YIVO Yiddish Club: Yiddish Puppetry with Jenny Romaine

Yiddish Club Admission: Free Registration is required.

Nu, vilst redn a bisele yidish? An event for Yiddish enthusiasts the world over, the YIVO Yiddish club is an informal monthly gathering to celebrate Mame-loshn. Hosted by Shane Baker, sessions take place in English, and are liberally peppered with Yiddish. Each month Baker is joined by a different guest who discusses their work and a related Yiddish cultural theme. In the spirit of a club, sessions are held as interactive zoom meetings in which participants can see and hear one another. Each session includes ample time for audience questions, group discussion, and, time permitting, knock-down, drag-out arguments. Attendees need not know any Yiddish to attend, though some familiarity with the language is highly recommended.

This session features director, designer and puppeteer Jenny Romaine. Romaine is the co-founder and artistic director of the OBIE winning Great Small Works visual theater collective, the music director of Jennifer Miller’s CIRCUS AMOK and artist in residence at Milk Not Jails and Inside Change. This conversation will focus on her work with Yiddish puppetry, and will also include special guest Eddy Portnoy, whose scholarly work on Zuni Maud and Yosl Cutler was one of the inspirations for Great Small Works’ Muntergang and Other Cheerful Downfalls.