The Yiddish Molly Picon Musical Revue! Malkele : Caroline Koczan Piano: Florian Schäfer

Transcription

1 The Yiddish Molly Picon Musical Revue! Malkele : Caroline Koczan Piano: Florian Schäfer

2 Hello Malkele! A Musical-Revue about Molly Picon, in English, Yiddish and German based on the biography So laugh a little by Molly Picon, as told to Eth Clifford Rosenberg In the late 1970ies.The Grande Dame of the Yiddish Theater, Molly Picon, is on tour through the USA, Europe and Israel performing her One Woman Show. One evening, shortly before her show starts, she is backstage and. (Molly Picon, 1963) This is how the charming tribute to the American actress and singer Molly Picon starts, a tribute to an artist who in fact inspired and enriched the Yiddish theater- and movie world for half a century. But what first seems to be an ordinary tribute to an extraordinary star soon turns out to be declaration of love to Yiddish theater and typical Jewish humor, as well as to life itself, with all its heights and depths. (Molly Picon, 1927, in Oy, iz dos a meydl )

3 Caroline Koczan as Malkele leads the audience through dream sequences in which Malkele relives her life on stage and her private life again. And, like in dreams, pieces of memories get mixed together, and the dividing line between her private and professional life gets more and more blurred. Photoflash moments of Picon s life, combined with short cuts of her films East and West and Yidl mitn fidl, are put together into a musical framework of her famous and popular repertoire. This revue gives a taste of the Golden Age of American Yiddish theatre, Yiddish operetta and Yiddish films, and, of course, of the fabulous artist Molly Picon. (Molly Picon, 1926 in Der kleyner mazik ) The moving life of the all-round artist Molly "Malkele" Picon is illustrated by the Austrian actress and singer Caroline Koczan. She performs in English, Yiddish und German, and is perfectly complemented by Florian Schäfer at the piano. This evening: a solo for two! Malkele: The pianist: Script, stage design: Musical arrangements, musical director: Video/Film: Wardrobe, stage properties: Caroline Koczan Florian Schäfer Caroline Koczan Florian Schäfer Ulrich Kaufmann Hanni Pürstinger (Sources: Jewish Women's Archive. "JWA - Jewish Women in Comedy - Molly Picon." (March 12, 2009). Scrapbooks from the Molly Picon Papers can be accessed at Biography: So, laugh a little, by Molly Picon, as told to Eth Clifford Rosenberg; letters of Molly Picon, translated by Thomas Soxberger; Theater critics out of Jüdische Morgenpost, 8.April 1921; Songs and Lyrics by: Ellstein, Schwartz, Goldfaden, Lebedeff, Olshanetsky; Prizant, Jacobs, Manger, Picon; adapted by Caroline Koczan; special thanks to Jewish Film Festival Austria and Frédéric Kaczek; Österreichisches Filmarchiv; to Efim Chorny, Chisinau; Dr. Kurt Rosenkranz, Vienna)

