Lives in the Yiddish Theatre
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE INVOLVED IN THE Yiddish THEATRE
aS DESCRIBED IN zALMEN zYLBERCWEIG'S "lEKSIKON FUN YIDISHN TEATER"

1931-1969
 

Sonya Gurska
(Freida Sheina Gurevitsh)
 

 

G. was born in Lepel, Vitebsk Gubernia, White Russia, into a well-to-do family. From childhood she manifested an interest for "ceremonies". In the years of the Revolution she was active in the ranks of the young "bund". After the Revolution she traveled to Vilna where she often attended the theatre and entered into a Yiddish "amateur" circle under the pseudonym of Pirozhnikov. After acting for a short time in that circle, of which Ben-Ami became the director, G. traveled to Vienna.

Here she acted for a short time in the local Yiddish troupe, attending at the same time Von Meyer's dramatic courses. Due to the khesed of Spinoza, she was arrested and had to leave Austria.

G. participated only in several Yiddish productions in Switzerland, then she acted for a half season in London and traveled from there in 1916 to America. Here she performed a single time in Gabel's theatre in Pinski's "Gabri un di froyen" and then with Thomashefsky in Psibshevski's "Dos glik", and first in 1918 she became engaged to Thomashefsky, 1919-20 in Schnitzer's Yiddish Art Theatre, 1920-21 in the Yiddish Art Theatre with Schwartz, 1921-22 in Philadelphia with Anshel Schorr, 1922-24 in Boston with Julius Nathanson, 1923-24 across the province, 1924-25 in Chicago with Glickman and 1925-26 in Detroit with Littman and Fishzon. In 1926-28 G. was not engaged and

participated only by chance in a production. From 1928-30 g. was again with the Yiddish Art Theatre, where she also was a dance teacher for the theatre's children's school.
 

Sh. E.

EDITOR'S NOTE: that the Museum has listings of more than two dozen Yiddish theatre productions that Sonia was part of. If you would like more information in this regard, please contact the museum at steve@museumoffamilyhistory.com,
Subject: Sonia Gurska (Gurskaya).


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 1, page 474.
 

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