USD Theatre Presents Green Violin
Associate Professor Chaya Gordon-Bland directs this movement-based musical, which tells the story of the passionate friendship and artistic collaboration between painter Marc Chagall and Solomon Mikhoels, the extraordinary leading actor of the first Soviet Yiddish Theater. Green Violin invites audiences into the rich and complex world of Soviet Yiddish history, arts and culture as they play out on the world stage.
This production is part of an innovative and historically unprecedented initiative at USD: a campus-wide celebration of Yiddish art, culture, and history that includes programs and events across campus and throughout the community. To prepare, excite and educate audiences for this production, events have been and will continue to be taking place across campus that delve into the unique culture, history and art forms of the Soviet Yiddish world. ‘Yiddish’ is a term that refers both to the language spoken in the Jewish villages (shtetls) of Eastern Europe and the culture that existed in these communities. The Yiddish language is earthy, passionate, expressive and full of both humor and irony. Yiddish culture shares these characteristics, as well as deep roots in music (klezmer) and the arts, profound philosophical musings and a strong cultural consciousness of its own ‘otherness’. Today, Yiddish continues as a vibrant cultural identity that creates and celebrates playful and dramatic expressions of social justice and peace (shalom).
This campus-wide initiative is supported by the South Dakota Humanities Council, USD’s Center for Diversity and Community, Center for Teaching and Learning, College of Fine Arts, College of Arts and Sciences, Departments of History, Music, and Theatre, and the I.D. Weeks Library.
Green Violin performs April 19–22 at 7:30 p.m. and April 23 at 2 p.m. in the Wayne S. Knutson Theatre on the USD campus. Tickets ($15 Adults, $12 Senior Citizen [62+], $10 K-12 & non-USD students with ID, and $5 USD students with ID) can be purchased in the afternoons (12–5 p.m.) starting April 11 at the USD Theatre Box Office or by calling (605) 677-5400; tickets can also be purchased online at www.usd.edu/theatre.
