Photo courtesy of the Archives of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research for Folklife, a Smithsonian Magazine
When Zuni Maud and Yosl Cutler joined artistic forces, it is said that magic happened. They met in the diasporic New York Yiddish literary world of the 1920’s and are said to have had quite clashing personalities.
Once, Maurice Schwartz, the director of the Yiddish Art Theatre, asked them to create puppets for a scene he was staging. Schwartz ended up cutting the scene, sending Maud and Cutler home with their wonderful puppets. Playfully, they brought them to one of the literary café they frequented and put up a little show for their friends. The idea of a Yiddish Puppets Theatre emerged.
Courtesy of Edward Portnoy for The Drama Review.
“MODICUT” says the highly stylised heading. “Zuni Maud. Yosl Cutler.”
The body text advertises “The First Yiddish Puppet Theatre”, followed by contact information and the theatre address:
“Manager: K. Ruitman
235 East 12th Street, New York.
Telephone: 9131″.
And finally, on the bottom right corner, “Created in 1925”.
Sources:
Portnoy, E.A. (1999). Modicut Puppet Theatre: Modernism, Satire, and Yiddish Culture. TDR: The Drama Review 43(3), 115-134. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/32954.
Portnoy, E.A and Mazower D. (2019).The Madcap World of Zuni Maud and Yosl Cutler. PaknTreger, Magazine of the Yiddish book center, issue 79. https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/language-literature-culture/pakn-treger/pakn-treger-number-79/modicut-madcap-world-zuni-maud-and
Portnoy, E. (2019). The Life and Death of a Yiddish Puppet Theater. Folklive Magazine, a Smithsonian Magazine.