4 Caroline Koczan: Caroline was born in 1963 in Austria and studied pantomime, clowning, acting and musical arts (dance, singing) in Vienna. In 1985 she passed her exams with distinction and immediately got an engagement at the Austrian National Theatre, the Wiener Burgtheater, where she worked till 1996 with many famous directors such as Hans Hollmann, Claus Peymann, Manfred Karge, Achim Freyer, Ruth Berghaus, Benno Besson, Cesare Lievi, and many more. At the same time, she worked on her own programs and founded the music group gojim that was specialized in Klezmer music, Yiddish language and Jewish history. This group existed for 20 years and opened a new musical scene in Vienna. It stimulated much discussion about Austrian history and Austria s responsibility during the time of World War II. In cooperation with international historians and time witnesses, the group produced a number of special programs, such as Ess firt keyn veg tsurik, a multimedia performance about the ghetto Vilna, and In a shtodt woss shtarbt, a program about Yiddish litterateurs in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century after the breakdown of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. With gojim she produced 2 LPs, 3 Cds and went on concert tours through Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, Croatia, the Baltic States, Russia and Israel. Since 1996 Caroline has been working as a freelance artist in various theatres and theatre festivals in Austria and Germany (The Company Stage, Theater Drachengasse, Volkstheater Munich, Neue Bühne Villach, Jewish Theatre Austria, and many more). She produces her own programs on several issues as an actress and singer, gives workshops in schools for children and young adults and works with them on a great variety of different projects (theater, film, video, oral history, exhibitions, etc). During the last few years, Caroline has been concentrating on projects combining theater and video, together with the video artist Ulrich Kaufmann. Caroline has also taken part in films and radio programs for the ORF (the Austrian broadcast station). In addition, she has worked as a translator: together with Dunja Sowinetz, she translated Frank Loesser's musical "Guys and Dolls" into the Viennese dialect. The show ran with great success at the Metropol Theater in Vienna. For the Tiroler Landestheater she translated songs of the Musical "Ghetto" by Joshua Sobol from Yiddish into German.

5 Florian Schäfer: Florian was born in 1974 in Vienna, Austria. At the age of 5 he was the youngest student ever at the Vienna Music Academy (Wiener Musikhochschule). At the age of 15, while he was still in high school, he started to work as a pianist in bars. In the same year he had his first public appearance in Munich as accompanist for the popular Austrian entertainer Peter Alexander. At the Music Academy Hannover he studied with Prof. Kämmerling. After finishing high school, he studied composition at the Vienna University for Music and Dramatic Arts. He worked in Stuttgart for the musical production Miss Saigon and became the musical director of the Freie Bühne Wieden, a cabaret theater in Vienna. Since then he has worked with a great variety of well-known artists such as Andrea Jonasson, Johannes Heesters, Topsy Küppers, Heinz Zednik, and many more. He has also composed music for films and has worked as a theater musician at the Wiener Burgtheater, the Jewish Theater Austria and as musical director for a musical production at the famous Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna, which was founded by the illustrious Max Reinhardt. Since 2000 he has been on tour with the Young Tenors, for whom he arranges a great number of songs and arias. During the last few years Florian was responsible for their live shows as musical director. Since 2007 he has also been working as producer for studio recordings of the Young Tenors. Ulrich Kaufmann: Ulrich was born in 1974 into a very artistic family in Austria. His mother is an actress; his father is a musician and composer. So Ulrich followed in his parents footsteps and started working for theater and film. In 1996 he produced his first remarkable film about his homeland Carinthia. Since then he has made a great variety of documentary films ( POMPA ), films for advertisements (Renault, Global Fusion), short films and videos for theater productions (Neue Oper Wien). Ulrich works as a director for theater productions and specializes in combinations of theater, film and video, video performances and installations. Besides his work as camera man, cutter, film director and director for theater-video productions, he also works with children and produces short films with them in workshops. Ulrich works for theaters as well as for special festivals (Carinthischer Sommer, Neue Bühne Villach, ORF Radio Kulturhaus, ) In 2009 he founded his own video company Lichtlink OG.

6 What we need for a performance of Hello Malkele! : Stage: 5x4m (at least) a curtain in front of the stage (centrally maneuverable) a curtain behind the stage enough place or room backstage for all the costume changes and the stage properties! a screen ( or something like that) for the film short cuts 1 piano 1 chair (simple old chair) Technique: centrally maneuverable lights, spots centrally maneuverable sound mixer 1 moveable spot 1 micro with stand (for the pianist) 1 micro port (for the actress) 1 CD player (for special sounds) 1 video beamer the possibility for a rehearsal and a sound check What else? 1 room for the artists (make up and preparation room, space for 4 persons) Costs: the performance (salary for 4 persons) (Technicians - if needed! 2 persons 600.-) Flight, overnight stay Contact: Caroline Koczan Tel: Goldschlagstr. 76/24 C.Koczan@web.de A-1150 Vienna, Austria Home: