Vaudeville Plus Yiddish Divided By Shane Baker May 28, 2008

New Yiddish Rep is pleased to announce the return engagement of “Vaudeville Plus Yiddish Divided By Shane Baker”, which will take place Wednesday May 28th and Thursday May 29th. The show, in English and Yiddish with supertitles, features magic tricks, cheap shtick, unpleasant stories about Sophie Tucker, a Yiddish bullfight poem, and a ukelele, and ends with Mr. Baker attempting to behead a volunteer from the audience.

Missouri-born and Texas-educated Mr. Baker’s resume features credits as an actor, director, magician, and puppeteer. He assisted Tony-winning director Doug Hughes on “The Grey Zone”; worked on Peter Sellars’ Los Angeles Festival; has performed at P.S. 122, ShowWorld, and with Great Small Works, an anarchist puppet troupe, and played ‘Carla the Gypsy Wildcat’ in The Ridiculous Theatrical Company’s “Turds In Hell”. As a child he was mentored in magic by vaudeville veteran H. Claude Enslow; an authority on the plays of Henry Fielding and an early contributor to the current burlesque revival, by day Mr. Baker serves as the first gentile Executive Director of the Congress For Jewish Culture, a Yiddishist literary organization.

Mr. Baker will be accompanied by The Legendary Steve Sterner. A veteran Broadway, Off Broadway, and Yiddish Theater performer, Mr. Sterner is also well known as an accompanist, having accompanied Robert Merrill, Jerry Vale, Joan Collins, and Joanne Woodward, among many others. He has also accompanied and composed music for over 300 silent films, at MoMA, BAM, the Museum of the Moving Image, and Film Forum, where he is house pianist.

All New Yiddish Rep performances take place at the Community Synagogue, 325 East 6th St. in Manhattan; curtain time is 7:00pm. The company will also follow its regular admission policy, which they call “Pay As You Exit”: though there is a suggested donation of $15, it will be collected after the performance, and audience members can give whatever they like.