Popular Theater, Amateur Opera, and the Yiddish Stage
MUSC 155
Fall 2026
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
CJST 155, COL 155, THEA 156 |
¿Popular theater¿ is a world-wide art form that features an eager audience who knows the actors, plots, and pleasures of live performance in a familiar setting. Drawing on a wide variety of sources and settings for popular theater, the course narrows down to one tradition, the Yiddish theater as it developed in the immigrant era in New York City. This new course will culminate in a student-led production of an 1897 melodrama, ¿David¿s Violin, or The Magic Power of Music,¿ directed by Luna Kwon, ¿27. We will also welcome back special guests Hansel Tan ¿10 as vocal coach, Matthew Stein ¿16 on violin, and translator Mark Slobin as an intermittent visitor. The class offers students opportunities to discuss readings and films of popular theater worldwide, engage with practitioners from a range of traditions, undertake original research, and act, dance, sing, choreograph, and help with lighting, props, and costumes for a production. Each class will mix discussion and rehearsal. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA MUSC |
| Course Format: Discussion | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (College of Letters)(Jewish & Israel Studies Minor)(Music)(Theater) |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Joel Berkowitz, ed. Yiddish Theatre: New Approaches. Littman Library, 2003.
Cecil W. Davies. Theatre for the People: The Story of the Volksbühne. Manchester University Press, 1977.
Stefan Kanfer. Stardust Lost: The Triumph, Tragedy, and Meshugas of the Yiddish Theater in America. Knopf, 2006.
Nahma Sandrow. Vagabond Stars: A World History of Yiddish Theater. Harper & Row, 1977.
Joel Schechter, ed. Popular Theatre: A Sourcebook. Routledge, 2003.
Mark Slobin, ed. Nineteenth-Century American Musical Theater, Volume 11: Yiddish Theater in America. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1994. [Includes piano-vocal score and libretti.]
Mark Slobin, trans. ¿David¿s Violin.¿ The Drama Review 24, no. 3 (1980): 17¿26. Reprinted in Joel Schechter, ed. Popular Theatre: A Sourcebook. London: Routledge, 2003, 202¿211.
Mark Slobin. Tenement Songs. University of Illinois Press, 1996.
Mark Slobin. ¿Music in the Yiddish Theater and Cinema, 1880¿1950.¿ In Judith Leah Walden, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Music. Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, 215¿227.
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Examinations and Assignments:
¿ Weekly readings, listenings, script learning, acting, musical practice: 30%
¿ Participation in discussion seminar and rehearsal: 20%
¿ Production preparation: 20%
¿ Class presentation of final topic: 10%
¿ Final paper (3,000 words): 20%
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Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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| Instructor(s): Alden,Jane Times: .M.W... 01:20PM-02:40PM; Location: RHH003; |
Permission of Instructor Required
Enrollment capacity: 19 | Permission of instructor will be granted during the drop/add period. Students must submit either a ranked or unranked drop/add request for this course. |
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