A "Melamed and the Goat" Need a Home

North Miami Beach, Florida 3-19-2000 Aaron H. Schectman

THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then. Opinions pro or con are welcome.

A "MELAMED AND THE GOAT" NEED A HOME

I've been thinking of circulating a notice that says "A Melamed and the
Goat" need a home. This, of course, needs explanation. You see, in the
course of my puppeteering I have constructed a simple scaffolding which
holds the ¾ human sized marionettes I built to become the players in a
Sholom Aleichem story called, THE MELAMED AND THE GOAT.

This puppet theater, the puppets and sound track (from the same story that
appeared on Channel 13 many years ago) featured such actors as Zero Mostel,
Sam Jaffe, Nancy Walker, and Morris Carnovsky and are now sitting in my
garage in New Jersey. Principals in religious schools or directors of
programs in Jewish Community Centers might be interested in obtaining the
above for the cost of storing them.

Despite my retirement from teaching I am willing to perform this show
before the increasing number of Hebrew Day Schools in South Florida. I am
in the show playing the part of Mendel the Bookseller. Zero Mostel's voice
is the Melamed while Nancy Walker plays his wife and the Goat Seller. The
Angel Rucheleh carries a bag of foolish souls over the town of Chelm where
Rabbi David lives. Dodi is the Innkeeper and a goat turns from female to
male by a "process beyond our understanding."

The puppets are lightweight and the theater is a framework of pipes - all
easily assembled and ready to perform quickly. The show takes about ¾ of an
hour including a demonstration of different kinds of puppets. This show has
been given throughout New Jersey during the 1970's and 1980's. It was last
performed at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey in 1990.