Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DYBBUK (Yiddish Popular Theatre, 1880-1920: Performance as Knowledge)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-10-01 do 2022-12-31
The Yiddish popular theatre produced a staggering volume of theatrical entertainment consumed by millions of Jews. Most of this mass-appealing output was, however, delegitimized by Jewish intellectuals as ‘a flood of trash’, dismissing it as primitive, plagiarized, vulgar, banal, and worthless form of art. Under the division of Shund (trash) versus Kunst (art), a valuable component of the cultural experience of the Jewish diaspora in modern times, and by extension, of the 20th century mainstream culture, has been overlooked. The DYBBUK project aims to uncover, restore, and analyze the neglected, yet influential, corpus of the Yiddish popular theatre. To understand the complexity and scope of the Yiddish popular theatre, this project studies the images, sounds, messages, performances, and the theatre practices it involved. It looks beyond remaining scripts and scores, to the complete performance, with its syncretic physical and musical aspects. We will achieve these goals by devising an innovative interdisciplinary methodology that consists of three interrelated modes of investigation: typological, embodied, and theoretical.
The project began with an extensive multi-site archival research, gathering all sort of materials related to the performances of Moyshe Hurwitz and Joseph Lateiner—the two protagonists of the project. These materials provided us with the foundation for our database and for our textual reconstructions, and scholarly explorations.
Among our significant archival findings are three prompting notebooks as well as the entire music scores from Joseph Lateiener’s performance of ‘Der Dybbuk’. We have digitized them, reconstructed their text, created a digital synoptic edition that compares the notebooks, and comprised an abridged performance text of the play. Most of our archival sources are handwritten Yiddish texts. Delving into them, we realized the need for a digital solution for deciphering Yiddish handwriting. We thus trained an automatic Yiddish recognition model that would be able to ‘read’ and decipher Yiddish handwritings. This will model can potentially facilitate and boost research into hidden treasure troves. The OCR model is available for public use. We have also worked towards the reconstruction and adaptation of the archival music score of A. Hellman’s music for Lateiner’s play 'Der Dybbuk'. Our exploration also included a digital production, and a live-performance interpretation of the musical score. Another aspect of our examination of the music played in the Yiddish popular theatre included an investigation of the commercial Yiddish theatre sound recording enterprise and the listening practices it inscribed. In tandem with the flourishing of Yiddish popular theater, a massive commercial recording industry of Yiddish theater that developed in eastern Europe and the United States produced hundreds of gramophone records of theater songs. These sound recordings harbor a musical repertoire that was originally part of Yiddish theatre performances. The profusion of commercial sound recordings of Yiddish theater songs attests to the fact that Yiddish theater actors did not only travel between continents in their tours; they also traversed performative modes of presence between the live theater event and its recorded manifestations.
Throughout the project’s activity, we have been conducting weekly meetings and seminars. Additionally, we held two international conferences: Kol Nidre: Audio Visual Dramaturgies, and, The Dybbuk: Undisciplining the Archive; and, two online workshops: Digitizing Yiddish Studies, and Yiddish, Jewish-Polish, and Polish Theatre: Transnational Perspectives.
Among our significant archival findings are three prompting notebooks as well as the entire music scores from Joseph Lateiener’s performance of ‘Der Dybbuk’. We have digitized them, reconstructed their text, created a digital synoptic edition that compares the notebooks, and comprised an abridged performance text of the play. Most of our archival sources are handwritten Yiddish texts. Delving into them, we realized the need for a digital solution for deciphering Yiddish handwriting. We thus trained an automatic Yiddish recognition model that would be able to ‘read’ and decipher Yiddish handwritings. This will model can potentially facilitate and boost research into hidden treasure troves. The OCR model is available for public use. We have also worked towards the reconstruction and adaptation of the archival music score of A. Hellman’s music for Lateiner’s play 'Der Dybbuk'. Our exploration also included a digital production, and a live-performance interpretation of the musical score. Another aspect of our examination of the music played in the Yiddish popular theatre included an investigation of the commercial Yiddish theatre sound recording enterprise and the listening practices it inscribed. In tandem with the flourishing of Yiddish popular theater, a massive commercial recording industry of Yiddish theater that developed in eastern Europe and the United States produced hundreds of gramophone records of theater songs. These sound recordings harbor a musical repertoire that was originally part of Yiddish theatre performances. The profusion of commercial sound recordings of Yiddish theater songs attests to the fact that Yiddish theater actors did not only travel between continents in their tours; they also traversed performative modes of presence between the live theater event and its recorded manifestations.
Throughout the project’s activity, we have been conducting weekly meetings and seminars. Additionally, we held two international conferences: Kol Nidre: Audio Visual Dramaturgies, and, The Dybbuk: Undisciplining the Archive; and, two online workshops: Digitizing Yiddish Studies, and Yiddish, Jewish-Polish, and Polish Theatre: Transnational Perspectives.
