A Musical Theater Performer’s Crash Course in Yiddish
Stephanie Lynne Mason has luminous eyes as huge and dark as an anime character’s. “I’m not gonna lie,” she told me with a sigh, “I had a total meltdown the other night. I just sat there sobbing at my keyboard for about 15 minutes. This show feels like rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time.”
It was week one of rehearsal for the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s show Amerike, which runs July 10-Aug. 6. I’d asked NYTF if I could follow a young non-Jewish, non-Yiddish-speaking actor from casting to first performance, and they introduced me to Mason, one of the leads. I figured I’d be shadowing her for six months or so. On the first day of rehearsal, I learned that performances started in three weeks.
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