Act II

Our daughter came home one evening in September and told us her teachers selected this year’s musical, but wouldn’t let on what it was. The only thing they offered was that it was “old school.” Her mother and I thought for a second and came up with two possibilities, “West Side Story” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” Then I said” no, both of those are too sad.” It turned out I greatly underestimated the will of the teachers. 

The story of Fiddler on the Roof is about a particular group of people living in a specific time and place, a shtetl in Tzarist Russia. Yet themes such as family, love, loss, and the question of what is expected of us in a radically changing world are universal. Unfortunately its darker themes, intolerance, hatred and oppression, still hit close to home today. Heady stuff indeed for a middle school play. Even more poignant is the fact that the cast and crew of the play reflect the tremendous diversity at Stone, its members representing at least five of the seven continents, and all the major religions. It's very likely that they also speak nearly a dozen languages at home. In the following, teacher Jamie Perry reflects on bringing such a disparate cast together to tell a simple but powerful story about nothing less than what it means to be a human being. 

We worked very hard to teach the students to be respectful of costume pieces, and we did adjust some things to respect the cultures of our students. I didn’t want anything mistreated that would disrespect the Jewish culture. So, we constantly reminded students they had to be careful to respect the tallit or tzitzit, and they should always be worn correctly, hung up correctly, and treated with respect. Our rabbi was a Muslim student, and at first he would come out on stage with his costume worn incorrectly. I frequently tried to make religious comparisons to the significance or symbolism of certain garments in his religion, so he would understand the importance of his costume. One student could not pretend to drink alcohol in “To Life.” When we wanted to cast him I asked if being in the scene would be an issue. He assured me it would not, but I asked him to discuss it with his parents. I kept checking in with him and he insisted it was fine. But around week three he came to me and told me he definitely could not pretend to drink. So, we added the line “Mordcha, bring me a glass of water and a bottle of your finest for Tevye.” During one dress rehearsal he forgot to say that line and didn’t realize it, so I reminded him a lot that last week. It also helped to have four Jewish students in the show. They were our experts and often spoke to the cast about their culture, or explained things like the Sabbath, Challah, etc. They also helped cast members with pronunciations, like ‘L’Chaim’. Educating our students about the time period, pogroms, the Jewish culture and traditions, the costume pieces, etc., was extremely important to us as directors. It was also very rewarding, to see the students begin to truly understand the historical significance of the production.