The DYBBUK project aims to preserve, restore and study the bygone Yiddish popular culture, breaking new ground in our understanding of the development of Jewish theatre, and of the cross-cultural transfer and influences. At present, there are scant resources and studies on the performative aspects and theatrical skills presented in the Yiddish popular theatre. The nuanced analysis of the themes, forms, corporal, and sensuous dimensions of this theatre we have begun to peruse, has revealed the fictions, expressions, and experiences that informed the lives of Jewish migrants and minorities across diasporas, and will enrich our understanding of the ways in which they shaped their identities at times of radical social change. Textual and musical reconstructions and annotated translations of a forgotten Yiddish creations provide much-needed resources required to navigate and study in-depth the lost vibrant world of popular Yiddish culture and its influences on 20th American and European popular culture.
The current historical narrative overlooked the influences of Yiddish popular theatre on the formation of the modernist Jewish canon. Specifically, it denounced prior dramatizations of the lore of the Dybbuk, as unrelated to Ansky’s “classic”. DYBBUK offers a new understanding to the evolution of modern Jewish theatre, as a process developed and fertilized through a dynamic dialogue with the Shund. The project examines productions of ‘The Dybbuk’ as important artistic milestones in the development of Jewish modernism. To reveal, decipher, and analyze the unique audio-visual images, and the theatre models inscribed in Lateiner's play, we will conduct a meticulously planned reenactment of it.
Despite its production volume and popularity, few studies dealt with the themes, influences, adaptations and dramatic forms of the popular Yiddish theatre. Furthermore, the pivotal socio-cultural role of the Yiddish theatre in building “cultural bridges” between minorities and hegemonic culture have received little attention. The project mades a substantial step toward uncovering this ignored performance culture by creating a database that maps its creative scope and by studying its forms, themes and practices.
Most archival materials related to the Yiddish popular theatre are in bad form, deteriorating in archives across Europe and the US. Delving into these texts, we realized the urgent need for a digital solution for deciphering Yiddish handwriting. We developed the first Yiddish handwriting text recognition model to decipher Yiddish handwriting—the DYBBUK model. This Yiddish language model also presents us with a radical twist in the modern Yiddish cultural plot: the language model is based upon popular Yiddish plays that have been debased as 'trash'.
The DYBBUK project moves beyond the state of the art by expanding the conventional analytical toolkit for the study of theatre and performances. It integrates sound analysis of early sound recordings and sheet music with dramatic manuscripts and libretti, biographies, theatre ephemera, and criticism. Performance reconstruction and historical analysis, together with practice-based theatre research, will enable us to trace and study the acting and vocal techniques, theatrical forms, and messages staged in the Yiddish popular theatre. This integrative research is expected to advance our understanding of 20th century mass popular culture.
The current historical narrative overlooked the influences of Yiddish popular theatre on the formation of the modernist Jewish canon. Specifically, it denounced prior dramatizations of the lore of the Dybbuk, as unrelated to Ansky’s “classic”. DYBBUK offers a new understanding to the evolution of modern Jewish theatre, as a process developed and fertilized through a dynamic dialogue with the Shund. The project examines productions of ‘The Dybbuk’ as important artistic milestones in the development of Jewish modernism. To reveal, decipher, and analyze the unique audio-visual images, and the theatre models inscribed in Lateiner's play, we will conduct a meticulously planned reenactment of it.
Despite its production volume and popularity, few studies dealt with the themes, influences, adaptations and dramatic forms of the popular Yiddish theatre. Furthermore, the pivotal socio-cultural role of the Yiddish theatre in building “cultural bridges” between minorities and hegemonic culture have received little attention. The project mades a substantial step toward uncovering this ignored performance culture by creating a database that maps its creative scope and by studying its forms, themes and practices.
Most archival materials related to the Yiddish popular theatre are in bad form, deteriorating in archives across Europe and the US. Delving into these texts, we realized the urgent need for a digital solution for deciphering Yiddish handwriting. We developed the first Yiddish handwriting text recognition model to decipher Yiddish handwriting—the DYBBUK model. This Yiddish language model also presents us with a radical twist in the modern Yiddish cultural plot: the language model is based upon popular Yiddish plays that have been debased as 'trash'.
The DYBBUK project moves beyond the state of the art by expanding the conventional analytical toolkit for the study of theatre and performances. It integrates sound analysis of early sound recordings and sheet music with dramatic manuscripts and libretti, biographies, theatre ephemera, and criticism. Performance reconstruction and historical analysis, together with practice-based theatre research, will enable us to trace and study the acting and vocal techniques, theatrical forms, and messages staged in the Yiddish popular theatre. This integrative research is expected to advance our understanding of 20th century mass popular culture.