MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
And now a story about two people who did find love but not through a dating app. Back in December we told you about a special production of "Fiddler On The Roof" performed in Yiddish, the language the protagonists actually would have spoken at the time the stories it's based on were written. Well, in an example of, yes, life imitating art, the actors playing Hodl (ph) and Perchik (ph), two young characters who fall in love in the show, fell in love themselves in real life. Reporter Jeff Lunden heard the news and put together this story.
(SOUNDBITE OF PERFORMANCE OF "FIDDLER ON THE ROOF")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing in Yiddish).
STEPHANIE LYNNE MASON: Hi. I'm Stephanie Lynne Mason. I play Hodl.
DREW SEIGLA: My name is Drew Seigla. I play Perchik.
JACKIE HOFFMAN: I am Jackie Hoffman. I play Yente (ph) the matchmaker. Yente fills a central purpose in the continuation of the community, the shtetl (ph) where she sets up matches, arranges marriages so that people can continue to breed and thrive.
(SOUNDBITE OF PERFORMANCE OF "FIDDLER ON THE ROOF")
MASON: (As Hodl, singing in Yiddish).
Hodl is the second eldest daughter of Tevye. We live in a very conservative Orthodox town. And Perchik, who is a revolutionary, comes in. And he kind of (speaking Yiddish) - which means turns my world upside down.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MASON: He breaks the boundary that women and men are allowed to touch, and so he dances with me and introduces me to all these things.
SEIGLA: I get this feeling about her, and I don't know what to do with it because it's something I never felt before. In Act 2, once he realizes he has to go off to Kyiv to fight for the cause, he just doesn't want to leave because he fell in love with her.
(SOUNDBITE OF PERFORMANCE OF "FIDDLER ON THE ROOF")
SEIGLA: (As Perchik, speaking Yiddish).
MASON: We met three years ago at a mutual friend's birthday party but didn't really see anything of each other until he came in to his audition. And I have to be honest, I didn't recognize him because he had a beard.
SEIGLA: I thought she did because she was so warm and welcoming. Hi.
MASON: When we did the scene, I was like, OK, there's some chemistry here. We could work with this. Like, this is good.
HOFFMAN: From day one, there were sparks with those two.
(SOUNDBITE OF PERFORMANCE OF "FIDDLER ON THE ROOF")
DREW SEIGLA AND STEPHANIE LYNNE MASON: (As Hodl and Perchik, singing in Yiddish).
MASON: Two and a half weeks learning your first role in Yiddish, that's so hard. I just wanted to be supportive for him every step of the way.
SEIGLA: And the connection that Hodl and Perchik have to have, it was nice that she was reaching out. And I wasn't thinking this is going to be what this became.
(SOUNDBITE OF PERFORMANCE OF "FIDDLER ON THE ROOF")
SEIGLA: (As Perchik, speaking Yiddish).
SEIGLA: We met at Central Park. It was my last time before going on as Perchik.
MASON: Yeah. And things shifted, but then later we met at that same bench, and that's where we shared our first kiss. And that's actually where he took me back to propose.
(SOUNDBITE OF PERFORMANCE OF "FIDDLER ON THE ROOF")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing in Yiddish)
HOFFMAN: So many people want to claim credit for this match. I can proudly claim no credit. But yes, I think Yente would be very pleased with this (speaking Yiddish) - with this match.
MASON: I mean, it's pretty incredible that we get to share our love with the story that we're telling too but that we get to share the emotions that we're having for each other. (Speaking Yiddish).
SEIGLA: (Speaking Yiddish). Yeah. It's the last word I sing. Now I have everything (singing in Yiddish). And it seemed like my destiny. And it really feels like everything has just come to this one moment of destiny between us.
MARTIN: That was Drew Seigla, who plays Perchik, and Stephanie Lynne Mason, who plays Hodl in the off-Broadway "Fiddler On The Roof" production in Yiddish. Now they are engaged in real life. We also heard from Jackie Hoffman, who plays Yente the matchmaker in the show. They shared their stories with reporter Jeff Lunden. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
