Upcoming
3/17: The Dybbuk Century at the Jewish Community Library of San Francisco (virtual)
A little over 100 years ago, the first production of An-sky’s The Dybbuk, a play about the possession of a young woman by a dislocated spirit, opened in Warsaw. In the century that followed, The Dybbuk became a theatrical conduit for a wide range of discourses about Jews, belonging, and modernity. This timeless Yiddish play about spiritual possession beyond the grave would go on to exert a remarkable and unforgettable impact on modern theater, film, literature, music, and culture. This talk, based on Dr. Caplan’s recently published co-edited volume The Dybbuk Century, will consider this remarkable history and the enduring influence of The Dybbuk. Sunday March 17th, 3 PM PST.
Info and registration: https://jewishcommunitylibrary.org/events-listing/dybbuk-century/
Info and registration: https://jewishcommunitylibrary.org/events-listing/dybbuk-century/
5/20: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Synagogue: UCLA Conference on Jewish Music
Through presentations and musical performances, this conference examines how Jews’ construction and crossings of boundaries of various kinds, both ideological and geographic, reveal their liminal position as people caught between worlds. Cantorial singing, opera, and musical and theatrical performances of all kinds are especially salient arenas that highlight what has been at stake in creating and policing religious and aesthetic boundaries, particularly with respect to conceptions of Jewish, national, social, and racial identities. Sponsored by the Milken Center for Music of the American Jewish Experience at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. I will be speaking on contemporary Purim shpiels as Broadway parodies on 5/20 at 10:30 AM, and performing as part of the musical interlude in the afternoon.
Free and open to the public. Tickets here.
Free and open to the public. Tickets here.
Faculty: KlezKanada, 8/20-8/26, Lac-Supérieur, Quebec
I will be teaching two theater classes at KlezKanada 2024: a lecture series on the history of Yiddish theater and a workshop on theatrical adaptation from Yiddish historical source material. Info and registration: https://klezkanada.orklezkanada.org