, essays, and articles, translations of Pinski’s works into English and Russian, lectures made on various occasions, personal documents and photographs, programs, notes, and newspaper clippings. These materials demonstrate Pinski’s important role in Yiddish drama and literature, Jewish community life and Yiddish cultural institutions.

Dates: 1880-1952, 2005-2011

Papers of Peretz Hirschbein

 Collection
Identifier: RG 833
Abstract

This collection contains manuscripts of plays, articles and other writings, correspondence, memoirs, photographs, theater programs, and personal materials of Yiddish playwright, novelist, journalist, travel writer, and theater director Peretz Hirschbein. The collection helps to illustrate Hirschbein’s importance and lasting impact upon the revival of Yiddish theater and literature in the early twentieth century.

Dates: 1900-1971

Records of the Hebrew Actors’ Union

 Collection
Identifier: RG 1843
Abstract

This collection contains the administrative records of the Hebrew Actors’ Union (HAU), the professional union of Yiddish theater performers, which was based in New York City. Materials include correspondence, membership materials, financial records and members’ dues information, meeting minutes, and a great deal of sheet music and play scripts of performances from the Yiddish theater. A majority of these performances were in New York City, but there are also materials from Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Toronto, and Montreal, as well as various locations in Israel and South America.

Dates: 1874-1986; Majority of material found within 1920-1970

Samuel L. Sumberg Collection

 Collection
Identifier: AR 7285
Abstract

In 1961 Samuel L. Sumberg received a grant from the Leo Baeck Institute in New York to work on a project entitled Jewish Directors of the German Stage. Included in the collection are his notes, writings, correspondence and printed materials related to the subject. This work was not published.

Dates: 1911-1970s

Theater and Film Poster Collection of Abram Kanof

 Collection
Identifier: P-978
Abstract

This collection contains 331 Yiddish theater and film posters, mainly from the first half of the twentieth century, from North and South America.

Dates: 1899-1970; Majority of material found within 1915 - 1940