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MORRIS ADLER: My name is Morris Abler. I'm 61 years a member of the Folksbiene. Due to my age, I'm not acting since 1985 -- you know, going on the stage you don't want to make mistakes. I've done good work all my life; I don't want to spoil it. That's why I'm not acting. Zypora is the one that's hangs on. She's in the Folksbiene for 40 years. But she is hanging on, carrying on the same aim: we don't just put on the play -- the play must have a message, the same way that it did in years gone by.

ZYPORA SPAISMAN: I came to this country in 1954. Now the thing is that Mr. Adler was the man who gave me the first interview, and this gentleman gave me the ten commandments of what the Folksbiene will need from you when you became a member: you coming to the rehearsal seven o'clock; you not asking for a part what you like; you asking that the director will give you the part; your not getting paid -- not for playing and not for carfare; you have to be on time... And that was the beginning -- I start my career at the Folksbiene.

We have a lots to tell you. Theater is the richest place what you can express yourself. We never was sick; we never played with understudies. I had 103 temperature -- I came to play. We got an old man that was with us 60 years, like Mr. Adler, and he fell on the stage and he got a cut on his forehead and they took him to the hospital. He said, "Make the stitches now, because I have to finish the show." They was sure that he didn't know what he was talking. They brought him back, and he finished his show. He said, "Nobody will take my place. I have to be here." The devotion from the Folksbiene, from all the actors. When I started with the Folksbiene, it was 55 actors. Now it's me, Zypora Spaisman, and Morris Adler -- the two people from the Folksbiene. Mr. Adler, I didn't like you very much for years -- you remember? I hate you! Because he was looking for every little thing -- "Zypora no no no." He was a tough man, and we love him.. And I'm very pleased to have Adler in this age. Maybe we will make a love scene some day when I will be 100 and you will be 110.

ADLER: A love scene I can make any time... (Laughs.)

Producers: David Isay and Steve Zeitlin. / Funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the New York State Council on the Arts and the Corporation. "Folksbiene Yiddish Theater" is a co-production with City Lore. Photograph by Harvey Wang.

"Folksbiene Yiddish Theater" premiered December 1, 1996, on Weekend Edition Saturday. Copyright © 1996 Sound Portraits Productions. All Rights Reserved.

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		The Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre's Web site
		Zypora Spaisman's obituary in the LA Times (registration required)
		Yiddish Radio Project, a series on the history of Yiddish radio

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