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THE LADY NEXT DOOR

The three-act comedy tells the tale of a married garment worker,
Velvel (played by Sam Guncler), who has fallen for his next-door
neighbor, Clara, a fiery Americanized Romanian immigrant.
Clara (played by Debra Frances Ben) is married to a Lithuanian
man who refuses to eat her beloved knishes, preferring, much to
her ire, herring. During the two years covered by the first two
acts of the play, Velvel's naive wife, Hindele, and his father, Kulya,
are still in Russia, waiting for Velvel to send them enough money to
bring them to the Suffolk Street tenement he lives in with his sister,
Khyenke and her husband. In the meantime, Velvel has been
transformed into Willie -- a strike-attending labor advocate who has
stopped praying, shaven off his beard, and now dons a gold watch
and western suit -- and has begun an affair with Clara. When
Hindele (played by Yelena Shmulenson-Rickman) and Kulya
(David Mandelbaum) unexpectedly arrive in America, both Velvel
and Clara attempt to divorce their respective spouses and many
humorous exchanges ensue.