Alisa Solomon | |
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Born | 1956 (age 67–68) |
Education | University of Michigan (B.A.) Yale School of Drama (Ph.D.) |
Occupation(s) | Professor and Director of the Arts and Culture concentration of Journalism at the Columbia University School of Journalism Writer |
Employer | Columbia University School of Journalism |
Notable work | Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof ContentsRe-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender |
Spouse | Marilyn Neimark (married 2012-present) |
Awards | George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism Theatre Library Association's George Freedly Memorial Award |
Website | www |
Alisa Solomon, is a writer, Professor of Journalism, and the Director of the Arts and Culture concentration at the Columbia Journalism School. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Born in 1956, Solomon served as a story consultant for the documentary on the musical Fiddler on the Roof titled Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles. [6] Solomon has written two award-winning books: Re-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender and Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Additionally, she has served as a reporter for The Village Voice , The New York Times , The Nation , and many other publications. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Solomon earned her BA, with a double major in Drama and Philosophy, at the University of Michigan's Residential College in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She received her MFA and Doctorate, in Dramaturgy and Criticism, at the Yale School of Drama in New Haven, Connecticut. [3]
Solomon first's book, Re-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender, explores gender and performance and was published in 1997. It won the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. [1] [4] [7] Her second book, Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof, discussed the making of the musical Fiddler on the Roof and shows the evolution of Jewish cultural identity. This book, published in 2013, won the Kurt Weill Prize, the Jewish Journal Prize, and the Theatre Library Association's George Freedley Memorial Award. [8] [9] [10] [11] Solomon has also been an editor of a number of books as well as a special issue of the journal Theater on theatre and social change.
Solomon served as a story consultant for the documentary on the musical Fiddler on the Roof titled Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles. [6] This documentary goes into the creation and significance of the play, featuring interviews with the Fiddler creators and others from the musical. [6]
Solomon is a teacher at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, and at this university she directs the MA program's Arts & Culture concentration. [1] [3] [4] [5]
Solomon has served as a reporter for the Village Voice from 1983 to 2004, as well as having contributed to: The New York Times newspaper, The Nation newspaper, Tablet newspaper, The Forward newspaper, Howlround.com non-profit service organization, killingthebuddha.com online journal, American Theater magazine, TDR – The Drama Review journal, and others. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Solomon is a member of the leftist anti-racist organization Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ). [12]
In 1997, Solomon won the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for her book Re-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender. [2] [4] [7] [10] [13] In 2014, she won the Theatre Library Association's George Freedly Memorial Award for her book Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof. [8] In 2015, she won The Kurt Weill Prize for her book Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof. [9] [11]
The Pulitzer Prize for Criticism has been presented since 1970 to a newspaper writer in the United States who has demonstrated 'distinguished criticism'. Recipients of the award are chosen by an independent board and officially administered by Columbia University. The Pulitzer Committee issues an official citation explaining the reasons for the award.
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht. With Brecht, he developed productions such as his best-known work, The Threepenny Opera, which included the ballad "Mack the Knife". Weill held the ideal of writing music that served a socially useful purpose, Gebrauchsmusik. He also wrote several works for the concert hall and a number of works on Jewish themes. He became a United States citizen on August 27, 1943.
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia in or around 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters and other tales by Sholem Aleichem. The story centers on Tevye, a milkman in the village of Anatevka, who attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach upon his family's lives. He must cope with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters who wish to marry for love; their choices of husbands are successively less palatable for Tevye. An edict of the tsar eventually evicts the Jews from their village.
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Sheldon Mayer Harnick was an American lyricist and songwriter best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on musicals such as Fiorello!, She Loves Me, and Fiddler on the Roof.
Robert Sanford Brustein was an American theatrical critic, producer, playwright, writer, and educator. He founded the Yale Repertory Theatre while serving as dean of the Yale School of Drama in New Haven, Connecticut, as well as the American Repertory Theater and Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was a creative consultant until his death, and was the theatre critic for The New Republic. He commented on politics for the HuffPost.
Boris Aronson was an American scenic designer for Broadway and Yiddish theatre. He won the Tony Award for Scenic Design six times in his career.
"Tradition" is the opening number for the 1964 Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof. In the song, the main character, Tevye, explains the roles of each social class in the village of Anatevka, and how the traditional roles of people like the matchmaker, the beggar, and the rabbi contribute to the village. The song also mentions the constable, the priest, and the other non-Jews with whom they rarely interact. Later in the song, an issue involving an argument between two men about selling the other person a horse and delivering a mule creates a ruckus in the village. Overall, the song sets up the major theme of the villagers trying to continue their traditions and keep their society running as the world around them changes.
Fiddler on the Roof is a 1971 American period musical film produced and directed by Norman Jewison from a screenplay written by Joseph Stein, based on the 1964 stage musical of the same name by Stein, Jerry Bock, and Sheldon Harnick. Set in early 20th-century Imperial Russia, the film centers on Tevye, played by Topol, a poor Jewish milkman who is faced with the challenge of marrying off his five daughters amidst the growing tension in his shtetl. The cast also features Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Molly Picon, Paul Mann, Rosalind Harris, Michèle Marsh, Neva Small and Paul Michael Glaser. The musical score, composed by Bock with lyrics by Harnick, was adapted and conducted by John Williams.
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Danny Burstein is an American actor and singer. Known for his work on the Broadway stage, he's received numerous accolades including a Tony Award, two Drama Desk Awards and nominations for three Grammy Awards.
Hilton Als is an American writer and theater critic. He is a teaching professor at the University of California, Berkeley, an associate professor of writing at Columbia University and a staff writer and theater critic for The New Yorker. He is a former staff writer for The Village Voice and former editor-at-large at Vibe magazine.
Samantha Massell is a New York-based American actress and singer notable for playing Hodel in the 2015 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof. She has received positive reviews of her singing and acting performance. Her genre is pop.
Jill Susan Dolan is an American educator, author, blogger and feminist. She writes on theatre, sexuality studies, and feminist theory. Since July 2015, Dolan has been the Dean of the College at Princeton University, where she is also the Annan Professor in English and a professor of theatre studies in the Lewis Center for the Arts. Prior to Princeton, Dolan served as the Department Head of Theater and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin, and as Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dolan's notable works include her blog The Feminist Spectator, for which she received the 2011 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, and Theater and Sexuality. Dolan also edited Menopausal Gentlemen: Plays and Performances of Peggy Shaw which won the Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBT Drama.
Michael E. Feingold was an American critic, translator, lyricist, playwright and dramaturg. He was the lead theater critic of The Village Voice from 1982 to 2013, for which he was twice named a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism finalist, and was a two-time recipient of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. He was a judge for the Obie Awards for 31 years, and the chairman for nine years. For his work as the translator and adapter of the book and lyrics of the Kurt Weill, Elisabeth Hauptmann, and Bertolt Brecht musical Happy End, he was nominated for two Tony Awards in 1977.
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Soraya Nadia McDonald is an American writer and culture critic. She was previously a reporter at The Washington Post, and has been the culture critic for The Undefeated since 2016. McDonald was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
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Laurence Senelick is an American scholar, educator, actor and director. He is the author, editor, or translator of many books.