DAVE S DELICATESSEN 3258 ORCHARD LAKE RD. Tovah Feldshuh Does About Face In `Maidel' MICHAEL ELKIN Special to The Jewish News Tovah Feldshuh I n ten years, Tovah Feldshuh has been trans- formed from a yeshivah butcher (Yentl) - to A Shayna Maidel, her current role in the Philadelphia Drama Guild's season-opening prod- uction. Feldshuh's transformation from "boy" to "girl" has been in theater. The evolvement from novice to established and respected veteran actress has been even more dramatic, taking in all the media. From television (Holocaust) to film (Cheaper to Keep Her) and onto Broadway (Sarava), Feldshuh has left a trail of critical kudos in her wake. Once the audience applause dies down, there are ac- colades she earns from her family. Happily married to an attorney and the mother of a toddler, Feldshuh finds home life as compelling a proscenium as the one lit by footlights. She also welcomes the opportunity to serve center stage as activist and fund raiser on behalf of many Jewish causes, notably Soviet Jewry. Feldshuh has been a frequent visitor to Philadel- phia on behalf of those con- cerns. It has been an active life indeed for a woman once known to her high school friends as Terry Sue Feldshuh. She changed that name, she recalls, when a boyfriend, "who was not Jewish," questioned what kind of name Terry Sue was for a nice Jewish girl. "Why not use your Hebrew name instead?" he wanted to know. Did the change of name also change her professional path? Did it restrict her to ethnic roles, as evidenced by Yentl, Holocaust and The Great Triangle Factory Fire, a telemovie? "It has given a direction to my career," she admits. "I find myself representing my ethnic group within the mainstream of America. When I was younger, I didn't want to be typecast." That may explain why she turned down a role in the re- cent New York production of The Golden Land, a musical celebration of Yiddishkeit. Feldshuh has won her case, she thinks, earning diverse roles to ward off typecasting. "I have never been or felt re- stricted in my roles," she says. Which is why she feels free enough now to portray Lusia, the Holocaust refugee of playwright Barbara Lebow's Maidel, who arrives in America to reunite with the SERVING BREAKFAST • LUNCH • DINNER father and younger sister she barely knew in Poland. to speaks Feldshuh's concern for her heritage. "I did a lot of re- search for the play at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, read books about the Holocaust, saw Image Before My Eyes, a film about Polish Jews during the war." She shakes her head. "The mind cannot really comprehend what happened." Maidel Feldshuh is hoping A Shayna Maidel will have a shayna afterlife, with a possible Broadway engage- ment. She is confident. "I think this play will explode," she says. Documentary Shows Jews Resisted Nazis HEIDI PRESS Local News Editor Trees are very special to Jews, especially this month (Shevat), when we celebrate the New Year of Trees, Tu B'Shevat. In Israel, trees are important to the land de- velopment and reclamation process. And in Aviva Kemp- ner's impressive, new, documentary film, Partisans of Vilna, we learn that trees pro- vided home and refuge to Jews who chose to defend them- selves against their Nazi tor- mentors. The film, which took nearly six years to complete, tells the story of Jewish resistance to the Nazis in Vilna, Lithuania, at the height of World War II. Although narrated by Roberta Wallach, the subtitled film's story is actually told by the partisan survivors. The survivors tell their tales, tearfully, in Yiddish, Hebrew and heavily-accented English in this 130-minute film, which will be shown 7 and 9:30 p.m. today and Saturday at the Detroit Film Theater of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Among the survivors is Abba Kovner, a leader of the Vilna partisan movement and today one of Israel's leading poets, and Chajka Grossman, a former courier who is now a member of the Knesset. Film clips from the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Yad Vashem highlight the color film. Of added interest is some amateur footage taken clan- destinely by Vilna survivors, since Kempner's film crew was denied access to the city by the Soviets. Partisans of Vilnais inform- ative, without being shocking or explicit. What's touching about the film is the delicacy with which Kempner and her director, Josh Waletzky; treat 681-3537 Open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mon. Thru Thurs. Closed Sun. Fri. & Sat. 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. the survivors they interview. There is no coercion, no push- ing, and when it looks to be too painful for the subjects to con- tinue, the interview is over. Peppered throughout the soundtrack are partisan themes, especially the famous anthem, The Partisans Song. Viewers of the film will in- evitably be left with questions. One may ask why the Vilna Jews chose to take up arms when they were so frightfully outnumbered. Kovner, who also was a consultant to the film, responds: "The only choice we had was self- defense." Partisans of Vilna fills a void in the sphere of knowledge available about the resistance movement. It shows that Jews defended their rights to live as human beings, as Jews. It is a tribute to those who survived, but more impor- tantly, to those who died fight- ing the Nazi terror, for it keeps alive their memory and makes clear that not all Jews accepted their fate at the hands of the Germans Some fought back. Harbinger Concert Premiers Work "Waiting for the Echo," a new work by Laurie Eisenhower, will premiere at Music Hall Center in Detroit during Harbinger's concert series 8 p.m. Feb. 20 and Feb. 21 and 2 p.m. Feb. 22. Another highlight of Har- binger's program is "Belle Isle Days," choreographed in 1976 by Harbinger's founding artis- tic director Lisa Nowak. Dan Wagoner's "Round This World, Baby Mine" and "The Window" by Dale Andre will complete the program. Tickets are available at the Music Hall Box office, 963- 7680 or at Ticket World out- lets. 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