Jewish Theater in the 20 th Century Fall 2012 Laura Ligouri Psychology Department, Brandeis University Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

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1 Jewish Theater in the 20 th Century Fall 2012 Laura Ligouri Psychology Department, Brandeis University Schusterman Center for Israel Studies Office Hours: TBA Contact Info: Mrs. Laura Ligouri, Course Description: This course explores Jewish identity and performance in the 20th and 21st century United States and Israel. We begin with an historical overview of Jews and Jewish identities, including the very question, What does Jewishness mean? Is it ethnicity, race, or religion? Identity or culture? Belief or practice? We ll also consider theories that understand Jewishness itself as a performance. From there, we ll turn to Jewish American theatre artists, from the Yiddish-language theatre of the early 20th century, to playwrights who defined a certain American middle-class life in the mid-20th century, to contemporary performers and playwrights who navigate the complexity of Jewish American identity in a range of genres and tones. The class will end on the development of Israeli theater and the contribution Zionism, the establishment of the state, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has had on Jewish identity and theatrical performance. Course Objectives: In what genres of theatre including musical theatre, performance art, melodrama, tragedy, and/or comedy have artists fruitfully explored the thematics of Jewish identity and how? How is Jewishness, as an identity position, inherently performative, from gesture to inflection, posture to gait? How has such performativity been exploited in stage productions to produce or resist a cultural stereotype of the Jew? How is Jewishness productively and necessarily crossed with other identity categories in performance race, class, gender, sexuality, among others to produce a Jewish subject who is multiple and diverse? How has 20th century American theatre offered a forum in different ways than literature for political discussions of Jewish assimilation and difference from the American middle-class norm? How has theatre offered a site of contestation for competing narratives of sameness or difference vis-à-vis the project of American nationalism for Jews? How is 20 th century Israeli theater different from that of its American counterpart? In what ways have Israeli theater contributed towards the development of Jewish identity? How has Israeli theater failed or succeeded in its attempts to balanced and encapsulate divested interests and beliefs throughout the last century? 1

2 Grading and Assignments: 1. Contribution to class blog. You should post to the course blog at least three times and make at least six comments. The first post must be before 9/24, and the first two comments before 9/26. The second post must be before 10/15, and the next two comments before 10/17. The third post must be before 11/12, and the last two comments before 11/14. Blog posts should range from words and should include: (1) a short paragraph describing the play or reading under consideration and (2) a paragraph analyzing the play in relation to class themes. Posts should be readable and creative and must develop ideas discussed in class. Comments must be substantive and constructive. Both can be in the first person. You may use blog posts to work out ideas you develop in your analysis paper and analysis done for the final exam. You will not receive feedback on each post but instead will be graded on the overall quality of your contributions. (40%). 2. Participation. Participate in class discussions and online forums, and be in class for occasional minute questions in class. Coming to office hours can also count toward participation. (10%). 3. One Analysis. One 3-page paper (approximately 750 words) should analyze one play with reference to the related readings. You may examine what you find striking about the work given the context of its production, circulation, or consumption; who the intended audiences of this work are and how you think they might see it; how this play compares to other plays, especially those discussed in the class; and so on. Media analysis papers are due in our digital dropbox under Assignments on Trunk by Friday, November 16 th, 5:00pm (30%). 4. Final Take Home Exam. You will be asked to answer analytic questions related to our readings and to do some analysis of Jewish & Jewish-Israeli theater. Due by Monday, December 10 th, 5:00pm in my in-box (20%). Course Policies: Students are expected to abide by all Tufts University academic regulations and guidelines. Academic integrity is of the utmost importance; students should refer to the School of Arts and Sciences/School of Engineering Academic Integrity handbook, available at for relevant guidelines. It is also essential that class participants work together to create an atmosphere of respectful academic rigor, and strive to create space for the expression of different perspectives and, when appropriate, experiences. In this sense, academic freedom is a collective responsibility. A useful starting point for thinking about our responsibilities for creating an atmosphere of academic freedom is the Confronting Intolerance pamphlet, available at Should students wish to record one or more lectures or other class events, they must receive ed, permission for recording any class lecture or other event. 2

