I ENTERTAINMENT I

Stephen Becharas . . . and The Staff Of

6638 Telegraph Road at Maple

In The Bloomfield Plaza

851-0313

Sincerely Wishes It's Many
Friends And Customers

A VERY
PPY PASSOVER

We thank you for your
gracious patronage . . . and
most sincerely
wish the very best
in health, joy and
prosperity to all

k

Playwright Mark Harelik.

We Give Sincere Wishes
For Much Joy and Health
On This Passover Season

4783800

• Southfield

559-4400

• Fairlane

336-8550

• Eastside

994-2811

86

FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1990

harley 's

• Bloomfield

855-2244

• Livonia

422-4550

• Northville

349-9220 _

One American Dream
Tkganslates Into A Play

KENNETH JONES

Special to The Jewish News

M

ark Harelik always
knew there was a
good play in the
story of his grandfather's
emigration from Russia to a
life and career in central
Texas.
Harelik's paternal grand-
father, Haskell, came to Texas
in 1909 as part of the
Galveston Plan to relocate
Russian Jews in the
American South rather than
the immigrant-glutted cities
of the East coast.
Haskell Harelik's resulting
culture-clash experience
became grandson Mark
Harelik's play,. The Im-
migrant, A Hamilton County
Album, now receiving its
Michigan premiere at
Meadowbrook Theatre
through April 22.
"The script emerged in
about three weeks," says
Harelik, in a phone interview
from his home in Los
Angeles.
"It was a story that I was
prepared to write. I really
hadn't given any considera-
tion to the exact form it would
take. One of the ideas we had

considered was a theatrical
construct that had many
characters from the com-
munity remembering this
particular man, the im-
migrant. Or talking about
him . . . seeing him through
the eyes of the community."
That idea was jettisoned,
but what resulted was the no-

"We had a faith
that was preserved
as it could be
within the four
walls of our
house."
Mark Harelik

tion that the immigrant
changed the community —
Hamilton, Texas, population
1,200 — as much as the corn-
munity changed him.
The -way Harelik decided to
tell this American dream tale
was by showing the real-life
relationship between Haskell
and his wife, Leah, and a
native couple, banker Milton
Perry and his Baptist wife,
Ima.
"Culture one meets culture
two, and between them they
create culture three, which is

