LATROBE, PA – When they took on their roles in “Fiddler on the Roof,” most of the actors in the Saint Vincent College Players had no prior exposure to the Jewish culture and traditions that are central to the musical.
The show is set a few years before the Russian revolution in Anatevka, a fictional peasant village populated by Jewish families. The main character, Tevya, is a milkman who tries to marry off his five daughters amid the turbulent times and tension in his community.
As the Players rehearsed, student director Maddie Klun sensed that something wasn’t right.
“My biggest concern was making sure we honor the Jewish tradition—not just what their daily life looked like, but this is a very serious story of displacement and violence against Jewish people,” said Klun, a senior from Minneapolis majoring in communication studies. “Watching my friends on stage, I noticed there was a disconnect. Something was missing from the way they were portraying their characters.”
After consulting with faculty advisor Gregg Brandt, Klun reached out to Rabbi Jamie Gibson, the Rabbi Jason Edelstein Endowed Chair in Catholic-Jewish Dialogue at Saint Vincent College. On Feb. 6, two weeks before opening night, Rabbi Gibson held a discussion with the entire cast of “Fiddler.”
“To get across the real-life dramas and tragedies and the simple joys of Jewish living in an hour talking to the cast was a bit of a challenge, but they got it,” Gibson said. “And each actor who had a speaking part was able to ask me, ‘How does this person walk? How do they carry themselves? What kind of accent?’ This was the third or fourth play production [for which] I've been an advisor, so I know what I'm doing.”
Gibson led Temple Sinai in Pittsburgh from 1988 to 2020 and is a senior rabbinic fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and a rabbinic fellow of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality in New York.
For the first 30 minutes, Rabbi Gibson talked about Jewish life and the importance of tradition. “And at that point, I could tell there was a shift in the room,” Klun said. “People realized the seriousness of what we’re portraying on stage. If we don't do these traditions justice, it would be a shame for us to claim we're playing these characters.”
It marked the first time that Brandt, assistant professor of music and performing arts and director of theatre operations, had brought in someone to speak with his cast before a show.
“The students were super supportive and were excited to hear his knowledge of the Jewish faith, which helped in their preparation [for performing as] their characters,” said. “I will definitely consider doing it again because it helps the students become better acquainted with the material, especially if it is something as specific as this.”
The Saint Vincent College Players will perform “Fiddler on the Roof” at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 20-22 and at 2 p.m. Feb. 23 in the Performing Arts Center at the Robert S. Carey Center. Tickets will be sold at the door beginning one hour before showtime.
Rabbi Jamie Gibson speaks to cast members of “Fiddler on the Roof”
