circus owner was willing to have the group use the circus as a venue, since he feared it would otherwise be requisitioned by the military. The new theatre company premiered in February 1916, with a performance of Der landsman (The countryman), a comedy by Sholem Asch. Aspiring to a purely literary Yiddish theater, and taking Stanislavski's troupe as its model, this company later became famous as the Vilna Troupe. American years Asro created the role of "Sasha Smirnoff" in the 1937 play Room Service, and reprised the role in both the 1938 Marx Brothers film of the same title, and the 1953 Broadway revival. Filmography References External links 1888 births 1963 deaths Jewish American male actors American male film actors American male stage actors Yiddish theatre performers People from Vilna Governorate Place of birth missing Place of death missing 20th-century American male actors