{"id":1907,"date":"2020-12-30T12:11:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T18:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/?p=1907"},"modified":"2023-06-06T12:33:49","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T17:33:49","slug":"an-interview-with-ellen-perecman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/an-interview-with-ellen-perecman\/","title":{"rendered":"An Interview with Ellen Perecman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>In the following\u00a0interview, DYTP contributing editor Alyssa Quint speaks with Ellen Perecman about her new collection of translations,\u00a0<\/em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.iuniverse.com\/en\/bookstore\/bookdetails\/808650-ten-yiddish-plays-in-translation\" target=\"_blank\">Ten Yiddish Plays in Translation<\/a><em>\u00a0(Iuniverse, 2020). The translations were based on a decade\u2019s worth of plays that Perecman and her\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/alljewishtheatre.org\/members\/theatres\/new-worlds-theatre-project\/\" target=\"_blank\">New Worlds Theatre Project<\/a>\u00a0produced in New York City from 2005\u20132016.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Alyssa Quint<\/em>: When did you begin translating this collection of plays?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yiddishbookcenter.org\/collections\/oral-histories\/interviews\/woh-fi-0000784\/ellen-perecman-2016\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ellen Perecman<\/a>: I began translating the first of them almost 16 years ago, when I founded my theatre company, New Worlds Theatre Project (NWTP). The first play was&nbsp;<em>Carcass<\/em>&nbsp;(<em>Di neveyle<\/em>) by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/yivoencyclopedia.org\/article.aspx\/Hirshbeyn_Perets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Peretz Hirshbeyn<\/a>. In retrospect, that first production was a trial run. It was my first project as a theatre producer. I had had professional theatre training as an actor, but I didn\u2019t know the first thing about producing! As the years went on, I learned how to be a producer. NWTP began winning grants and amassing donations. With money in the bank, we had the financial resources to hire professional theatre artists and technical crews and to rent venues where I wouldn\u2019t have to scrub the bathrooms clean myself! At that point, I knew I had \u201cmade it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My first draft of a translation is pretty much literal. I then go back and work on the script until it sounds like English and not like a translation from another language. A good translation gets revised over and over again until it feels just right. Eventually, I have a draft to show the director, who makes his\/her own revisions. These are typically line cuts that make the story flow better. And there are usually more revisions as the director and I listen to the play in rehearsal. An actor might request a change in her line. She\u2019ll ask \u201cDo you mind if I say this instead of this?\u201d This might be because the sequence of words in a line is hard to pronounce fluently, or simply because the actor thinks his line is better. At that point, I consult my binder that includes the original Yiddish on one page and the English translation on the facing page. If I think the change is consistent with the original Yiddish text, I will tell the director and then the decision is up to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the case of&nbsp;<em>Carcass<\/em>, because it was my first script, I continued making revisions\u2014I would say improvements\u2014over the years until, in 2013, I was very happy with the script and decided to mount another production of the play. The second production of&nbsp;<em>Carcass<\/em>&nbsp;was magnificent, if I say so myself\u2026&nbsp;<em>The New York Times<\/em>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/09\/17\/theater\/reviews\/carcass-follows-an-embittered-family-led-by-an-alcoholic.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote about the production<\/a>&nbsp;something like \u201cit\u2019s hard to watch but it\u2019s hard to look away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[For this volume], the process of revision took a lot longer: after NWTP closed its doors\u2014so to speak\u2014I went back and reread all the English scripts against the original Yiddish texts. In some cases, I found chunks of a play missing and had to decide whether to include them in the English script. In some cases, the translation was just wrong. And, in other cases, I didn\u2019t think the translation was the best I could do for a given line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AQ: How did you begin producing Yiddish theatre?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>EP: I had gone to see&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/mlotekzalmen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Zalmen Mlotek<\/a>&nbsp;to try to convince him that it would be a good idea for the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nytf.