Elizabeth Elkin Weiss as the Second Flower in Yashinsky’s Shoah play “Lilies Among Thorns,” Detroit Opera House, March 2014. Photograph by Ken Jacobsen, Jr.
PLAYS AND LIBRETTI
Roast Owl with Capers: A Rustic and Domestic Play in Verse
A modern old wives’ tale
Picture Imperfect, April 2016—Candlelight Theatre, Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, Indianapolis, IN
Mysterious drama centered around a transforming painting and the solitary young man who owns it, performed in the dining room of President Benjamin Harrison’s mansion
Lilies Among Thorns, March 2014—Michigan Opera Theatre, Detroit Opera House
Dramatic piece drawing on poems by child internees of Theresienstadt concentration camp, performed as a curtain-raiser before production of Brundibár that Yashinsky directed, featuring Ela Stein Weissberger, Shoah survivor and the Cat in Theresienstadt’s Brundibár
Games We Played, April-May 2014—Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, Indianapolis, IN
In the back parlor of President Benjamin Harrison’s mansion, The Candlelight Theatre performed this Victorian era-set comedic drama that Yashinsky wrote under their commission
If Plums Grew on a Thistle, April 2011—New College Theatre (now Farkas Hall)
Magical-realist drama, performed at the 3rd annual Harvard Playwrights Festival
SONGS & POEMS
“Dos lid fun der levone” [The song of the moon] (Yiddish), May 2015
Declaimed as a prologue to S. Dayksel’s fantastical drama Nokh tsvelf baynakht [After midnight], which Yashinsky directed; intended for an added character, “Der gayst fun der levone” [The spirit of the moon]
“Loshn-libe” [Tongue-love] (Yiddish), July 2014—Tsiggy on a Shir
Lyricist of this Yiddish-language erotic love-duet between Yiddish and a student of the language, given its first performance at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA by band Tsiggy on a Shir (who collectively wrote the music—Yashinsky performed in the band as vocalist/banjoist/tambourinist)
—Published in Radiant Jargon / Shtralndiker zhargon: Six Poems About Yiddish, eds. David Mazower, Madeleine Cohen, and Sophia Shoulson (Amherst, MA: Yiddish Book Center, 2018)
—Performed by Yashinsky at Mexico City’s Yiddish Idol festival of Yiddish song, September 2017
“Baltika,” July 2009—Union of Baltic Cities
Co-lyricist of this international organization’s anthem, recorded by the North German Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus
ARTICLES & ESSAYS
“Ezra Korman of Detroit: The Life and Afterlife of a Yiddish Poet,” Fall 2018—Michigan Jewish History, vol. 58 (Jewish Historical Society of Michigan)
Revealing the life and works of Detroit’s dean of Yiddish letters, including discoveries of his private library and other artifacts related to him, as well as translations of Korman’s poems, the first time they have appeared in English; expanded with new research from the article previously published on the Yiddish Book Center’s website (see below, “The Signs and Symbols of Ezra Korman”)
“Destined to Create,” February 2018—yiddishbookcenter.org
Translation of a speech delivered by Yiddish poet Rokhl Korn at Montreal’s Jewish Public Library in November 1977, on the birth of the poetic impulse in her and other Jewish writers
“Feasting is the Finest Prayer: Dreams of the Holy Land In the Pans of Ashkenaz,” July 2017—Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 2017 (London: Prospect Books, 2018)
—At this leading culinary history conference, presented a paper on Eastern European-Jewish imaginings and importations of food from pre-State Israel, drawing on Yiddish-language recipes, travelogues, and reminiscences of the period
—Later published in the Symposium’s Proceedings, including the best papers from that year’s conference
“The Nutcracker: Leaping Away From, and Toward, Holiday Tradition, with Victoria Morgan,” November 2017—Detroit Free Press; Detroit News
An interview with the choreographer and artistic director of the Cincinnati Ballet, in anticipation of the company’s performance at the Detroit Opera House
“Some Like it Rethought: The Artistic Integrity of a Mob Rigoletto,” October 2017—Detroit Free Press; Detroit News
