ENTERTAINMENT
I GOING PLACES
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WEEK OF April 8-14
COMEDY
HOLLY HOTEL
110 Battle Alley, Holly. Mark
Hamilton, Sheila Kaye, today
and Saturday, Chris Jakeway,
"Donnell," Craig McCart,
Thursday through April 16,
admission, 634-1891.
DUFFY'S ON THE LAKE
3133 Cooley Lake Rd., Union
Lake, Bob Posch and John
Cionca, now through April, 9:30
and 11:30 p.m. Fridays and
Saturdays, admission,
reservations, 363-9469.
COMEDY CASTLE AT
PUZZLES
29900 Van Dyke, Warren, Pam
Matteson, today and Saturday,
Dave Coulier, Tuesday through
April 16, admission.
THEATER
ATTIC THEATER
Bonia Shur came from a musical family — his father and brother were conductors.
Sight Reading
Attic Theater Playhouse, Detroit,
Knock Knock now through
Sunday, admission, 875-8284.
Composer-musician Bonia Shur
doesn't hear music, he "sees" it
Oakland University campus,
Rochester, Deathtrap, now
through April 17, admission,
377-3300.
VICTORIA BELYEU DIAZ
Special to The Jewish News
onia Shur — composer,
musician, scholar, and
director of liturgical arts
at Hebrew Union Col-
lege in Cincinnati —
does not want to talk about himself.
"That is irrelevant," he says, with
a slight wave of his hand. "It does not
inspire me."
What Bonia Shur does want to
talk about is music, music, music.
In town recently to conduct a
rehearsal of the cantata he was com-
missioned to put together in honor of
the 60th birthday of Birmingham
Temple's Rabbi Sherwin Wine, Shur
was espcially eager to discuss, as a
composer, his personal view of how he
"sees" music.
"I see it as a vehicle, as a channel
to creating moments of total spiritual
and artistic experience," he said, em-
phasizing the point by drawing a
large circle in the air. "I'm not
writing as a composer who thinks
about his music as merely something
to be heard. I write music that will fit
the total structure of an experience in
which the rabbi, the cantor, the music
director, and the congregation are all
interconnected.
"The cantata I've written for this
occasion I see as that kind of ex-
perience:'
The 60-ish composer approached
the composition of the cantata, he
said, by holding an "artistic discus-
sion" with himself.
"The text (words written by Rab-
bi Wine) was intellectual. It doesn't
`fly' poetically, you see. How do you
sing, for instance, words like 'Hope is
not a guarantee'? The challenge is to
take Sherwin's intellectual message
and translate it into a poetic, lyrical,
dramatic setting.
"To start, I was given several
pages of Sherwin's writing. Then,
from that, I chose what I wanted to
work with. Although we didn't sit
down and actually work together on
the cantata, you could still say that,
in a way, we collaborated. I worked
with his words, although his words
weren't precisely fitted for a cantata."
The cantata took about three
weeks to complete, Shur said.
WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY
Hilberry Theater, Nicholas
Nickleby, now through April 16,
admission, 577-2972.
MEADOW BROOK THEATER
DETROIT REPERTORY
THEATER
"It was a challenge. It was like
acrobatics!" he said, again emphasiz-
ing his words with a draniatic wave
of the hand. "It is very, very hard to
take words that speak to the brain,
then think about it, and make them
speak to the heart. But, it is
something I was delighted to be ask-
ed to do.
"So, I paint the picture," he said.
"I paint the words. The people sing.
The message comes through."
Roger Jamison, music director at
the Birmingham Temple, said that
Shur was chosen for the commission-
ed work on the basis of the congrega-
tion's enthusiastic response to other
compositions of his, which had been
performed earlier by the temple choir.
"We thought his music was very
fresh and very ethnic," Jamison said.
"When he was at Temple Emanu-El
recently (as a scholar-in-residence
conducting workshops in music), I
met him, and I liked what I saw. Soon
after, we commissioned the work?'
Though Shur had not visited Bir-
mingham Temple before, he had met
Rabbi Wine at HUC functions, and
was familiar with his writing before
13103 Woodrow Wilson, Detroit,
The Colored Museum, Mornings
at Seven, now through May 8,
admission, 868-1347.
BIRMINGHAM THEATER
211 S Woodward, Birmingham,
Doubles, now through May 8,
David Groh, admission,
644-3533.
FISHER THEATER
Fisher Building, Detroit. Me and
My Girl, now through April 24.
Tim Curry, Donna Bullock,
Barrie Ingham. Admission.
872-1000.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
GILBERT AND SULLIVAN
SOCIETY
911 N. University, Ann Arbor,
The Gondoliers, now through
April 17, admission, 761-7855.
TAP LTD.
Novi Hilton, 2111 Haggerty,
Novi. An Evening With Oscar,
Saturdays through May 11,
admission. 349-4000.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
POWER SERIES
Power Center, Ann Arbor, On
the Thwn, Thursday through
April 17, admission. 764-0450.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
53