Eleanor Reissa

Eleanor Reissa is an American actress, singer, theatre director, playwright, librettist, choreographer, translator, and author based in New York City. She works and performs in English and Yiddish speaking stages, and also interprets and performs Yiddish theatre and songs.

Early life and education Eleanor Reissa was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were born in Poland. During World War II, they were both placed in German ghettos established in occupied Poland, and fought and lived through the Holocaust. In America, they both became sweatshop workers. Reissa studied in the New York City public school system and received her Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Theatre at Brooklyn College, graduating cum laude.

Directing and acting One of Reissa's earliest professional credits was as a member of the 1977 National Lampoon comedy stage revue That's Not Funny, That's Sick, which played short engagements in Washington, D.C., and New York City.

Reissa's directing debut in Broadway garnered her a Tony Award nomination for Those Were the Days, which she also choreographed and starred in. Other New York directing credits include: Cowgirls (1995 Outer Critics Circle Award nomination), Echoes of the War (2005 Drama Desk Award nomination), and The Soldier's Wife (two 2006 Drama Desk Award nominations). In Yiddish, her New York directing credits include: Got Fun Nekome (God of Vengeance), Hershele Ostropolyer (adapted by Reissa), Zise Khaloymes (based on her English language play, Sweet Dreams), and Yoshke Muzikant: The Klezmer’s Tale. Furthermore, she was artistic director of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene for five years.

On Broadway, she was in the cast of Paula Vogel's 2015 play Indecent, and was nominated for a Tony Award as the director of the musical Those Were the Days (which she also choreographed and starred in).

In April 2019, Reissa directed, co-created and featured as a vocalist in From Shtetl to Stage: A Celebration of Yiddish Music and Culture at Carnegie Hall.

Music and recordings

Reissa has also sung in numerous American musicals in the theatre, including Tintypes, The Rise of David Levinsky, and Fiddler on the Roof.

Reissa's singing in Yiddish has earned her the title of the "Reigning Queen of Yiddish Cabaret". Additionally, she has been featured in Pearls of Yiddish Song, Remember the Children, Going Home: Gems of Yiddish Song, Songs in the Key of Yiddish, and in 2015, Just Add Water (Eleanor Reissa and Di Boyess).

She has collaborated with Frank London of the Klezmatics and the Klezmer Brass Allstars, to perform together internationally. Along with the Klezmatics, she recorded Vilde Mekhaye (Wild Ecstasy) in 2016. They have also performed in festivals and venues including Berlin, Toronto, Paris, Vienna, and in New York City at Joe's Pub and Feinstein's/54 Below.

She and Frank London performed their program Kurt Weill in New York at the Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau, (Germany) featuring Anthony Coleman, Greg Cohen, and Billy Martin.

Playwriting

For her playwriting, Reissa received the Dorothy Silver Playwriting Award for Wishful Thinking, and then was shortlisted as a finalist for her play, Thicker Than Water a few years later. Reissa's plays have been published in an anthology called The Last Survivor and other Modern Yiddish Plays. Her play, The Last Dinosaur, was listed as finalist for the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Heideman Award.

Adaptations and Translations

Reissa was commissioned to adapt the story The Adventures of Hershele Ostropolyer (also known as Hershel of Ostropol) as a musical for the National Yiddish Theatre, Folksbiene, where it was played for two consecutive seasons, starring Mike Burstyn. It was then performed in Israel at Yiddishpiel, the same location where it was nominated for the Israel Prize as well. After this, Reissa was also commissioned by Yiddishpiel to adapt the 1937 film, Yidl Mitn Fidl to a stage musical in 2014, where it has a successful run.

In 2019, Reissa also received a commission by the National Yiddish Theatre, Folksbiene to translate Paddy Chayevsky’s The Tenth Man, into Yiddish (with Harvey Varga), which was slated for the 2020 season with her as director.

She also worked on the libretto for the opera Taibele and Her Demon, based on the short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, with composer, Judd Greenstein

The Letters Project: A Daughter’s Journey After the death of her mother, Reissa found letters sent by her father, a survivor of Auschwitz, in the late 1940s to her mother, a survivor of a slave labor camp in Uzbekistan.

Directing

Year Project RoleVenue 1989 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Assistant Director Broadway 1991 Those Were the Days Director and Choreographer Broadway 1992 A Stranger Among Us Choreographer Sidney Lumet feature film 1994 All That Glitters Director Women's Project NYC 1995 Cowgirls Director and Choreographer Minetta Lane Theatre 1995 My Fair Lady Assistant Director Broadway 1996 The Last Supper Director Florida 1997 Nothing like a Dame Director Broadway 1998 Songs of Paradise Choreographer The Public Theater 1999 Avenue X Director and Choreographer Marin Theatre Company 2000 Over the Rainbow: Yip Harburg's America Director and Choreographer Prince Music Theater 2001 Diana of Dobson's Director Mint Theater 2001 Screams of Kitty Genovese Director O'Neill Festival 2001 Song of the Turtle Dove Director O'Neill Festival 2002 Out of Sterno Director Cherry Lane Theatre 2003 Syncopation Director and Choreographer Marin Theatre Company 2004 Echoes of the War Director Mint Theater 2005 The Skin Game (play) Director Mint Theater 2006 Blood Drive Director O'Neill Festival 2006 Desperate Measures (musical) Director New York Musical Theatre Festival 2006 Soldier's Wife Director Mint Theater 2009 How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (musical) Director White Plains Performing Arts Center 2010 Hershele Ostropolyer Director National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene 2013 The Threepenny Opera Director and Choreographer Colgate University 2014 The Scutley papers Director Workshop with Sally Field 2015 Yidl Mitn Fidl Director Yiddishpiel 2016 From Moses to Mostel Director The Town Hall 2016 God of Vengeance Director La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club 2019 Carnegie Hall's From Shtetl to Stage Director and co-creator Stern Auditorium

Theater acting (partial list) Year Project Director 1978 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (play) Lee Sankowich 1982 Tintypes Larry Deckle 1983 Godspell Darwin Knight 1983 Songs of Paradise Avi Hoffman 1984 Isn't it Romantic Susan Rosenstock 1985 Bar Mitzvah Boy Robert Kalfin 1987 The Rise of David Levinsky Sue Lawless 1990 Those Were the Days Self 1998 Lost in Yonkers Peter Lawrence 2002 Yentl Robert Kalfin 2010 Soul Doctor Holly-Anne Ruggiero 2012 The Material World Stephan Brackett 2013 East Toward Home David Schecter 2016 God of Vengeance Eleanor Reissa 2017 Indecent Rebecca Taichman 2018 The Sisters Rosensweig Casey Stangel 2020 We All Fall Down Melia Bensussen

Film and television acting (partial list)

Music/recordings list

Pearls of Yiddish Song (1990) Remember the Children (1991) Going Home: Gems of Yiddish Song (1992) Songs in the Key of Yiddish (2002) Just Add Water with Di Boyess (2015) Wild Ecstasy (Vilde Mekhaye)' with Frank London (2017)