ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Theresa Tova, the Paris-born, Calgary-raised actor, singer, and playwright, is synonymous with the Canadian Jewish musical stage. Creator of the award-winning Holocaust-themed musical Still the Night, one-third of the globe-trotting sensation The Three Yiddish Divas, and recently Yente in the first-ever Canadian production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, Theresa joins the show for a wide-ranging conversation about her life, career, and the relationship between identity, memoir, and performance.
This episode appeared ahead of Theresa's performance as Yente in the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene's Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, which ran May 25–June 2, 2026 at Toronto's Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company.
OUR GUEST
An award-winning actor, singer and writer Theresa Tova latest outing was playing Yente in the Yiddish-language production of Fiddler on the Roof. Tova wrote, starred, and co-produced Still the Night, which won four Dora Awards and a Governor General Award nomination. She also wrote The Jewish Radio Hour and Bella: The Colour of Love. Tova has both Gemini and Canadian Screen Award nominations for her on-camera performances, has headlined major music festivals, and released three albums of Yiddish jazz. In 2025 Tova received both the King Charles lll Coronation Medal for her service to Canada and was named the Cayle Chernin Woman of the Year for her contributions to the arts.
RECOMMENDED READING
This episode features snippets of Tova's songs "Under Your White Starry Heaven," "Telling Stories," and "Night & Day," which you can listen to in full in the foregoing links! You can find all of her albums here.
EPISODE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Host: Jonathan Slater
Producer/Editor: Theadora Draper
Music: J.K. Bradley
Executive Producers: Joshua Tapper and David S. Koffman
Tête-à-tête: Conversations in Canadian Jewish Studies is made possible by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Aid to Scholarly Journals program and the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies and J. Richard Shiff Chair for the Study of Canadian Jewry, both at York University.