3 If you use your computer or cell phone for non-class purposes, this will result in a lowering of your participation grade. If the problem persists, I reserve the right to forbid use of computers in class. Except in extraordinary circumstances either (1) with prior ed approval from me at least three full days in advance of a deadline, or (2) in the case of a serious and documented medical or family emergency, late work will be marked down one-half grade for each day a paper is late. That is, if a paper is turned in one day late, the top grade it can receive is an A-. The penalty for late exams is one full grade per day. If you need an accommodation as a result of a documented disability, you should register with the Disability Services Office at the beginning of the semester. To do so, call the Student Services Desk at to arrange an appointment with Sandra Baer, Program Director of Disability Services. Please follow a consistent format for citations. Required Texts: Reading materials are available on the course Trunk site. * * * * * * * Schedule of Readings * * * * * * Week of September 3 rd Introductions, Contexts, and Definitions Henry Bial, Chapter One, Performance Studies, Mass Culture, and the Jewish Problem, In Acting Jewish: Negotiating Ethnicity on the American Stage and Screen (Ann Arbor: U of Michigan Press, 2005), Stephen J. Whitfield, Definitions, In Search of American Jewish Culture (Hanover, NH: Brandeis UP, 1999), Week of September 10 th Setting the American Stage Bruce Kirle, Chapter Two, The Star as Co-Creator: Performing Jewishness during the Melting Pot, In Unfinished Business: Broadway Musicals as Worksin-Process (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois UP, 2005), Harley Erdman, Introduction, The Memory of that Agony, In Staging the Jew: The Performance of an American Ethnicity, (New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1997), Erdman, Chapter Six, Getting Reformed : The Transition Toward Jewish Invisibility in Popular Performance, Week of September 17 th Yiddish Theater Ruth Gay, Inventing a Jewish Theatre in America, In The Jewish King Lear: A Comedy in America, Jacob Gordin (New Haven: Yale UP, 2007), (notes, ). Joel Schechter, Chapter Seven, Menasha Skulnik Becomes a Bridegroom: 3

4 Popular Yiddish Theatre Reconsidered, In Messiahs of 1933: How American Yiddish Theatre Survived Adversity Through Satire (Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2008), Sholem Asch, God of Vengeance, adapted by Donald Margulies. o o d=book-igumaaaaiaaj&rdot=1 Alisa Solomon, Chapter Four, Queering the Canon: Azoi toot a Yid, In Re- Dressing the Canon: Essays on Gender and Theatre (New York: Routledge, 1997), (plus notes). Week of September 24 th Jews and Race Sander Gilman, Chapter One, The Jewish Voice: Chicken Soup or the Penalties of Sounding Too Jewish, In The Jew s Body (New York: Routledge, 1991), Karen Brodkin, Chapter One, How Did Jews Become White Folks? In How Jews Became White Folks & What That Says about Race in America (New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1998), Brodkin, Chapter Five, A Whiteness of our Own? Jewishness and Whiteness in the 1950s and 1960s, (plus notes). Abigail Pogrebin, Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk about Being Jewish (New York: Broadway Books 2005) (selections). BLOG POST NOTICE! Post due Sept. 24 th ; Comments due Sept. 26 th Week of October 1 st - Tony Kushner, the Jewish/American/Gay/Political Icon - In Class: Watch Wrestling with Angels (DVD, 98 minutes) Tony Kushner, Angels in America (selections) David Savran, Ambivalence, Utopia, and a Queer Sort of Materialism: How Angels in America Reconstructs the Nation, in Deborah R. Geis and Steven F. Kruger, eds., Approaching the Millennium: Essays on Angels in America (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997), Alisa Solomon, Wrestling with Angels: A Jewish Fantasia, in Geis and Kruger, eds. Approaching the Millennium, Week of October 8 th - Fiddler on the Roof - In Class: Watch Fiddler on the Roof (DVD, selections) Deb Margolin, O Wholly Night and Other Jewish Solecisms, in Deb Margolin and Lynda Hart, Of All the Nerve: Deb Margolin Solo (New York: Cassell, 1999),

