Letter to the Editor: Torah V’Yiras Shamayim: A Modest Response

Dear Editor-In-Chief,

It has come to my attention that there was an article recently published about the recent YCDS production, “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] {Again},” among other clubs at this wonderful institution. As one of the actors, president of YCDS and a talmid of Mazer Yeshiva Program (MYP) for three semesters, I am greatly disturbed by a specific comment about the play being “spoiled by a few particularly crass jokes.” That being said, I thank Mr. Reiss for his input that the acting and writing were “superb.” I will disagree strongly with the premise that the play wasn’t censored, as the play has undergone many revisions before reaching the version that was just performed by YCDS. The play was originally performed by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Borgeson in 1994. It was then revised by Long, Singer and Jess Winfield in 2000. It went through several edits and was again republished as “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised]” in 2012, until it reached the current version that was published in 2023. 

Upon receiving the scripts in January 2025, the members of the cast and crew began going through the script scene by scene. When I got to the Titus Andronicus scene as written by Long, Singer and Winfield, I was deeply uncomfortable. There was no doubt in my mind that such a scene could not be played in Yeshiva University. It was incredibly gory, and the way it displayed the topic was much too dark for the YU community. As a rule, we actors, as advised by our director, Professor Reuven Russell, do not watch previous versions of the play before we perform it. Our cues and actions should not mimic what we have seen in the past, but should ideally come from within ourselves. For this scene, we made an exception; we watched the YCDS production of this scene from 2008 of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised]” and were in shock that they performed that scene in its entirety. We did not feel comfortable doing the same and made a complete edit of that scene to make it more “palatable for modern audiences.” 

However, that wasn’t the only thing that was censored; throughout the whole script, we have chunks of dialogue cut out and sentences revised so that we can be as kosher as possible. At YCDS, we do our utmost best to cater to the whole Yeshiva University community, ranging from talmidim in MYP to talmidim in James Striar School (JSS). We strive to make our performances a place where everyone can enjoy them from all walks of Yiddishkeit. To suggest that we should have an additional member of faculty on board to censor even more is disrespectful to YCDS, disrespectful to Professor Russell and disrespectful to the Office of Student Life. While I thank Mr. Reiss for his appreciation of the arts, I respectfully say that he is misinformed.

Thank you,

Shneur Levy (YC ‘25), co-president of the Yeshiva College Dramatics Society 

Photo caption: Promotional artwork for YCDS’s spring 2025 play 

Photo credit: YCDS