Artef

The Oxford Companion to American Theatre | 2004 | 700+ words | Copyright

Artef. Its acronym derived from the Yiddish for Workers' Theater Group, it was founded in 1925 as a dramatic studio under the auspices of Freiheit, the Yiddish Communist daily, to produce plays on “a sound social basis.” The group flourished through most of the 1930s, mounting both Yiddish classics and modern Yiddish propaganda plays, usually in that formally stylized, almost balletic manner known as agitprop. Few of the actors were professional; most shows were cast from theatrically interested laborers. The group disbanded in 1937 but sputtered back to life at intervals thereafter. Many Broadway critics visited their productions at one time or another, and often reviewed them favorably. Bernard Sobel wrote in the Daily News that they displayed “a refinement of inflection, perfect esprit de corps, a joyous bawdiness . . . conscious intellectualization . . . laughter, freshness and sustained emotional elevation.”

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Artef." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Artef." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-Artef.html

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Artef." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-Artef.html

Learn more about citation styles