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Folksbiene<\/a>&nbsp;to start doing some plays in English translation. My argument was that he and other Yiddish theatre folks had an obligation to bring Yiddish plays that were written when Yiddish was alive in the streets of Eastern Europe to the attention of wider audiences, and the larger theatre world. I argued that the Folksbiene\u2019s audiences should be able to follow the storyline in the play. That they should hear what the playwright is trying to tell them. Instead, the vast majority of their audiences were coming to hear the sound of Yiddish but came away with only a vague idea\u2014if that\u2014of what the playwright was trying to tell them. Zalmen said the board would never go for it, so, I decided I would do it myself. What is the point of seeing a Yiddish play if you can\u2019t understand what\u2019s being said? To feel nostalgia? For sentimental reasons? But that\u2019s not why the playwright wrote the play. The playwright had something he\/she wanted to say. And there are quite a few Yiddish plays that still speak powerfully to audiences today. There\u2019s no reason why the non-Yiddish speaking world shouldn\u2019t have access to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AQ: How did you go about selecting the plays you wanted to translate?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>EP: In the first couple of years, I had a partner in NWTP, Mark Altman, who had previously worked at the Folksbiene. He agreed with me that Yiddish plays should be offered in English translation. But, more importantly, he could read Yiddish fluently. For me, on the other hand, reading Yiddish was still a chore back then. My grandfather had taught me how to read a few Yiddish words in the&nbsp;<em>Forward<\/em>&nbsp;newspaper when I was a child. But that was the extent of my Yiddish reading skills. Since Yiddish is my first language, my aural skills were just fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mark and I had a very efficient process. Mark would sit on my couch and read the play to me in Yiddish, as I automatically translated what he read into English and typed the translation into my laptop. Once I was on my own\u2014after Mark\u2019s departure, I simply read as many plays as I could and chose those: 1) that I liked; 2) that are well written; 3) that have a dramatic arc; and 4) whose themes are relevant for contemporary audiences. This was not as easy as it sounds. I remember sitting in the garden of a friend\u2019s house in the south of France one summer reading play after play after play in a volume of one playwright\u2019s plays. None of them met my criteria. And then, finally, I read one that I could imagine doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was Mark who suggested that&nbsp;<em>Carcass<\/em>&nbsp;be our first play. He thought that what Hirshbeyn did in that play would send a clear message that NWTP was not your standard issue Yiddish theatre. And Mark was absolutely right. After a performance in our first run of&nbsp;<em>Carcass<\/em>, one audience member stopped on his way out to berate me for \u201cshowing something like this in public.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I must add that my father, (he passed away four years ago) was also\u00a0<em>a shtikl<\/em>\u00a0(little) collaborator on the translations. He was a watchmaker who considered watchmaking his hobby. I spent long weekends with him during the few years before he died. I would sit next to him at the same kitchen table working on my translations. And when I couldn\u2019t find a word in any of my dictionaries, I would ask him: \u201cDo you do know what this means?\u201d Often, he knew. And when he didn\u2019t, he would say: \u201dI never heard of that word. That can\u2019t be right!\u201d That was my father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-3 wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"214\" data-id=\"1912\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Carcass_51.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1912\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Carcass_51.webp 320w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Carcass_51-300x201.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"213\" data-id=\"1909\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Carcass-image-resized-copy.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1909\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Carcass-image-resized-copy.webp 320w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Carcass-image-resized-copy-300x200.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"214\" data-id=\"1911\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Carcass_36.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1911\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Carcass_36.webp 320w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Carcass_36-300x201.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"214\" data-id=\"1910\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Carcass_24.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1910\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Carcass_24.webp 320w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Carcass_24-300x201.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"214\" height=\"320\" data-id=\"1908\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Carcass-AKR.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1908\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Carcass-AKR.webp 214w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Carcass-AKR-201x300.webp 201w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px\" \/><\/figure>\n<figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-caption wp-element-caption\">Scenes from Carcass<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AQ: You were doing this primarily for the stage.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>EP: Totally. If you take a look at the cover of the book [a contemporary photograph of a stage and a large stage light], I think it\u2019s clear who my primary audience is: it\u2019s the theatre community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AQ: I guess that means your target audience is wider than the Jewish or Yiddish-speaking community.