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The Story - Note from Zalmen Mlotek - Special Q & A with Moshe Yassur

JONATHAN BRODY (Dayan, Velvl) Broadway: Spamalot, Titanic, Me and My Girl, Sally Marr...and her escorts. Off-Broadway: Theda Bara & the Frontier Rabbi, Eating Raoul, Pirates of Penzance. Tours: Funny Girl, West Side Story, My Fair Lady. Regional: Hamlet, The Dybbuk Forever Plaid, Jeffrey, Crazy For You, Groucho; A Life in Revue. Television: Sondheim; A Celebration at Carnegie Hall, An Evening With Alan Jay Lerner, Porgy and Bess; An American Voice. Proud Member of Actor's Equity for 26 years!

MATTHEW "MOTL" DIDNER (Der Shotn/Assistant Director) serves the Folksbiene as Associate Artistic Director and Outreach Director. Gimpel Tam marks Motl's mainstage acting debut. He made his mainstage directorial debut with last season's hit Di Ksube (The Marriage Contract). Other directing credits include Mama's Loshn Kugel, Makht a Tsimes and Purim in Khelm. Motl is a member of the National Executive Board of The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring and the Board of Directors of The Yiddish Artists and Friends Actors Club.

ILAN KWITTKEN (Berele, Borekw) received national attention at the age of 22 when he won the "Joan for a Day" contest which culminated with Ilan hosting and starring with Joan Rivers on The Late Show (FOX). Ilan wrote and developed a critically acclaimed one-man-show called Permission To Laugh, which was presented off broadway. As a singer, Ilan has been a fill-in cantor and performs benefit performances of "pro-peace" music. He is currently working on his solo CD. Some Theatre Credits: The Hating Pot (original cast, Liz Swados), The Real Live Brady Bunch, Vagabond Stars (Jewish Rep. in FL). Ilan is thrilled to be performing for the 4th time with the Folksbiene. Past shows include: Di Ksube, The Maiden of Ludmir, A Klezmer's Tale and Yentl. Some of many television credits: The Apollo Comedy Hour (sketch comedy series regular), Law And Order, The Sopranos, USA Up All Night, Entertainment Tonight. Ilan is president and editor in- chief of Mentortainmenttv.com, where you can catch his many comedic characters (video clips & more). Film credits include: Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist (Sony, fall '08), Mendy (Avrumi), Women On the Verge (Barb E.), Telemarketers (Dr. Greg Moore), The Seven Deadly Sins (Greed). Ilan holds a BFA in Drama from Syracuse University.

I.W. "ITZY" FIRESTONE (Zeyde, Rebbe) He has been an active member of the Folksbiene since 1976. He was thrilled to play the chauvinistic father in last spring's Di Ksube "The Marriage Contract". He has enjoyed many roles here, including Gimpel in the Next Dorike, Shneyerson in It's Hard To Be a Jew, Harry in Broome Street America, with the late great Zipora Spaisman. On the American Stage he has done many roles Off Broadway and in regional theatres including Fagin in Oliver, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls and Artie Shaugnessy in John Guares' House of Blue Leaves. He studied acting with Uta Hagan and he is a graduate of Circle in the Square Theatre School.

LISA FISHMAN (Leyele) Singer, actress and songwriter Lisa Fishman has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe - starring in Off-Broadway and Regional Musical Theater, soloing with many of the great artists in Jewish music, singing and recording with Chicago's "Maxwell Street Klezmer Band" and "The Modern Klezmer Quartet", as well as recording and performing her own original music. Theater credits include the Drama Desk nominated, Off-Broadway sensation, On Second Avenue, starring Mike Burstyn, Sally Bowles in Cabaret, Nancy in Oliver, Fanny Brice & Emma Goldman in Tintypes, the chanteuse in Ghetto Cabaret, and leading lady in Bruce Adler, A,B,C. Lisa can be heard singing Sheyn Vi Di Levone, in the 2003 film, Dummy, starring Academy Award winner, Adrien Brody, Illeana Douglas and Milla Jovovich. Lisa's work in Jewish music also includes her own original musical act, The Lisa Fishman Jewish Experience, in which she performs updated versions of Jewish standards.
www.myspace.com/LisaFishmanJewishMusic
www.myspace.com/LisaFishmanMusic
www.myspace.com/LisaFishmanTheaterAndCabaret

AMY GOLDSTEIN (Mama/Basye) Principal Yiddish recording artist Milken Archive of American Jewish Music. Credits: Gekumen Is die Tsayt (Folksbiene 2008), Dina in Golfaden's Bar Kokhba (Folksbiene 2005), World Premiere recording of Jane Eyre in Vigeland's False Love/True Love (EMF Media Records), New York Philharmonic, Opera Orchestra of New York, Czech Radio Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Karlsbad Symphony, Anchorage Opera, Central City Opera, Center for Contemporary Opera, current director of the Workmen's Circle Choir of NYC.

