Jewish Community Center of Washington, DC

Yiddish Theater Lab: Bronx Express
Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater

By Ossip Dymov
Translated into English by Nahma Sandrow
Directed by Natsu Onada Power

One of the more inventive and surprising plays of the Yiddish theater, Ossip Dymov’s Bronx Express tells the story of one working class Yid who dreams of something more. When he falls asleep on a New York subway, he’s shocked to meet the characters from the train car’s advertisements coming to life. With cameos from Aunt Jemima, the Nestle’s Baby and the Arrow Collar Man, this story explores the true costs of the American dream.  Visiting Yiddish scholars: Nahma Sandrow and Miriam Isaacs.

Ossip Dymov (1878 – 1959) is the pen name used by Yosif Isidorovich Perelman, a prolific writer, journalist and Yiddish playwright. Born in the Russian Empire, in modern-day Poland, Dymov began publishing stories, plays and articles in St. Petersburg at the age of 16. Dymov adopted his pen name, taken from a character in Anton Chekhov’s short story “the Grasshopper” (1892), as a teenager and continued to use it throughout his career. In 1913, at the age of 35, Dymov immigrated to the United States at the invitation of Yiddish actor and theater director Boris Thomashefsky where he sought to improve the artistic quality of Yiddish theater. His play, The Bronx Express (1919), was so successful that it was translated into English and produced at the Astor Theatre on Broadway in 1922. Over his career, Dymov published more than 25 plays, a short story collection, a book of selected works, two volumes of memoirs, and dozens of essays and newspaper articles.

 

Date:
Time: 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Address:
1529 Sixteenth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036


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