Fiddler on the Roof

Peddie students staged “Fiddler on the Roof” in February at the William Mount-Burke ’54 Theatre, a musical that director Liz Sherman called “especially relevant in today’s political and social climate.”

Set in the Jewish community of a Russian village in the early 1900s, “Fiddler” tells the story of a poor milkman, Tevye (Ethan Govea ’19), who wants to find good husbands for his five daughters and instill in them traditional values in the face of the growing anti-Semitism of Czarist Russia.

When Tevye’s eldest daughter, Tzeitel (Kavya Borra ’20), begs him to let her marry a poor tailor rather than the middle-aged butcher that he has already chosen for her, Tevye is forced to examine his traditional Jewish life against the influences of a changing culture and a changing family.

Though the story takes place more than a century ago, “Fiddler” manages to tackle issues that are relevant today. With stories about female empowerment and heated immigration debates regularly making headlines, the musical’s universal themes were especially appealing to Sherman.

“Even though it’s a historical piece about another place and time, ‘Fiddler’ is also a story about immigration, and it’s also kind of an American story,” she said.

Sherman sought out a musical with strong female characters and cast Ellen Yan ’20 in the traditionally male role of the Fiddler. “It’s not a feminist show by any stretch,” Sherman said. “But it’s almost like a pre-feminist story featuring young women who are subjected to a certain role in the world and are stepping out. It’s true they are stepping out in relation to the men in their lives, but they are stepping out in a way they had never done before. They never even had agency over that choice before,” she said.

Sherman added, “It felt important to remind our students that we all came from somewhere else, that we take a lot of the freedoms we have for granted.”