RICHARD KASS (Yeshive Bokher, Yankl) appeared with the Folksbiene in this past spring's reading of Hershel Ostropoleyer and last year's Purim in Khelm, and is also a member of the Folksbiene Outreach Troupe. In New York, he has acted with the Flea Theater's Bat Company and the Judith Shakespeare Company, among others. Richard received his M.F.A. in acting from The New School for Drama. Many thanks to his family and to Mike.

HARRY PEERCE (Shadkhn, Badkhn) was trained by Robert McKee and others at the University of Michigan and at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. An improv performer and instructor Harry studied with Del Close and Paul Sills. Some favorite shows in NYC: Bulgakov's Black Snow, Red Ryder, Grandma Sylvia's Funeral, several episodes of Law and Order and Saturday Night Live. Harry's a well known voiceover performer heard in hundreds of spots around the country.

DANIELLA RABBANI (Elke) A proud graduate of the Stella Adler Studio/NYU Tisch, Gimpel Tam marks Daniella's Off Broadway debut. Daniella performs with the Folksbiene Troupe and studies Yiddish with Nikolai Borodulin at the Workmen's Circle. Credits include: Twelfth Night and the Comedy of Errors with Vermont Shakespeare Company, Atonement with Elizabeth Swados, Jihad the Musical at the Edinburgh Festival. Daniella is honored to work with such talented artists. Thanks to Zalmen, Moshe, Motl and Dan.

NICOLE RAPHAEL (Surkele) With Dream Awakened Eyes, solo performance about the German Jewish painter, Charlotte Salomon; Wolfpit (Phoenix Theatre Ensemble); Carcass (New World Theatre Project); Bonnie Culver's award winning, Sniper (Center Stage); Taste of Freedom (Ellis Island); Perfect Wedding, What the Butler Saw; (Shadowland Theatre): The Diary of Anne Frank (Meadow Brook Theatre, New American Theater, Penobscot Theatre); Romeo & Juliet (New American Theater, Riverside Shakespeare Festival.); You Can't Take It With You (Arkansas Rep); Zastrozzi (Circle in the Square Downtown). BA: Smith. MFA: Actor's Studio. Nicole is the Artistic Director of The Mesaper Theatre www.themesapertheatre.org and is also a second year arts fellow at The Drisha Institute for Jewish studies. Many thanks to Moshe, Zalmen & Motl for this wonderful opportunity!

SHEILA RUBELL (Rivke-Rokhl) Character actress and leading lady in over 300 plays in regional theatres, off-Broadway, summer stock and touring companies. Credits include roles in Yentl and An American Family, both with the Folksbiene. Off-Broadway roles with the Village Light Opera Company, in Tom Jones and The Sorcerer. TV credits include several appearances on Law and Order. Film appearances: Angels in America, Hysterical Blindness, True Love and others. Sheila holds a BFA in Acting and an MA in Theatre Arts from NYU. She taught Speech and Theatre at Jamaica HS where she directed major productions of South Pacific and Oklahoma. She was the narrator and writer of Spotlite On Opera, a program featuring four musical artists who toured the schools throughout the East Coast for 23 years introducing opera to elementary and junior high school students. Best loved roles include: Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit, and of course, Becky Feldman in An American Family.

ADAM SHAPIRO (Gimpel) is thrilled to be making his Folksbiene debut in such a wonderful role. Adam made his Off-Broadway debut in Jewsical -The Chosen Musical (Original Cast). National Tours: The Yiddish are Coming!, Henry and Mudge, and Pinocchio. Regional credits: Ragtime, Footloose, Joseph...Dreamcoat, Little Shop of Horrors and Annie Get Your Gun. "A Sheynem Dank" to Moshe, Zalmen, Motl, and everyone involved with Gimpel, and love to family and friends. This is truly a M'khaye. www.adamshapiro.net

ETHAN SHER (Fayvi, Gezel) With Folksbiene: The Marriage Contract, The Pirates of Penzance (Frederick, u/s & performed). Other NYC: Peace Man (Jazz at Lincoln Center), Innocent Diversions with Jane Austen, Tonight at 8:30, Ragtime, 5XWilder, Oh Lady! Lady! (Musicals Tonight! ), Our Town, The Theory of the Leisure Class. With Connecticut's Ivoryton Playhouse: Cabaret (Ernst). UK: Into The Woods, Women Beware Women (Birmingham Hippodrome), Beguiled Again (European Premiere), Sondheim Concerts (Birmingham Old Rep, Cleo Laine Theatre) and the Poel Festival of Shakespearian Drama. Training: NYU (Master's), England's Birmingham School of Speech and Drama (Bachelor's), Michael Chekhov Studio. AEA member. Thanks to the cast, crew and creative team. In loving memory of mother.