On the creative conception of an English National Opera production of Verdi’s Rigoletto, re-mounted by Michigan Opera Theatre
“Yiddish Tish: From the Mouths of Babes,” Fall 2017—Pakn Treger (Yiddish Book Center)
Glossary and article on the language of Yiddish children living in DP camps after WWII
“Chapters: Ours,” Fall 2016—Pakn Treger
On the Jewish collective spirit and the ubiquity of the word “undzer” (our) in Yiddish periodical titles
“The Signs and Symbols of Ezra Korman, Detroit’s Soulful Yiddish Poet,” June 2016—Yiddish Book Center
On the life and afterlife of a little-known writer
“Eating the Archives,” March 2016—Yiddish Book Center
A culinary journey into a mysterious bag of archival recipes from 1950s Yiddish newspapers, found in a corner of the Yiddish Book Center
“Poet Celia Dropkin’s Paintings,” February 2016 (co-authored with Eitan Kensky)—Yiddish Book Center
Findings on the rare paintings of Yiddish poet Celia Dropkin, who in her latter years replaced her pen with a paintbrush
“Di goldene kale and Fiddler on the Roof, From Broadway To Battery Park,” December 2015—In Geveb
Review of two new Jewish productions seen on one island-hopping day in the city
“Unfading Voices: The Many Languages of The Passenger,” November 2015—The Metropolitan
On the many-tongued universality of this opera set in Auschwitz and performed at the Detroit Opera House
“Mycenæ in Motown: Detroiters Evaluate an Enduring Diva,” October 2014—The Metropolitan Detroit
Article in advance of Michigan Opera Theatre production of Elektra; article focused on the enduring appeal of Elektra and the particularities of her character, as derived from interviews I conducted with three Motor City residents—a forensic psychiatrist, a classics professor, and a young woman named Elektra
Accompanied by a podcast produced and narrated by Yashinsky.
“Turandot Plays Hard To Get,” May 2014—The Metropolitan Detroit
Article on Michigan Opera Theatre production of Turandot
Another version can be found on p. 28 of Michigan Opera Theatre’s magazine, BRAVO (Spring 2014)
“Blooms from Barbed Wire,” March 6, 2014—Detroit Jewish News
Article on Michigan Opera Theatre production of Brundibár
“A Raisman in the Sun,” August 17, 2012—The Jewish Advocate
Poem celebrating the achievements of London 2012 Summer Olympics gymnast Alexandra Raisman, published in this Boston newspaper, the oldest English-language Jewish periodical in the U.S.
“Sisera,” February 2012—Mosaic
Poem, a feminist imagining of a story from the Biblical Judges, published in Harvard’s Jewish literary journal
“Crescentius,” October 2009—The Harvard Ichthus
Poem, a fantasy on ancient Harvard figures confronting the modern era, published in Harvard’s Christian literary journal
A number of articles, reviews of music/theatre/film, interviews (Grammy-winning American soprano Renée Fleming, Tony-winning set designer Derek McLane, Harvard President Drew Faust), 2008-2011—As staff writer for The Harvard Crimson
Writer profile pages (1 and 2)
“Confessions of a Teenage Mascot: My Life as a Bee”—The Best Teen Writing of 2007 (Scholastic)
Comedic autobiographical essay on an unusual summer job—won a Scholastic Art & Writing Award and was chosen from the group of winners to be published in this collection
Was later featured as a stimulus for multiple choice questions in the English and Language Arts portion of the Maryland High School Assessments (HSA) test
GAMES
“Sparks of Eternity: Breakthrough,” Spring 2014—Frankel Jewish Academy, in conjunction with Michigan State University’s Games for Entertainment and Learning (GEL) Department
“Sparks of Eternity: Kerem b’Yavneh” [A vineyard in Yavneh], Spring 2015
Dialogue writer and story editor for these adventure computer games designed to educate about Talmudic teachings and the Jewish calendar, “Breakthrough” set during the Roman siege of Jerusalem, and its sequel “Kerem b’Yavneh” set in the agricultural community of Yavneh in ancient Israel, the center of Jewish learning and practice in the days following the destruction of the Second Temple
Both available for free on the iTunes App Store and at jewishgaming.com
Mikhl Yashinsky: Theatrist & YIDDISHIST 