Abba Schoengold (also Shoengold, Shongold, or Sheingold) was a
Romanian Jewish actor in the early years of Yiddish theater, the first
person to score a serious reputation as a dramatic actor in Yiddish.A
singer in the synagogue choir of the leading synagogue in Bucharest,
Romania, Schoengold had also performed in a quartet with Sigmund
Mogulesko, playing at weddings and parties. He failed an audition in
1877 for Abraham Goldfaden's nascent Yiddish theater company (which
Mogulesko joined). Within a year, he had joined the troupe of
playwright Moses Halevy-Hurvitz, which toured through rural Romania
and eventually to Chişinău, where his performance supposedly
inspired David Kessler's interest in theater. He then travelled on his
own to Odessa, Ukraine.In 1882, at the Mariinsky Theater in Odessa, he
scored a triumph in the first Yiddish-language production of Karl
Gutzkow's Uriel Acosta. Jacob Adler writes that at this time he was
"the god of the Yiddish public, the god, indeed, of all who saw him on
stage... the handsomest man in the world. Tall. Blue eyes. Golden
hair. An Apollo." [Adler, 1999, 221] Adler also writes that he had "a
mania for adding to his costume... a plume, a feather, a cape, a
scarf, ... medals". [Adler, 1999, 269]With his wife Clara Schoengold,
he followed much of the Yiddish theater community to London in the
mid-1880s and thence to New York City. Their son Joseph married
Adler's daughter Frances in New York in 1911; both went on to be
leading lights of the Yiddish stage.
Romanian Jewish actor in the early years of Yiddish theater, the first
person to score a serious reputation as a dramatic actor in Yiddish.A
singer in the synagogue choir of the leading synagogue in Bucharest,
Romania, Schoengold had also performed in a quartet with Sigmund
Mogulesko, playing at weddings and parties. He failed an audition in
1877 for Abraham Goldfaden's nascent Yiddish theater company (which
Mogulesko joined). Within a year, he had joined the troupe of
playwright Moses Halevy-Hurvitz, which toured through rural Romania
and eventually to Chişinău, where his performance supposedly
inspired David Kessler's interest in theater. He then travelled on his
own to Odessa, Ukraine.In 1882, at the Mariinsky Theater in Odessa, he
scored a triumph in the first Yiddish-language production of Karl
Gutzkow's Uriel Acosta. Jacob Adler writes that at this time he was
"the god of the Yiddish public, the god, indeed, of all who saw him on
stage... the handsomest man in the world. Tall. Blue eyes. Golden
hair. An Apollo." [Adler, 1999, 221] Adler also writes that he had "a
mania for adding to his costume... a plume, a feather, a cape, a
scarf, ... medals". [Adler, 1999, 269]With his wife Clara Schoengold,
he followed much of the Yiddish theater community to London in the
mid-1880s and thence to New York City. Their son Joseph married
Adler's daughter Frances in New York in 1911; both went on to be
leading lights of the Yiddish stage.
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