Sophia Karp

Sophia Karp (1861– March 31, 1904), born Sara Segal, she was also known as Sophie Goldstein, Sofia Carp, and Sophie Karp, was a Romanian-born Jewish actress and soprano, the first professional Yiddish theater actress.

Life and career

She was a 16-year-old in her native Galaţi when the theater troupe formed roughly six months earlier by Abraham Goldfaden — at that time, the world's only professional Yiddish language theater troupe — arrived in town in the winter of 1876–1877. The troupe consisted of three men (Goldfaden, Israel Grodner, and Sokher Goldstein); they had collaborated with various other actors and musicians in their previous performances in Iaşi and Botoşani, but up to this point they had all been men, even for the female roles.

When she played the granddaughter in the Goldfaden troupe's Galați premiere, Die Bobe mit'n Enikel (Grandmother and Granddaughter), the young Sara Segal, at that time a seamstress, became the first professional Yiddish theater actress. Her mother, however, after attending that premiere objected to her daughter appearing on a stage. The stagestruck Sara obeyed her mother, but had been thoroughly bitten by the theatrical bug. The only expedient was to marry one of the players, and since Goldfaden and Grodner were both already married, the only expedient was to marry Goldstein (and to change her first name to the more "glamorous" Sophie).