Port Angeles Light Opera Association
P.O. Box 327, Port Angeles, WA 98362 - (360) 457-5630

presents

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
1990

Synopsis

The people of Anatevka, a small Jewish community in Tsarist Russia, wrest a precarious, simple living from the soil. Tevye the Dairyman (Ray Hanson), a devout, humorous, cbullicnt man, tells how their strength derives from the age old laws of Tradition.

In Tevye's home, Golde his wife (Geri Zanon) and his five daughters are preparing for the Sabbath. Yente, the matchmaker (Char Donat), arrives to tell Golde that the butchcr, Lazar Wolf (David Bendell), a gross, middle-aged, wealthy widower, hopes to marry their eldest daughter Tzeitel (Vivian Beran). Golde is delighted but concerned that Tevye may not approve the match. Tzeitel, already in love with the poor tailor Motel (Michael Richerson) can only guess at what Yente proposes. Together with her sisters, Hodel (Molly Hallett) and Chava (Jennifer Carson), she sings of the prospect of marriage, Matchmaker.

Matchmaker.

Meanwhile Tevye is struggling home, obliged to pull his own cart because his horse has lost a shoe. Undaunted he sings of what he would do were he blest with money, If I Were A Rich Man. He meets Perchik (Greg Scherer), a poor student from Kiev with determined ideas of his own, who agrees to teach Tevye's daughters in return for his keep. Together they return home to join the family in the peace of their Sabbath Prayer.

Tevye meets Lazar in the village inn and is persuaded, against his better judgment, to agree to the marriage. Lazar, their friends and several Russian soldiers, join him in a jubilant toast To Life.

Next day Tzeitel is told of the plan for her marriage to Lazar and, in tears, begs Tevye not to insist on the match. They are interrupted by the breathless entry of Motel and together the young people confess their secret betrothal. Tevye is at first deeply shocked that they propose to break with the tradition that the Papa should choose his daughter's husband but, impressed by Motel's new found courage and the depth of Tzeitel's feeling, eventually gives his consent. An incredulous Motel sings ecstatically of the God given strength which has brought him to manhood, Miracle Of Miracles.

Tevye must now tell Golde. His ready imagination, prompted by a due respect for her biting tongue, leads him to choose the middle of the night for the purpose. Pretending to have woken from a nightmare, he tells her how Fruma-Sarah (Kim Maynard-Payne), Lazar Wolf's first wife, and her own Grandma Tzeitel (Jane Millet) long since dead, have appeared to him in a dream. Golde, reduced to piping terror , willingly agrees that Motel is the man for Tzeitel, Tevye's Dream.

Motel and Tzeitel are married with traditional solemnity, Sunrise, Sunset. At the height of the celebration, Russian demonstrators arrive, bent on destroying Jewish property. They smash up the wedding feast. Tevye, stunned, can only look to God for an explanation.

As Act Two opens Motel and Tzcitel have been happily married for two months. Outside Anatevka the troubles are spreading through Russia and Perchik goes to join the revolutionaries in their struggle against the Tsar. Before he leaves he asks Hodel to marry him and she consents, Now I Have Everything. Tevye, once more unable to resist the pleading in a daughter's eyes, reluctantly gives them his blessing and, as he timidly breaks the news to Golde, suddenly wonders if their own workaday relationship may not be based on love too, Do You Love Me ?

The village hears that Perchik has been arrested and sent to a settlement in Siberia. Hodel at once decides to join him and marry him there, telling her father, in a moving farewell, that she can only be happy with the man she loves, Far From the Home I Love.

Soon Anatevka, too, is caught in the political maelstrom. An edict decrees that Jewish families must leave within three days. Even Tevye, whose third daughter, Chava, has married a Russian, cannot be spared. As they put together their few belongings, the villagers mourn for the sorry little place which familiarity and hardship shared has made their home, Anatevka. Sadly they leave to start new lives in

the Holy Land, America. ..

Stage Director .................... Lisa Scgura

Music Director  .................... Dewey Ehling

Choreographer  .................... Sylvia Wanner

Set Design  .................... Laura Hibbs

Costume Design  .................... Bonny Almaden

Lighting Design  .................... Lew Bartholomew

Stage Manager  .................... Marge Ryan

Production Coordinator  .................... Penny Beane

Cast of Characters (In order of appearance)

The Fiddler  .................... Justin Barrett

Tevye, the dairyman  .................... Ray Hanson

Golde, his wife  .................... Geri Zanon

Tzeitel .................... Vivian Beran

Hodel  .................... Molly Hallett

Chava  .................... Jennifer Carson

Shprintze  .................... Alison Agness

Bielke  .................... Lindsey Fischer

Yente, the matchmaker ....................  Char Donat

Motel, the tailor  .................... Michael Richerson

Perchik, the student  .................... Greg Scherer

Lazar Wolf, the butcher  .................... David Bendell

Mordcha, the innkeeper  .................... George Snyder

Rabbi  .................... Steve Young

Mendel, his son  .................... Holm

Avrahm, the bookseller  .................... Larry Welch

Nachem, the beggar  .................... Larry Schueler

Grandma Tzeitel  .................... Jane Millet

Fruma-Sarah  .................... Kim Maynard-Payne

Constable  .................... David Brewer

Fyedka  .................... Joe Shearer

Shaindel, Motel's mother  .................... Marilyn Davis

Yussel, the hatter  .................... Wayne Tiemersma

Women:

Nancy Barr Ellen Duncan JanFischer Jenna Fischer Karen Fluke Matt Almaden David Arand Dan Burdick Emily Agness Joey Duncap

Kathy Hagen Jennifer Koon Marian McGilvra Robin McHattie

Brianna Noach Carol Philpott Barbara Shearer Marilyn Welch

Men:

Carl Carlson Brandon Kern

Jason Ness Jim Sanderson

Children:

Andrea McHattie Erika Ralslon

Taeva Shefler Cody Young

Matt Almaden Brian Doig

Russian Soldiers Andy Hanson

John Hurd

Joe Shearer Jeff Sparks

Women of the Village

Front row, left to right: Marion McGilvra, Barbara Shearer, Jan Fischer, Jenna Fischer
Back Row: Karen Fluke, Carol Philpott, Marilyn Welch

Front row, Left to right: Nancy Barr, Robin McHattie, Karen Thanem, Brianna Noach.
Back row: Jennifer Koon, Kathy Hagen, Ellen Duncan

Residents of Anatevka

Children of the Village

Front Row, left to right: Andrea McHattie, Erika Ralston, Taeva Shefler.
Back Row: Emily Agness, Cody Young, Joey Duncan

Men of the Village

Front Row, left to right: David Arand, Dan Burdick, Brandon Kem, Matt Almaden
Back Row: Jim Sandison, Jason Ness, Carl Carlson

Russian Dancers

Front Row, left to right: Joe Shearer, Brian Doig, Andy Hanson
Back Row: John Hurd, Matt Almaden