ENTERTAINMENT
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co
co
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Many of Frances Hamburger's students have won state and national
speech contests.
ON
SPEAKING
TERMS
Frances Hamburger will be honored for
teaching numerous students the fine art
of theater performance.
JUDY MARX
Special to The Jewish News
T
o teach in the field of
performing arts is to
have the exciting op-
portunity to influ-
ence and enrich the
quality of life of young people.
lb teach successfully in the
arts is to promote a love of
learning and culture and to
offer the chance for youth to
explore, develop and showcase
creative skills and talents?' —
Credo. Frances Hamburger,
Chairman of the Cass
Technical High School Perfor-
ming Arts Department, upon
her retirement.
Frances Hamburger is a
specialist. She specializes in
a particular type of education.
She specializes in a particular
area of the arts. She special-
izes in high expectations. She
specializes in excellence. But
mostly, agree those who know
her best, Frances Hamburger
specializes in love and
commitment.
On April 29, Hamburger's
students and colleagues will
honor her "for 36 years of
devoted service to Cass 'Tech."
There will be a dinner-dance
at the Pontchartrain Hotel,
one of the few such Cass Tech
events that Hamburger
hasn't planned.
Certainly, it will be a hap-
pening. But it may not be as
much a happening as the one
that took place last month in
the auditorium at Cass Tech.
On this occasion, there were
just a few standing by when
Frances Hamburger got her
first peek at the hall's newly
painted proscenium arch. Her
dreams for the old auditorium
were beginning to come true.
"When you don't have
something, you just go after
it;' Hamburger says.
For years, Cass Tech has sat
with a tired old shell of an
auditorium, architecturally
splendid but unusable for per-
formances. "I had gotten so
tired of having to see my
teachers struggle and move
their shows all over the city,
the kids, the costumes, the
audiences."
Now $30,000 later, Ham-
burger is beginning to see the
fruits of her labors. Cass
Tech's auditorium, with a
stage as large as that of the
Fisher Theater, has curtains
hanging for the first time in
many years.
Next will come the sound
system, Hamburger explains.
"I want to put down some
carpeting, and I'd like to do
something about those old-
fashioned wooden seats. It's
not just that they're uncom-
fortable. But more fabric in
the hall will help with the
acoustics?'
lb raise large amounts of
money for an inner city
school, one needs both
creativity and commitment.
Hamburger has no shortage
of either.
"I went to our alumni,
among them Lily Tomlin and-
Ben Vereen. I went to
businesses. I went to anyone
who would help?' And retired
or not, she still seeks the
needed funds.
Hamburger also praises the
Cass Tech students for their
role in helping with the
auditorium renovation pro-
ject. Likewise, Hamburger's
kids are not reticent in their
admiration for their teacher,
coach, sponsor and director.
Nikka Jones calls Ham-
burger a "second mother —
hard working, generous,
understanding, patient, per-
sistent, energetic, always
smiling, creative, never bor-
ing, and ageless:'
Donayle Griffin says that
"Mrs. Hamburger saw in me
a talent and a determination
that I nourish every time I
give a speech?'
Rose Anderson writes that
"Mrs. Hamburger has in-
spired us to use the courage
of dreaming for the purpose of
self-improvement?'
These and similar affidavits
from colleagues and peers
resulted in Hamburger being
named the 1988
Drama/Theater Educator of
the Year by Eastern Michigan
University.
Fellow teacher Bonnie
Sheehy puts in succinctly,
"Mother and mentor. That's
how I think of Fran."
The daughter of Abe and
Leah Schwartz remembers
herself as a shy little girl.
"But my teachers noticed
that I came alive when I read
aloud, and in the sixth grade
I was singled out for a special
city-wide broadcasting pro-
gram!" Her interest in speech
'The school has
changed in many
ways but we still
have the same
talented students:
and drama blossomed when
Hamburger discovered that
on stage she would "turn in-
to a different person."
A graduate of Wayne State
University with bachelor's
and master's degrees in
broadcasting and speech, she
won the 1952 Wayne State
University Best Actress
Award.
Upon graduation, she ac-
cepted a teaching position at
Cass Tech with somewhat less
than wild enthusiasm. "I
really didn't know much
about the school when I was
sent there.
"I certainly never dreamed
I'd stay in my first placement
for more than 30 years, but at
Cass I've had the wonderful
experience to work with such
talented people. I've always
had bright students. They
chose to specialize in speech,
and they came to me, not
because they had to, but
because they wanted to.
"Of course, the school has
changed in many ways since
the '50s, but we still have the
same talented students. Un-
fortunately, today many of
them do not come into high
school with all the cultural
advantages our students had
30 years ago. So, now, it is
simply a matter of helping
my students discover talents
they don't always realize they
have!"
When she sets her mind to
it, Hamburger makes a lot of
formidable tasks seem simple.
Her contributions to educa-
tion include coaching
numerous award-winning
youngsters in state and na-
tional speech contests and
producing scores of holiday
I GOING PLACES I
WEEK OF
APRIL 7.13
SPECIAL EVENTS
UNIVERSITY
PRODUCTIONS
Frieze Bldg., State and
Washington, Ann
Arbor, "$5 Revue," an
evening of songs and
skits to benefit a
scholarship fund for U-
M musical theatre
students, today and
Saturday, Thursday
through April 15,
admission. 764-0450.
COMEDY
COMEDY CASTLE
593 Woodward, Berkley,
Bobby Slayton, Tuesday
through April 15,
admission. 542-9900.
THEATER
HILBERRY AND
BONSTELLE
THEATRES
Wayne St. University,
Detroit, Romeo and
Juliet, Tuesday; Lost in
the Stars, (Hilberry
Studio) Thursday
through April 17; The
Scarlet Pimpernel, now
through April 15 and
April 25; The Night
Thoreau Spent in Jail,
now through May 13,
admission. 577-2972.
MEADOW BROOK
THEATRE
Oakland University,
Rochester, Quilters, now
through April 23,
admission. 377-3300.
PERFORMANCE
NETWORK
408 W. Washington,
Ann Arbor, India Song,
Thursday through April
30, admission.
663-0681.
BIRMINGHAM
THEATRE
211 S. Woodward,
Birmingham, Broadway
Bound, now through
May 7, admission.
644-3533,
FAMILIES
PEANUT BUTTER
PLAYERS
Karas House, 23632
Plymouth, Redford, The
Wind in the Willows,
Saturdays and Sundays
through April 30,
admission. 559-6-PBP.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
75