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   Home > Yiddish Theatre Around the World > Romania > Pomul Verde

THE OPEN-AIR GARDENS OF ROMANIA

Gradina Pomul Verde (Green Fruit Tree Garden)
Bucharest


 


 

It is said that the first Yiddish theatre performance was staged here, in this open-air garden in the heart of Bucharest, Romania, and also that Avraham Goldfaden staged his first production there.

A number of similar open-air gardens opened up around Romania, e.g. in Jassy (Iasi), where there also would be audiences who were interested in such performances. These gradinas (gardens) were Pomul Verde and Jignitza (two very popular venues), Renascerea, and some were given names of individuals, such as M. Gobhel, Mme. Petrino, D. Sfetcovici, to name a few. Many served food and drink while staging their Yiddish performances. These gardens were popular during the last decade of the nineteenth and at least the first decade or two of the twentieth century.

Here is one program for a Wednesday, 10 June 1892 performance in Bucharest.

The production, like many it seems during this time, was put on by the "Asociata Trupa Israelita de Operete," which migrated throughout Romania to perform in Yiddish.

This particular production was called "Die Grünhorn (The Greenhorn), sau (or), Miska şi Moska (Miska and Moska)." The play is a comedy in four acts and a prologue, with English dances, and it was written by Mr. I. Lateiner, with music by Arnold Perlmutter.

The actors who participated in this performance were:

Men: A. Friedman, Solomonescu, I. Schönsohn, Silbermann, A. Axelrad, Goldring and Friedler.
Women: Rachela (the prima donna), L. Friedman and T. Goldring.
Child: Friedman.

The regisseur (French for "stage director") was the omnipresent M. Segalescu. The troupe representative is A. (presumably Avraham) Axelrad.

It is noted in the program that:

  • The piece was played with great success in London and New York, but we are making it.... The public is being given this song like just the original, as it was written by the author.

  • Tickets can be found for sale at the theatre house. The more expensive tickets (ten francs) are for the loge; then there are the stalls (pit), those seats on the ground floor, and then there was the gallery, the least expensive seats.

  • There is a well-arranged and varied buffet of food, with very prompt service and very good prices Regards from Adolf Blanc.

  • The program begins at 9:00 (presumably p. m.) precisely.
     

Photo, top left: Playbill or program from the aforementioned play.

Photo, bottom left: Regisseur Mordechai Segalescu (Segalesko), who was a major force in Yiddish theatre throughout Romania from the 1890s through the 1910s. You can read his "Lexicon biography" if you wish.

 

 

 

 

 


Museum URL: www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/moyt/main.htm.       Museum e-mail address: yiddishtheatre@museumoffamilyhistory.com.

The Museum of the Yiddish Theatre is a division of the Museum of Family History.
 

Program courtesy of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

Segalescu photograph from Zylbercweig's  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre," Vol. 2 (1934), p. 1511.
 

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