ENTERTAINMENT
i~
I
Such A Gift
•04
through Sunday and
admission. 663-0681.
PERFORMANCE NETWORK
408 W. Washington, Ann Arbor,
A Life of One's Own, now
through Jan. 15, admission.
Evelyn Orbach and Robert Grossman rehearse as Sam and liken.
Michigan native Jack LaZebnik is coming home with a story
of his parents, of love, and of life and death.
ELIZABETH KAPLAN
Features Editor
J ack LaZebnik is giving his
mother a gift — the story of
her life.
It's coming wrapped in a
package with ribbons of every
color and texture. One is a director,
Paula Kalustian, who called LaZeb-
nik's work "the sweetest thing."
Another is producer Robert LaZebnik,
an unabashed admirer of the present.
The gift is a play, Sam and Itkeh,
the story of LaZebnik's late mother,
Edith.
Sam and Itkeh, which opens Jan.
18 at the Maple/Drake Jewish Com-
munity Center, is a family affair.
LaZebnik, a native of Jackson, Mich.,
who now lives in Columbia, Mo.,
wrote the play; his brother, Robert, is
producing it.
Sam and Itkeh is the story of two
immigrants who come in 1912 to
Detroit and later settle in Arizona.
Itkeh lives in two worlds. She
drifts between the present and the
past, remembering her early days in
the United States and an old
sweetheart, whom she met on the
boat from the Old Country.
Her husband, Sam, tries to help
Itkeh in her struggle between reali-
ty and fantasy. Through this struggle,
the two come to understand their feel-
ings for each other.
The play stars local actors Robert
Grossman as Sam and Evelyn Orbach
as Itkeh.
Orbach has produced more than
1,200 radio and television broadcasts
in Michigan and appeared in
numerous plays including Time Steps
at the Attic Theater, The Subject Was
Roses at the Music Hall and Do You
Know the IBO? at the Detroit In-
stitute of Arts.
Grossman, a singer, musician,
composer and actor also has starred
in many plays in the Detroit area, in-
cluding Watch On the Rhine, The Real
Thing, Bent and The Miss Firecracker
Contest at the Attic Theater.
Sam and Itkeh is not the first time
Edith LaZebnik has served as a cen-
tral figure in her son Jack's work. "I
think it's because she was such a
powerful figure," he said. "She always
demanded center stage."
Edith was the protagonist in the
book Such A Life, which LaZebnik
wrote based on an outline his mother
composed in Yiddish.
"It was as if my mother was
speaking over my shoulder as I
wrote," LaZebnik said of Such A Life.
"It was the same way with Sam and
Itkeh. Much of the dialogue is things
Ord Auditorium. now
Sunday (today and Sunday at
Orchestra Hall) Gunther Herbig
conducts Beethoven and
ShostakoviCh, admission:
567-1400.
'CENTER FOR CREATIVE
STUDIES
Boughton Auditorium, 200 E.
Kirby, Detroit, today, cellist
Jeffrey Solow and pianist
Michele Cooker, adinission.
831-2870,
CITY OF SOUTHFIELD
Prudential Town Center, Lyric
Chamber Ensemble, program
includes Haydn and Mozart,
Sunday, admission, 354-4717.
DEARBORN SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
Dearborn Civic Center,
Michigan Ave., Cabaret concert:
"Radio Days -- A rfribute to the
Big Band Era," Jan. 13,
admission; James Otto presents
concert preview, "Reflections:
at
The Big Band;
Ford Library. 322-6646.
'
Continued on Page 62
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
55