The Yiddish Atlantic: Louis Zwiebel and The Transnational Mediation of Popular Yiddish Theatre

Abstract

This article focuses on Louis Zwiebel, a prompter and playbroker that mediated and transported Yiddish theatre plays across the Atlantic Ocean. Within the annals of Yiddish theatre, Zwiebel is considered a marginal figure: he was neither a star actor or singer, nor an innovator of the Yiddish stage. Zooming into Zweibel’s practice, this article depicts the backstage work of a theatre agent and mediator. Considering the logic and business of theatre, its backstage practices and working modes as essential components of the stage, thе article aims to understand Zwiebel’s act of mediation, and his role in the ‘global’ spatial circulation and transformation of Yiddish theatre during the first decade of the 20th century. I begin by depicting the Yiddish theatre transatlantic network during the first decade of the 20th century and the context under which Zwiebel operated. I then turn to explore Zwiebel’s act of mediation as an example of the modus operendi of the Yiddish theatre network, and discuss his transformative impact upon the theatre he mediated. I conclude the article by pointing at the implications of the mediation practice on the concept of authorship as conceived in the early years of the popular Yiddish theatre culture.