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>EP: Absolutely. These plays were chosen because I believe that their themes are as relevant to contemporary audiences today as they were to early twentieth century audiences. I chose plays that I was confident audiences would be able to read themselves into, whatever their cultural background. Let me give you an example of what I mean: after a performance of&nbsp;<em>Welcome to America,&nbsp;<\/em>which is a shortened version of&nbsp;<em>Shmates (Rags)&nbsp;<\/em>by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/yiddishkayt.org\/view\/leivick\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">H. Leivick<\/a>, an audience member of South Asian descent told me how much he enjoyed the play because, since he came from an immigrant family himself, he could completely relate to the play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another example is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/yivoencyclopedia.org\/article.aspx\/Sholem_Aleichem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sholem Aleichem<\/a>\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Mentshn<\/em>&nbsp;(lit. people): the play has a lot of funny lines, but it is also a critique of the privileged class of Jews who relied on servants to run their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In production, we tried to magnify the relatability and resonance with today. In our production of Berkovitz\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Under the Cross<\/em>&nbsp;(<em>Moshke Khazer; Untern tseylem,&nbsp;<\/em>1923), I decided to cast African American actors in the roles of the Jewish characters in the play because the play revolves around a pogrom against Jews in Russia, broadly put, a form of discrimination. Moshke Khazer\u2019s character is a Jewish man who converted to Christianity. He was played by an African-American actor, as was Yakov, Moshke\u2019s son by his Christian wife. The casting was particularly poignant in the case of Yakov, because he participates in the pogrom against the Jews. The roles of the Christian Russians are played by white actors. And, in fact, there is a scene in the play where a white Christian Russian pulls out a gun on Rokhl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AQ: Did you have a company of actors and technical crew that you worked with?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>EP: Well, we didn\u2019t have a company per se. But we did use some of the same people over and over again.\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/westbeth.org\/wordpress\/profiles-in-art\/david-greenspan-actor-playwright-director\/\" target=\"_blank\">David Greenspan<\/a>, a six-time Obie award-winning actor, performed in three of the plays.\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.huntingtontheatre.org\/artists\/alvin-keith\/\" target=\"_blank\">Alvin Keith<\/a>, another fine actor (Broadway revival of\u00a0<em>Cat on a Hot Tin Roof<\/em>) and many regional theaters, performed in four of our shows.\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0312398\/\" target=\"_blank\">Marc Geller<\/a>\u00a0directed three plays for NWTP;\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.paultakacsdirector.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Paul Takacs<\/a>\u00a0directed two. The technical crew varied, though we worked with set designers\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.billclarkedesign.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bill Clarke<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.stevenckemp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Steven Kemp<\/a>\u00a0on multiple shows.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"897\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Professor-Brenner_011.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1913\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Professor-Brenner_011.webp 600w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/Professor-Brenner_011-201x300.webp 201w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Scene from\u00a0<em>Professor Brenner<\/em>. Left: David Greenspan. Right: Alvin Keith. Venue: HERE Arts Centre.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>AQ: What plays evolved the most over the years you spent revising their translations?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>EP: Well, Mark and I presented&nbsp;<em>On the Other Side of the River (Af yener zayt taykh)<\/em>&nbsp;by Peretz Hirshbeyn under the title&nbsp;<em>The Amulet<\/em>&nbsp;in 2006 because the story revolves around an amulet, and we thought it was a catchier title. As I described earlier, Mark read the Yiddish to me and I typed the English translation into my laptop. Well, it seems the Yiddish text Mark was reading was not, in fact, Hirshbeyn\u2019s original text. When I read the actual original text years later, I discovered a very different ending to the play. The text Mark was reading to me ends with Mirl drowning herself in the river, having never again seen the Stranger. Hirshbeyn actually ends the play with a stage direction that reads: \u201cOn the other side of the river, the STRANGER appears in a pale light.\u201d A very different ending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second play for which the English script in this volume differs dramatically from the script we used when we produced the play is\u00a0<em>Mentshn<\/em>\u00a0by Sholem Aleichem. In this case I have to assume that Mark didn\u2019t think we should include the silly humor in the play, that it would detract from the serious story. When I read the play on my own in preparation for issuing my recent book, I discovered the wealth of silly humor and added it back into the English script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"190\" height=\"127\" data-id=\"1915\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/River_selection_01.