DETROIT

JET Mixes Education
With Its Newest Production

SUSAN GRANT

Staff Writer

T

he Jewish Ensemble
Theatre is opening its
1990-91 season on an
educational note.
JET, which begins its se-
cond season Oct. 14, hopes
its production of The Mer-
chant will both entertain
and educate its audiences.
The Merchant, a lavish
production set in 16th cen-
tury Venice, is playwright
Arnold Wesker's answer to
William Shakespeare's The
Merchant of Venice.
In the Shakespeare corn-
edy, the portrayal of the
money lender,, the Jew
Shylock, has long been con-
sidered anti-Semitic.
Written in 1977, Wesker's
play retells Shakespeare
from a Jewish perspective,
developing Shylock's
character, making him a
leader of the ghetto, but also
a victim of the times.
Although he is still not a
likable character, at least
The Merchant gives the au-
dience a better understan-
ding of Shylock's motives.
The contract between
Shylock and his friend An-
tonio, the merchant, asking
for a pound of Antonio's
flesh if 3,000 ducats are not
repaid by a certain hour, is a
gesture of defiance against
the anti-Semitic laws of
Venice, not out of cruelty as
Shakespeare's play seems to
suggest. When Antonio is
unable to repay the debt, the
bond has become a dilemma
involving the entire Jewish
community.
Although Venice officials
are willing to invalidate the
contract, Shylock refuses in
fear of setting a precedent
for breaking all contracts
with Jews. It is only when
Portia Contarini intercedes
that Antonio's life is saved.
But Shylock loses his prop-
erty and is exiled.
To help high school and
college students better
understand The Merchant,
Phoebe Mainster, JET board
of directors member and
Wayne State University lec-
turer, has prepared a study
guide for area teachers. It
includes a list of characters,
words students may not
know, a synopsis of the play
and a drama glossary.
"We chose to do The Mer-
chant because it fit so well
with the mission statement
of the Jewish Ensemble

Theater," said Evelyn Or-
bach, JET artistic director.
"Having recently seen The
Merchant of Venice at Strat-
ford, I was reminded, at least
for me, how anti-Semitic it
was."
Many high school students
will be assigned to read The
Merchant of Venice, Ms. Or-

Phoebe Mainster:
Guide and lectures.

bach said, and area teachers
can encourage their students
to see JET's contemporary
version of the play.
"We want high school
students and teachers to feel

comfortable when they come
to the performances," Mrs.
Mainster said. "By prepar-
ing the students (with the
JET study guide), we feel
they will be less anxious."
Teachers from West
Bloomfield High School,
Roeper and Groves High
School have signed up for
the study guide and plan to
bring their classes to one of
two JET performances
scheduled for Oct. 9 and 25,
Mrs. Mainster said. She has
given the study guide to two
Wayne State University in-
structors and other high
schools have expressed in-
terest in it. After each per-
formance, Mrs. Mainster
will lead a discussion.
Mrs. Mainster will also
hold discussions on Oct. 14
and 18 for general au-
diences. The play starts with
five previews beginning Oct.
9 and runs from Oct. 17 to
Nov. 4.
This isn't the first time
JET has welcomed high
school students to their per-
formances, Ms. Orbach said.
Last season, JET performed
a similar service with The
Man in the Glass Booth.
"We want to bring young
people to the theater," Ms.
Orbach said.
Mrs. Mainster believes

David Fox, Joyce Feurring, Suzanne Regan and Arthur Beer rehearse for

The Merchant.

that many of the themes in
The Merchant are applicable
to 1990 audiences.
"I'm sure the adults will
talk about the aspects of an-
ti-Semitism. I expect that
students will respond more
to the characters in the
play," she said.
While anti-Semitism is one
of the themes in The Mer-
chant, teachers can decide
whether they want to
discuss it in the classroom,
Mrs. Mainster said. "It is up
to teachers and how they
feel. Most are comfortable

with it, but if they are not,
anti-Semitism is only one of
the themes, not the major
concern of this play."
"The two men live in a
community in which anti-
Semitism is a fact of life.
Their response is to try to
evade it," she said.
"I think the main lesson to
be learned is all humans
have choices to make, that
they are responsible for
those choices and they have
to live by the consequences
of those choices," Mrs.
Mainster said. ❑

The American Public + Metrics
Common Sense, Local Engineer Says

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

Assistant Editor

p

aul Braunstein mea-
sures success one
meter at a time.
He doesn't drink from the
cup of happiness; he prefers
grams.
He doesn't want to stand
12 feet tall; he'll take several
meters.
And he doesn't want 100
pounds of gold; he'll take
kilograms.
Just when you thought it
was safe to come out of the
math waters . . . just when
you thought you had all
those cups and gallons and
pints figured out . . . just
when you thought high
school was the last place
(beyond your hopelessly
disorganized checkbook) you
would ever have to seriously
consider numbers .. .
Along comes National
Metric Week, Oct. 7-13,

Paul Braunstein: "By the turn of the millennium, young people will no
longer know what an inch is."

designated by the National
Council of Teachers of
Mathematics. And Paul
(Pinchas) Braunstein of Oak
Park couldn't be happier.
"Come 1992, metrics are
going to hit us like a brick

wall," said Mr. Braunstein,
an industrial surveyor with
Great Lakes Steel in Ecorse,
the director of Metrinomics,
a measurements consultants
group, and a devoted sup-
porter of metrics.

Just two years from now
the United States will have
to put its feet —or, rather, its
meters — on the ground
when the Omnibus Trade
and Competitiveness Act is
implemented, Mr. Brauns-
tein explains. The act, in-
troduced in 1988, calls for all
companies doing business
with the U.S. government to
make their specifications in
metrics.
Mr. Braunstein, for one,
believes it's high — say,
about two meters high
(that's about the height of a
basketball player) — time
the United States started us-
ing metrics. Together with
Liberia and Burma, the
United States is the only
nation not on the metric
system.
"The United States has
been able to hold out on
metrics because it's big
enough," said Mr. Brauns-
tein, a member of the
American National Metric

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

15

