Modicut Theater

MODICUT THEATER. The first Yiddish puppet theater in America, the Modicut Theater was created in New York’s Jewish left-wing milieu in 1925 by immigrant artists/writers/poets/performers/activists Zuni Maud (1891-1956) and Yosl Cutler (1896-1935). The two met in the offices of the Groysser Kundes, a popular left-wing Yiddish satire magazine where they worked as cartoonists. They also contributed cartoons and feuilletons to Morgen Freiheit, Signal, Hammer, and other left publications. Working as set painters for Maurice Schwartz’s Yiddish Art Theater, the two came up with the idea for a Yiddish marionette theater. Their first theater was initially housed in an old children’s clothing factory in which cutting tables and some machinery were left about for effect. Quite successful, their shows were at first mostly folkloric, anticlerical comedies but quickly became more politically oriented while retaining a folksy and comic edge. The puppets were grotesques, and their sets tended toward the surreal. The anticlerical, anti-boss, anti-landlord themes of their shows appealed to thousands of disaffected workers on New York’s Lower East Side and in Jewish working communities throughout the United States. After achieving significant fame in the United States, Modicut toured Europe during the winter of 1929–1930, performing shows in Western and Eastern Europe, where they were well received critically and by audiences. They were invited to tour the Soviet Union during the winter of 1931–1932. The act split up in 1933, though each continued to perform on his own.

Cutler, a member of Proletpen, became a beloved writer/illustrator of the Yiddish Left before his death in an auto accident in 1935 while on tour for the Frayhayt. Maud contributed cartoons and essays to Morgen Freiheit, Daily Worker, New Masses and other Left journals until his death in 1956.

Niger, S., and J. Shatsky, eds. Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur. New York: Alveltlekhn yidishn kultur-kongres, 1956–1981.

Portnoy, Eddy, “The Life and Death of a Yiddish Puppet Theater.” Folklife. October 15, 2019.

Portnoy, Edward. “Modicut Puppet Theatre: Modernism, Satire, and Yiddish Culture.” TDR. 43(Autumn 1999), pp. 115-34.

Zilbertsvayg, Z., ed. Leksikon fun yidishn teater. New York: Farlag Elisheva, 1931–1969.