Dana Steingold
finds her "track"
on the weekends.
Singin In The Train
9
STEVE HARTZ
Special To The Jewish News
7 ,,
hile most 8-year-old
children spend their
weekend nights at
home watching TV and play-
ing video games, Dana Ste-
ihgold travels from her West
_Bloomfield home to Walled
, Lake and boards a train,
where she goes to work.
Ms. Steingold, 8, performs
musical numbers with Nancy
Gurwin Productions each
, • ,Teek on board the Michigan
Star Clipper as it chugs
Through Walled Lake. She
entertains the crowd while
'they're dining aboard.
As the youngest performer
on the train, Ms. Steingold,
, citanding 45-inches tall, belts
out tunes like "Ten Minutes
Ago" from Cinderella, "Cas-
tle on a Cloud" from Les
Miserables, and "Maybe"
from Annie.
"When she's introduced, all
of a sudden there is a hush,
and she stands on the upper
level stairs of the train and
holds this cordless mike. She
just starts singing, and you
can hear a pin drop," said
Nancy Gurwin, the show's ex-
ecutive producer.
"It's her energy and her
personality. Dana has this
tremendous vibrato that nor-
mally most kids don't have;
she is a little Bernadette
Peters. It's very exciting to
work with her."
This summer Ms. Steingold
also kept busy rehearsing for
the musical Annie, where she
will star as Molly in the Nan-
cy Gurwin Production
through Oct. 4 at the DeRoy
Theater in the Maple-Drake
Jewish Community Center.
The show moves to the Jimmy
Prentis Morris Building for
two revised performances Oct.
10-11.
At six months old, long
before she could even walk,
Ms. Steingold "danced," shak-
ing and twisting to the music
playing throughout her
house. By the time she turn-
ed 3, Ms. Steingold began stu-
dying tap. That same year,
she caught the acting bug.
"My safta (grandma) got me
all kinds of dress-up clothes
for Chanukah," she said. "I
was so excited that I ran up
to my room and put them on
over my nightgown and came
down and started posing. I put
on a hat, sunglasses and a
shawl.
"I like dressing up," Ms.
Steingold said. "It's fun
because you get to be whoever
you want."
At home, Ms. Steingold
escapes reality and enters her
own Never-Never Land. In
her playroom, she keeps her
dress-up clothes, a micro-
phone and a tape player.
"She's just a silly kid," said
Ms. Steingold's mother,
Susan. "She'll do anything for
a laugh."
When Dana was 18-months-
old, Mrs. Steingold was ap-
proached by a TV commercial
producer who thought Dana
would be perfect for some of
his commercials. But then,
Susan Steingold said, "We
held off; my husband and I
thought she was just too
young. We decided that if it
continued, she had to make
her own choice. Eventually it
has evolved into this, and she
has made her choice."
As a nursery school student
at Adat Shalom Synagogue,
Dana Steingold would grab
her teachers' attention each
week by performing tunes
from Sharon, Lois and Bram's
"The Elephant Show." At 7
Ms. Steingold appeared in the
musical The King and I at the
Jewish Community Center. A
year later, she's starring in
Annie and playing one of her
favorite roles, Molly.
"She's different from me
because she's younger,
although like Molly, I do like
to cry and throw tantrums,"
Ms. Steingold laughed.
Annie musical director and
choreographer Kathi Bush
said that Ms. Steingold, like
the other six children who
play orphans, is expressive on
stage.
"Dana has a really unique
clarity in the way she speaks
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
95