SLC acting legend Tovah-Feldshuh comes to SLC
by Frederic Richter '10
Tuesday April 8, 2008
On March 3, critically acclaimed actress Tovah Feldshuh came to Reisinger auditorium for a witty discussion about her career as a revered actress in TV, film and theater. Hillels of Westchester generously sponsored the event, with their leader, Leve Melon, present to provide Ms. Feldshuh’s introduction. Ms. Feldshuh, an alumnus of SLC, enlightened the audience with the Q & A session, during which she discussed the origin of her traditional Hebrew name, unusual for a successful actress to use. When she first arrived at SLC her name was Terry Sue Feldshuh. While a student here, she met a young man who found her Hebrew name more “original” or interesting. She studied music as a classical pianist, theater, and writing, and Ilya Wachs was her don. Reflecting on her time here, she admitted, “Titsworth made me a lot of money.” She went on to discuss her affinity for her alma mater and plans to help Hilell find a permanent residence at SLC.When asked if the apparent ethnic nature of her Hebrew name had affected her career, she replied that it had, but not badly. Her first job on Broadway was in a very minor role in a production of Cyrano (1973) with Christopher Plummer, but her next job was far more in the spotlight, performing as Lucie Dreyfus in a play about the Dreyfus Affair. She said that she wants to break the pejorative image of the “Jewish mother”; on the topic of anti-Semitism, she said she’d experienced relatively little, because, as she described, she is easily “pegged” as being Jewish. One exception was in England, where she perceived a more prominent presence of anti-Semitism than in the U.S., and noted that she had had an “interesting discussion” with Alan Rickman on the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian situation while there. In a sense, her identification as Jewish actually opened up new possibilities for her, as, for example, when she was cast in the title role of the play Yentl. She noted that there is plenty of money in NYC amongst “Jewish philanthropists” who are often looking for an outlet for their views, one of the bonuses of declaring her identity through her traditional name. “I don’t know what I would do without the Jewish middle class values so many have disdained,” Feldshuh confessed.
Feldshuh emphasized through the discussion the importance of family and motherhood; as she related, “My career doesn’t matter to me as much since the birth of my children.” She went on to say that this familial devotion should not be thought of as “abnormal behavior specific to ethnicities” but as normal. She also discussed having traditional notions of the “husband-wife salary equation,” saying that her mother (who was in the audience) explained to her long ago that the man must provide the “standard of living” and the wife additional luxuries. “My father was a Harvard lawyer and I married a Harvard lawyer… God bless the actors who marry actors,” she said, pointing out that most actors, even those who are as critically successful as she, do not necessarily earn as much as one might imagine.
Ms. Feldshuh clearly possesses a great deal of business acumen. When performing in a one-woman show, she is able to cut out the various middlemen from any profits and thereby allow for “time to have kids.” The actor who does not own the rights to a performance is “like krill” she commented. Initially, she didn’t own the rights to arguably her most famous performance: Golda’s Balcony, a highly acclaimed one-woman show about Golda Meir, but she recently purchased the rights. She elaborated that in the present economic atmosphere, theater is increasingly corporate, with behemoth companies becoming involved. Her advice on “making it” is to get your name on the marquee, which is becoming increasingly difficult, and to “never give up.” After Ms. Felsdshuh’s discussion, there was a lavishly catered reception featuring a plethora of kosher desserts.
