{"id":77264,"date":"2023-10-17T04:13:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T09:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=77264"},"modified":"2023-10-17T04:13:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T09:13:00","slug":"actress-and-teacher-joanna-merlin-original-tzeitel-in-broadways-fiddler-dies-at-92","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/actress-and-teacher-joanna-merlin-original-tzeitel-in-broadways-fiddler-dies-at-92\/","title":{"rendered":"Actress and teacher Joanna Merlin, original Tzeitel in Broadway\u2019s \u2018Fiddler,\u2019 dies at 92"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 Joanna Merlin, a famed acting coach and casting director who early in her career as an actress created the role of Tevye\u2019s daughter Tzeitel in the original Broadway production of \u201cFiddler on the Roof,\u201ddied Sunday in Los Angeles. She was 92.<\/p>\n<p>NYU\u2019s Graduate Acting program at the Tisch School of the Arts, where she became a member of the faculty in 1998, announced her passing on Monday.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_77265\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/joanna-merlin.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-77265\" class=\"wp-image-77265 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/joanna-merlin-300x167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/joanna-merlin-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/joanna-merlin-1024x569.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/joanna-merlin-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/joanna-merlin-1536x853.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/joanna-merlin-2048x1138.jpg 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/167;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-77265\" class=\"wp-image-77265 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/joanna-merlin-300x167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/joanna-merlin-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/joanna-merlin-1024x569.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/joanna-merlin-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/joanna-merlin-1536x853.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/joanna-merlin-2048x1138.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-77265\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johanna Merlin was an actress, casting director and acting teacher; she appeared as Tzeitel in the original Broadway production of &#8220;Fiddler on the Roof,&#8221; and is seen standing to the left of a castmate in a 1964 photo. (NYU Tisch Grad Acting; Michael Ochs Archives)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Merlin was a student of the acting teacher Michael Chekhov and said to be the last surviving disciple still teaching his technique. Chekhov, a nephew of the playwright Anton Chekhov, was a student of Konstantin Stanislavski, putting Merlin in a direct line of influence with the Russian creator of the naturalistic acting technique that came to be known as \u201cthe system\u201d (and, when adapted by the Jewish acting mavericks Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler, as \u201cThe Method\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>In an interview for the 2016 PBS documentary series \u201cAmerican Masters,\u201d Merlin said she auditioned eight times before the director of \u201cFiddler,\u201d Jerome Robbins, and creators Sheldon Harrnick and Jerry Bock were convinced she could handle the role of the daughter who ends up marrying Motel the tailor (a young Bette Midler later took over the role).<\/p>\n<p>She also recalled how Robbins prepared the cast for their roles as Jews living in a 19th-century shtetl by talking about the world of the play, showing them paintings by Marc Chagall and taking them to a Hasidic&nbsp;wedding&nbsp;in&nbsp;Brooklyn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy own family actually came from a shtetl. My mother was actually born in a shtetl and my father was also born in Russia,\u201d she recalled. \u201cBut a large portion of the cast was not Jewish, and so [Robbins] made sure that everybody felt as though they understood what that life was like.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Merwin went on to other actor acting roles, including in the films \u201cSarah\u2019s Key,\u201d \u201cMystic Pizza,\u201d \u201cFame\u201d and \u201cThe Killing Fields,\u201d and had a recurring part in the TV series \u201cLaw &amp; Order: Special Victims Unit\u201d as Judge Lena Petrovsky.<\/p>\n<p>But she had even greater success as a casting director, working with the film directors&nbsp;Bernardo Bertolucci &nbsp;and James Ivory, and most closely with the&nbsp;legendary producer Harold Prince in the original Broadway productions of several classic Stephen Sondheim musicals, including \u201cCompany,\u201d \u201cFollies,\u201d \u201cA Little Night Music,\u201d \u201cPacific Overtures,\u201d \u201cSweeney Todd\u201d and \u201cMerrily We Roll Along.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She was the &nbsp;founder and president emeritus of The&nbsp;Michael Chekhov&nbsp;Association, or MICHA, an acting school in New York City. One student, Broadway actress Julie Benko, paid tribute to her teacher in an Instagram post Monday. \u201cI will not forget the breakthrough I had in her class,\u201d said Benko, who won praise as the understudy to Lea Michele and Beanie Feldstein in the recent Broadway production of \u201cFunny Girl\u201d and stars in the &nbsp;forthcoming Barry Manilow musical \u201cHarmony.\u201d \u201cI will miss her beautiful presence. I am so honored to have been a small part of her life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Born Joanna Ratner in Chicago in in 1931, she took her mother\u2019s maiden name as a stage name. She acted in community theater before graduating from&nbsp;UCLA &nbsp;and later studied under&nbsp;Chekhov, a Russian exile who died in 1955. Merlin made her first screen appearance in 1956 as one of Jethro\u2019s daughters in Cecil B. DeMille\u2019s film \u201cThe Ten Commandments.\u201d \u201cFiddler\u201d debuted in 1964, and she left the cast before the end of its tour to take care of her two small children. She took to the more flexible schedule of being a casting director and teacher.<\/p>\n<p>Merlin was the author, in 2001, of \u201cAuditioning: An Actor-Friendly Guide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that actors respond to casting directors who are supportive and encouraging, and that if they feel that the moment they walk in&nbsp;the room they\u2019re being challenged, then it\u2019s a turn-off,\u201d Merlin told interviewer Terry Gross in 2001. \u201cBut it\u2019s very helpful to an actor if they feel that you\u2019re on their side. And indeed, casting directors are rooting for you. I mean, they want to cast the role. And so they\u2019re rooting for every actor that walks in the door.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Actress%20and%20teacher%20Joanna%20Merlin%2C%20original%20Tzeitel%20in%20Broadway%E2%80%99s%20%E2%80%98Fiddler%2C%E2%80%99%20dies%20at%2092\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":77265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,7122],"tags":[344,8790,8795,13385,8788,13386],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77264"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77266,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77264\/revisions\/77266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}