ENTERTAINMENT

PLAYING i3UBBIE

JET has brought in a veteran stage grandmother for its

opening play of the season.

LESLEY PEARL

Jewish News Intern

ylvia Kauders lives
by gut instinct.
In 1985, she
left the Broadway
cast of Torch Song
Trilogy — taking a con-
siderable pay cut, to pursue a
role that just felt right — the
Bubbie in Susan Sandler's
stage production of Crossing
Delancey.
"I remember seeing ads in
Backstage for auditions. I
knew nothing about the
playwright or the director,
but I was just drawn to it,"
Mrs. Kauders said. "I guess
it was beshert (meant to be)."
For the audition, Mrs.
Kauders donned a long blue
skirt, burgundy blouse and a
navy shawl. Playwright
Susan Sandler told Mrs.
Kauders that she was the
one "who came in a blue
shawl and blew us away."
"It (the role of Bubbie) just
happened. I don't know
where the character came
from; it was just there," Mrs.
Kauders said.
She admitted hearing her
mother's and her aunt's
voices in her head while per-
forming the role, and in fact
bases most of her older Jew-
ish characters on her
mother.
Her mother, however, did
not encourage any acting
aspirations. As a child, Mrs.
Kauders grew up knowing
she would go to college and,
at the very least, obtain a
teaching certificate. She
went to the University of
Pennsylvania, where she
studied journalism and
communications, and on to
business school.
But Mrs. Kauders knew
she was an actress at heart.
However, her only formal
training was a one-year
scholarship to a theater high
school which trained her in
proper American stage Eng-
lish.
"I didn't have a choice; I
had to act," Mrs. Kauders
said thinking back to Sun-
day afternoons spent singing
in her grandmother's parlor.
So after college, Mrs.
Kauders combined her ac-

ting talents and writing
abilities working for the city
of Philadelphia in public re-
lations — later becoming the
director of special events for
the city. Mrs. Kauders also
worked- with the
Philadelphia. Drama. Guild
in its early stages and in
various dinner theaters.
Content with what she re-
fers to as a "very exciting
life," the only thing missing
in Mrs. Kauders' world was
the knowledge she was good
enough to make it in New
York.
So she packed her bags.
And at her first audition, for
The World of Sholem
Aleichem, Mrs. Kauders
made the final cut and was
called back. Although Mrs.
Kauders didn't secure the
role, she said she learned a
lot about theater life and
politics.
In 1982, in her second
audition, Mrs. Kauders won
the role of the mother in
Torch Song Trilogy. Unsure
of how long the play would
run, Mrs. Kauders and her
husband Randy "lived like
gypsies, subletting one
apartment after another"
before taking their own
residence in New York.
"I have a great passion for
acting, but I also have a good
head on my shoulders," Mrs.
Kauders said. "I don't want
to starve."
And she hasn't. While not
in the theater, Mrs. Kauders
has occupied her time with
film character roles in Rock _ y
II, Crimes and Misde-
meanors, and New York
Stories, numerous television
commercials and as Mr.
Belvedere's mother on the
situation comedy now in
syndication.
Mrs. Kauders admits,
though, that the stage is her
first love.
"It's so exciting to create a
role and see it fly through
the vehicle of the script!"
Mrs. Kauders can be seen
in the Jewish Ensemble
Theatre's production of
Crossing Delancey at the
Deroy Theatre in the Maple-
Drake Jewish Community
Center. The romantic com-
edy will run from Sept. 15 -
Oct. 6.

❑

Sylvia Kauders and Carol Lempert in Crossing Delancey.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

137