Casting Announced for The Sorceress at National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene
(© Matt Simpkins)
National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene has announced casting for its upcoming limited engagement of The Sorceress (Di Kishefmakherin), running for five performances only from December 25-January 1, 2018, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
Inspired by last season’s revival of Joseph Rumshinsky’s The Golden Bride, another lost operetta of the Yiddish Theatre canon, The Sorceress will be the first piece brought to life under the Folksbiene's new Global Yiddish Theatre Restoration Project. Directed by the associate artistic director Motl Didner, with music direction by artistic director Zalmen Mlotek, The Sorceress will be presented as a work-in-development, performed in Yiddish with English and Russian translation supertitles.
Populated with a cast of unforgettable characters including a deviously wicked stepmother, a humorous itinerant peddler, and a scheming sorceress, The Sorceress conjures up a fairy-tale-like world starring an innocent young heroine and her dashing fiancé.
The cast will feature Michael Yashinsky in his Folksbiene debut as Bobe Yakhne, with Stephanie Lynne Mason as Mirele, Pat Constant as Markus, Steve Sterner as Hotsmakh, Rachel Botchan as Basye, and Chelsea Feltman, with Kirk Geritano, Emily Hoolihan, Richard Lisenby, Riley McFarland, Raquel Nobile, Bruce Rebold, Gera Sandler, Kayleen Seidl, Lisa Stockman, Bobby Underwood, and Tatiana Wechsler.
The production also features musical staging by Merete Muenter. Folksbiene C.E.O. Christopher Massimine serves as producer, with casting by Jamibeth Margolis.
Written in 1879 by Abraham Goldfaden, known as "the father of Yiddish theater," The Sorceress was the first Yiddish Theatre production ever produced in the United States. Its U.S. premiere, presented in 1882, was conceived and directed by a then 14-year-old Boris Thomashefsky, who went on to become one of the preeminent names of the Yiddish theater. The Folksbiene production will be the first time in over 80 years that The Sorceress will be presented in a workshop form with its fully restored text and music, as well as costumes, lighting design, and projections.
