ENTERTAINMENT

!GOING PLACES I

WEEK OF
MARCH 16 22

-

JEWISH EVENTS

JEWISH ENSEMBLE
THEATRE

Jewish Community
Center, 6600 W. Maple
Road, West Bloomfield,
Last Resort, through
April 1, admission,
661-1000.

JEWISH COMMUNITY
CENTER

6600 W. Maple Road,
West Bloomfield, singer
David (DuDu) Fisher, 7:30
p.m. March 21, admission,
661-1000.

HILLEL DAY
SCHOOL

32200 Middlebelt Road,
Farmington Hills, Once
Upon A Mattress, 7 p.m.
March 18, admission.

COMEDY

COMEDY CASTLE

Dan iel M. Rosen

Mark Ridley's, Royal
Oak, Dennis Wolfberg,
through March 17;
O'Brien and Valdez,
March 20-24, admission,
542-9900.

Full Circi

MIKE ROSENBAUM

Special to The Jewish News

A

t age 38, Jim Burn-
stein has a career that
like Michigan's late-
winter weather, seems ready
to blossom.
Burnstein's success was not
as inevitable as the changing
of the seasons. Rather, he had
to survive the world of
Hollywood business, a place
with more booby traps than
Sylvester Stallone's jungle in
the first Rambo movie.
But Burnstein did survive
and is now writing a movie
based on his own experiences
teaching Shakespeare to
soldiers at Selfridge Air Base.
Ironically, as Burnstein's
writing success grows, he

Writer Jim Burnstein has
found a second career;
writing about his first one

spends less time teaching,
although he is teaching two
courses this term.
His autobiographical script,
Renaissance Man, has been op-
tioned by 20th Century Fox
and producer Sarah Colleton.
In other words, Burnstein is
being paid for the rights to the
script and to re-write it twice,
according to Colleton and
Fox's wishes. He completed
the first rewrite and recently
met with Colleton to discuss
changes for the second.
Although Burnstein has

been knocking on Hollywood's
door for several years, his
work has yet to hit the Silver
Screen. His credits to date in-
clude a locally produced, na-
tionally syndicated 30-minute
Chanukah television drama
titled "Be My Guest," and a
play, Learn to Fall, which
opened at the Attic Theater in
1988.
Dramatic writing has long
been in Burnstein's blood —
he excelled in creative writing
classes in high school and col-
lege — but he did not even

thie-

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1 73
Dolt

begin to use that talent for its
true purpose until after he
finished college.
While attending the Univer-
sity of Michigan, Burnstein
intended to fulfill his father's
dream and become a lawyer.
But his heart was never in it.
Burnstein was in his high
school production of West Side
Story, in what he calls a "no-
sing, no-dance" part.
"I knew I couldn't act," he
says. "But I had fun hanging
around the theater. And then,
the only way you're going to
do this is if you're going to
write them. So that was sort
of in the back of my mind."
Taking Shakespeare classes
at U-M helped to further
awaken the dormant
dramatist within Burnstein.
"I loved Shakespeare and this

ow Wes,

es,

W AYNE STATE

UlrtkER
-i;
ro
f
ly Theatre
She St
C onquer,

through

h

A

Chorus
March 2
u rbAvparl'il
13, admissfbn, 577-2972.
AVON PLAYERS
Rochester Hills, To
Gillian (On Her 37th
Birthday), through March
17, admission, 375-1390.
STAGECRAFTERS
Baldwin Theatre, Royal
Oak, The Nerd, through
March 18, admission,
541-6430.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

71