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1915\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"190\" height=\"127\" data-id=\"1914\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/yiddish-stage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/562\/2023\/06\/River_selection_10.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1914\" \/><\/figure>\n<figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-caption wp-element-caption\">Scenes from The Other Side of the River<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AQ: Describe what you decided to do with&nbsp;<em>A Wedding in Ferenvald<\/em>&nbsp;(<em>A khasene in Ferenvald,&nbsp;<\/em>1947-49), H.<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Leivick\u2019s play\/poem about a group of Holocaust survivors in a Displaced Persons\u2019 camp in F\u00f6hrenwald, Germany. This is the least literal of your translations. And you renamed it&nbsp;<em>Displaced Wedding<\/em>&nbsp;calling it an adaptation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>EP: There are actually three plays in the book that I refer to as adaptations of Yiddish works:&nbsp;<em>With the Current<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>Welcome to America<\/em>, and&nbsp;<em>Displaced Wedding<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The English script for&nbsp;<em>With the Current (Mitn shtrom)&nbsp;<\/em>includes the English translation of Hebrew prayers and also repetitions of these prayers in Hebrew. One could conceivably call that an adaptation of the Yiddish script.&nbsp;<em>Welcome to America<\/em>&nbsp;includes only two acts, as opposed to the three acts of the original Yiddish play,&nbsp;<em>Shmates<\/em>, and creates lines for the actors that provide the information in the original Act 2. Definitely an adaptation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Displaced Wedding<\/em>&nbsp;is an adaptation in that some of the Holocaust survivor characters in the original Yiddish play become survivors of other genocides. This expansion of the play is suggested by lines in one of Elijahu\u2019s speeches. He says: \u201cI warn you: mankind is destroying itself. Obsessed with conceiving ever more atrocious techniques for committing genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the original Yiddish, the prologue to&nbsp;<em>Displaced Wedding<\/em>&nbsp;is spoken by a single narrator. In the English adaptation, each of the lines of the prologue is spoken by a different actor\/character, and lines were inserted to refer to the other genocides. The final piece of adaptation is the inclusion of actual survivor testimonies in the body of the play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I started reading actual testimonies of survivors of other genocides, I was struck by how similar they were to testimonies of Holocaust survivors. The inclusion of these testimonies also gave me the opportunity to provide details of how members of my own family survived the Holocaust. I see this play as a tribute to all of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AQ: In this volume you are trying to make them broadly culturally available. You encourage people to perform them and\u2014through these plays, which were written over a hundred years ago in a language few people speak\u2014to engage with their own world and issues, that is with the contemporary world.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Absolutely. It has always been my goal to create a script that would be experienced\u2014heard and thought about\u2014in a way comparable to how people reading or seeing the play 100 years ago would have experienced it. As relevant to their world and their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AQ: What was one of the greatest surprises you met with in translating these plays?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>EP: I was also surprised by the reaction on the part of some members of the audience to very early translations, where I included Yiddish words or retained a reference to a Jewish cultural practice. For example, in&nbsp;<em>Carcass,<\/em>&nbsp;Berl asks Avrush, (literally): \u201cHow many times did you make kiddish today?\u201d [AQ: Meaning, how much alcohol did you consume today?]. In the first draft of the&nbsp;<em>Carcass<\/em>&nbsp;English script, I included this literal translation of the Yiddish line. But a friend told me that hearing Yiddish in the middle of English dialogue took him out of the world of the play for that moment, it was a distraction. So, in the second production of&nbsp;<em>Carcass<\/em>, I changed Berl\u2019s line to Avrush to read: \u201cHow much did you have to drink today?\u201d Which is what he means anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DYTP contributing editor Alyssa Quint interviews Ellen Perecman about her new collection of translations, Ten Yiddish Plays in Translation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":1916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[49,12,19,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-21st-century","category-directors","category-north-america","category-research-methods"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.5 (Yoast SEO v27.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>An Interview with Ellen Perecman - 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