{"id":130,"date":"2016-04-06T20:23:22","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T20:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jewishmigrationtoscotland.wordpress.com\/?p=130"},"modified":"2016-04-06T20:23:22","modified_gmt":"2016-04-06T20:23:22","slug":"visit-to-the-scottish-theatre-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewishmigrationtoscotland.is.ed.ac.uk\/index.php\/2016\/04\/06\/visit-to-the-scottish-theatre-archive\/","title":{"rendered":"Visit to the Scottish Theatre Archive"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"theatre<\/dt>\n
From left: Fiona Brodie, Paul Maloney, Howard Brodie, Mia Spiro and Deborah Butcher. Photo supplied courtesy of Fiona Brodie, Scottish Jewish Archives Centre \u00a9<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
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\"morning<\/dt>\n
One of a selection of 1950s theatre posters on display.\u00a0 Image kindly supplied by\u00a0Claire McKendrick, Scottish Theatre Archives\u00a9<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n

On Tuesday 29th<\/sup> March, Mia Spiro and Deborah Butcher enjoyed fascinating lunchtime visit to the Scottish Theatre Archive (housed within Glasgow University Library), accompanied by Fiona and Howard Brodie from the Scottish Jewish Archive Centre.\u00a0 First we were treated to a tour by Claire McKendrick, followed by a display in the Seminar Room.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Various sources were on show, including posters, programmes, a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings, and hand-annotated scripts complete with by stage sketches and director\u2019s notes.<\/p>\n

Of particular interest are a selection of photos of stage scenes of Ansky\u2019s classic supernatural tale of Jewish folklore \u2018The Dybbuk\u2019 \u2013 acting in an exaggerated style perhaps to engage an audience unversed in the Yiddish \u2013 are exhibited.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Alongside are two character sketches signed Bet Low:\u00a0 the first of a distinctive middle-aged woman, her rugged facial features buried beneath a mass of curly hair and her stout frame concealed by traditional rustic costume;\u00a0 the second of a tall, slender man with serious expression.\u00a0 Both are vaguely familiar and generate much discussion, although their identities remain frustratingly elusive.<\/p>\n

Howard\u2019s father, Maxwell Brodie (1926-1998), was actor, stage manager and director with the Jewish Institute Players, the Avrom Greenbaum Players and the Unity Theatre, his involvement spanning half a century.\u00a0\u00a0 For Howard (who also performed with the Avrom Greenbaum Players) many of the names and faces appearing in cast lists and photos are also family friends.\u00a0\u00a0 Indeed Fiona credits some of the Players\u2019 success to the fact they belonged to such a close-knit community – living, working, worshipping and socialising in close proximity \u2013 affording them ample opportunities to rehearse, share ideas and refine their craft.<\/p>\n

Claire\u2019s demonstration of the online catalogue – searchable by name, document, collection and event \u2013 equips us to independently discover materials relevant to our interests. \u00a0Key holdings include the papers and correspondence of actor and director Samm Hankin, and the articles and letters of the acclaimed actress Ida Schuster. \u00a0Avrom Greenbaum\u2019s correspondence with individual playwrights (such as Sylvia Regan) promise to reveal something of his broader cultural impact, and, reciprocally, his own creative influences. \u00a0\u00a0There are also various materials relating to the Glasgow Unity Theatre, with whom the Players temporarily amalgamated during the 1940s.\u00a0 These mostly pre-1960 sources complement the extensive Avrom Greenbaum Players collection (as the Jewish Institute Players later restyled themselves) housed at the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre.<\/p>\n

Later on we were joined by Dr Paul Maloney, Research Fellow at Queen\u2019s University Belfast.\u00a0\u00a0 Paul has previously explored the history of the Scottish music hall.\u00a0 He is now working upon cataloguing the Jewish Institute Players\u2019 collection, assessing various aspects of their history including the influence of vaudeville, and popular variety theatre, on Scottish Jewish amateur dramatics.\u00a0 All in all, this was a highly informative and enjoyable introduction to the Scottish Theatre Archive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From left: Fiona Brodie, Paul Maloney, Howard Brodie, Mia Spiro and Deborah Butcher. Photo supplied courtesy of Fiona Brodie, Scottish Jewish Archives Centre \u00a9 One of a selection of 1950s theatre posters on display.\u00a0 Image kindly supplied by\u00a0Claire McKendrick, Scottish … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7vIzI-26","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishmigrationtoscotland.is.ed.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishmigrationtoscotland.is.ed.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishmigrationtoscotland.is.ed.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmigrationtoscotland.is.ed.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmigrationtoscotland.is.ed.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmigrationtoscotland.is.ed.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishmigrationtoscotland.is.ed.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmigrationtoscotland.is.ed.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmigrationtoscotland.is.ed.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}