On my approach to the auditorium at Great Barrington’s Monument Mountain Regional High School in the afternoon of Tuesday, March 21, I was taken back more than a century, across the Atlantic and all of Western Europe, to the fictional village of Anatevka, and the mournful strains of that song by the same name, which student performers were then rehearsing for their upcoming run of “Fiddler on the Roof.” I was also taken aback. The haunting song exerts an unexpectedly powerful emotional pull, as the show was one of my Jewish father’s favorites, and I watched the 1971 movie too many times to count in my childhood.
Under the direction of educator Dave Edson, 37 students at Monument—actors, musicians, stage managers, dance coordinators, set designers, sound and lighting techs—are putting on four performances of “Fiddler on the Roof” over the weekend from March 30 to April 2. The historical “dramedy,” as Edson called it, features character names which—unlike those in the school’s 2022 production of “The Addams Family” and 2019’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”—are not easily pronounced or spelled. In fact, “Fiddler” is quite a departure from the more recent shows that American high schools in general have favored in recent years.
“Fiddler” started out as a series of short stories written in Yiddish by Sholem Aleichem called “Tevye and His Daughters” about Jewish village life in the Pale of Settlement in Imperial Russia in the late-19th century under the iron rule of Tsar Nicholas. Not likely raw material for a hit musical, at first glance, and yet, when it arrived on Broadway in 1964, with music and lyrics by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, “Fiddler on the Roof” won nine Tony awards, was the first musical to surpass 3,000 performances, and went on to become a celebrated film. (Topol, the Israeli actor who immortalized the role of Tevye, passed away just two weeks ago at 87.)
The original show ran for three hours, but Monument is performing an abridged version that will run about one hour and 45 minutes with an intermission. Edson made sure much remained, however. “Miracle of Miracles,” for instance, a song that is excluded from the abridged script, he added back in. The show is mostly double-cast, with Cast A and Cast B alternating performances, partly to give everyone a chance to shine and partly to offset frequent absences that are an unfortunate feature of flu season and busy schedules. It offers the further benefit of ensuring that most of the performers have a built-in understudy, and, as more than one performer pointed out, the unusual opportunity for actors to see their part interpreted in a different way, in real time. Tevye is played by two actors, junior Thomas Weston and first-year Digby Kerr.
Junior Lily Reynolds plays Tzeitel, the oldest daughter, and she is also the dance captain, which provides her with a natural opportunity to practice her leadership skills. “Whenever Miss Knox, our choreographer, isn’t here,” she said, “she puts her trust in me and Noelia Salinetti to either fix or help or learn everyone’s parts. So for the bottle dance you saw, someone wasn’t there, so I ran in and knew it, so there wasn’t like an empty space.”
Senior Rob Murray, who plays Motel the poor tailor and Tzeitel’s suitor, just moved here from Philadelphia in December, and jumped headlong into rehearsals for the show in January. How was that transition? “[Theatre] is the perfect environment to come into. It’s really warm, welcoming, you definitely feel comfortable being yourself. I also learned a lot from improv games at the beginning, like how to open up and trust the person … Dave said something about trusting your scene partner, because they’re gonna make you look like a genius. So I kind of leaned on that, and it worked.” Murrary has done theatre since fifth grade, but nothing he has done, he says, “compares to ‘Fiddler.'”
Homeschooler Leah Kammeyer, who plays one of the Chavas, the third and youngest daughter, arrives at Monument every day of rehearsal at 3 p.m., but thanks to the intimate feeling of a theatre production, feels very much a part of things. “My family’s a big Broadway family. We’ve listened to and seen a bunch of shows. So I already knew ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ basically by heart, so I’m happy that I got this experience to learn it differently than how I knew it.”
How did they feel dealing with historical fiction, which is quite different from the fantasy world of, for instance, “The Addams Family,” which the school produced last spring? Stage Manager Ari Caine did take note of the tonal difference between last year’s show and this one’s. “For ‘Addams Family,’ they could go, you know, all out ridiculous. Here you have to be realistic, have everything come across on stage as realistic in a very big way.” Caine also pointed out the more G-rated nature of “Fiddler.” “It’s a good idea to have family friendly shows once in a while, because it’s nice for young kids to be able to come.”
Playing the Rabbi is first-year George Wallace, who on the day of my visit was wearing mismatched socks in honor of World Down Syndrome Day on March 21. How did he feel to be part of this show on the big stage in high school? “It’s been amazing. I love the music so much.” What’s his favorite song? “Tradition!”
Really? Why?
“Because it’s so … dramatic!”
Is there anything hard or challenging about being in the play?
“Nope,” he insists. “It’s been a dream, to be in a choir, to be in an ensemble piece.”
What is your goal?
“To be in a big whole group.”
Where are you going to end up?
“Broadway.”
Early in the rehearsal process, Director Edson had invited local Rabbi Jodie Gordon of Hevreh to come in to offer historical and religious context for students who were likely unaware of it. “The main piece of it for me was making sure there was a full picture,” she said, “because with any piece of art that hones in on a particular identity group or culture, or in this case religion, the risk is it becomes a caricature.” To ensure that the students understood the greater meaning of everything, for instance, she explained how Golde, the mother, would have lit the candles, shading her eyes and murmuring the Hebrew prayer, before singing the song “Sabbath Prayer.”
Against a chorus of young voices rising and falling as one upstage, and with half a dozen set designers at work painting and building in the background, Edson acknowledged the herculean task it has been to undertake a project of such magnitude with so many adolescents pulled in many different directions. It seems every day of rehearsal, someone was out sick, including, on the day of my visit, a core cast member who was not double-cast. “Coming out the pandemic, this is like a renaissance, a dusting off of the cobwebs. Our number one goal has been to experience joy in the creation process and now, to share our joy with the audience.”
You can catch one of the four performances and support Monument’s two casts of “Fiddler on the Roof” next weekend at the high school, at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, with talkbacks on Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $12 for community members and $10 for students and can be purchased either in advance at the front desk at the school, or at the door on the day or night of the performance. Proceeds offset the cost of putting on this ambitious show.
