THE DORA WASSERMAN YIDDISH THEATRE DOCUMENTATION CENTRE

A UNIQUE INITIATIVE TO PRESERVE THE TREASURES OF THE DORA WASSERMAN YIDDISH THEATRE!

A half-century of materials about this theatre and its productions provide a window on the Jewish experience, tradition and thought.

The Yiddish Theatre Documentation Centre collects and displays the artistic achievements and dynamism of this cultural jewel in the crown.

Now that it has moved into its permanent home at the Segal Centre it can continue to sort, catalogue and digitize thousands of documents, including old films, videos, posters, photographs, sheet music, maquettes, audio tapes, scripts, costume drawings and playbills.

Objectives:

• A searchable on-line catalogue of the collections to be available to the public, students, researchers and theatre professionals.
• DVDs of the plays that can be screened, the music listened to, the visuals admired and scripts and letters available in electronic format. .
• Many different exhibits can be created from these materials. The first exhibit will celebrate the 50th anniversary.
• Be a springboard for scholarly lectures and symposia
• To electronically link The Yiddish Theatre Documentation Centre to the major centres of Yiddish culture throughout the world.

The Challenges:

• The first challenge: begun in 2005 was to salvage and sort the long neglected materials
• The next challenge: is to catalogue and digitalize all time-sensitive documents and transfer degradable audio and visual materials into digital form.

The Team:

• A dedicated group of volunteers, many of them former performers in Yiddish Theatre.