5 Jill Dolan, Seeing Deb Margolin: Ontological Vandalism and Radical Amazement, introduction to Deb Margolin s Index to Idioms and A Slave to Synaesthesia, an interview with Margolin in TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies 52.3 (Fall 2008, T199): ; 105; and BLOG POST NOTICE! Post due Oct. 15 th, Comments due Oct. 17th Week of October 15 th The Holocaust and Hebrew Theater Robert Skloot, The Theater of the Holocaust: Six Plays, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982), (selections) Rebecca Rovit and Alvin Goldfard. Theatrical Performance During the Holocaust. Texts, Documents, Memoirs (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), (selections) Ben-Ami Feingold and Ruth Bar-Ilan, The Hebrew Theater: Between the War and the Holocaust, in Israel Studies, Vol. 8, No. 3, Fall, 2003, Curt Daniel Theatre in German Concentration Camps private publication published in Week of October 22 nd Setting the Israeli Stage -In Class The Dybbuk (123 minutes) Urian, D. The Judaic Nature of Israeli Theatre: A Search for Identity, (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 2000), (selections) Howard M. Sachar, The Rise of Jewish Nationalism, In The History of Israel (New York: Knopf, 1976), The Dybbuk (selected readings) Week of October 29 th Zionism and the Dawning of Israeli Theater Dan Urian, Zionism in the Israeli Theatre, In Israel Affairs, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2001, Jacob Lassner and S. Ilan Troen, The Emergence of Zionism; A Secular and Humanist Narrative, In Jews and Muslims in the Arab World; Haunted by Pasts Real and Imagined, (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), Levy, S. The Israeli Theater. (selections) Freddie Rokem, Hebrew Theater from 1889 to 1948 In Linda Ben-Zvi (Ed.) Theater in Israel (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996), ( Week of November 5 th Divisions and Disillusionment Nissam Aloni, Cruelest of All--The King (selections) 5

6 Shosh Avigal, Patterns and Trends in Israeli Drama and Theater, 1948 to Present, In Linda Ben-Zvi (Ed.) Theater in Israel (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996), Glenda Abramson, Introduction and The Enterprise and its reinforcement in the drama of the 1950s, In Drama and Ideology In Modern Israel, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 1-13, Glenda Abramson, Where is Danny? Israeli drama in the 1950s, In Israel Affairs, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1995, BLOG POST NOTICE! Post due Nov. 12 th ; Comments due Nov. 14 th Week of November 12 th Generations and Shifting Identities -In Class He Walked Through the Fields (DVD, 96 min) Gershon Shaked, Actors as Reflections of Their Generation: Cultural Interactions between Israeli Actors, Playwrights, Directors, and Theaters, In Linda Ben-Zvi (Ed.) Theater in Israel (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996), Emanuel Levy, Social Structure and Generations in Art: A Case Study of the Hebrew Theater In The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 2, ASSIGNMENT DUE Analysis Paper Due by Friday, November 16 th, 5:00pm Thanksgiving Break Week of November 26 th Contemporary Jewish-Israeli Theater & the Israeli Palestinian Conflict Hillel Mitelpunkt, Railway to Damascus (selections) John Nathan, Conflicts and Confrontations is at the National Theatre In All About Jewish Theatre Suggestions: Dan Urian, The Image of the Arab on the Israeli Stage, In Linda Ben-Zvi (Ed.) Theater in Israel (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996), Revital Blumenfeld, Stern Gang Veterans Up in Arms Over Play, In Haaretz, January 10, Week of December 3 rd Concluding Thoughts & Review ASSINMENT DUE Final, Monday, December 10 th, 5:00pm 6