Voice Of
Experience

Wasserstein — features
Ms. Hermelin-Weinberg as
the mother of one of those
30-something characters. In
her fourth role with JET,
she builds on a long-time
stage career spanning
Michigan and New York
companies.
"The issues in this play
are vibrant life issues," she
SUZANNE CHESSUER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
said. "Women have always
worked, but they didn't
enrietta Hermelin-Wein-
have all the choices to make
berg, a founding board
and priorities to decide."
member of the Jewish
A widow with four grown
Ensemble Theatre (JET)
children, she remains sensi-
and an actress in some of
tive to the themes
its productions, is especially
addressed by the popular
excited about this season's
playwright, whose script
personalizes contemporary
programs.
"Our opening and closing
options faced by two young
plays focus on characters in
women.
their 30s, how they cope
"I'm getting cues from
with their world and how
women's magazines," said
their parents cope," she
the JET enthusiast about
said. "Our choice of plays
establishing this character
reflects what we have
in her own thoughts.
learned about our audi-
Confronting each new char-
ences over the past four
acter, however, mostly
years, what they want and
entails looking inside her-
what we can fulfill for
self, and she is recalling the
career choices she made
them."
The season's opener —
before marrying and during
Isn't It Romantic by Wendy

As the mother of a 30-something
in JET's season-opener, Henrietta
Hermelin-Weinberg re-lives her past.

the time she had to raise a
family on her own.
She also draws from out-
standing professional expe-
riences: a three-month tour
of India with a Wayne State
University troupe that
entertained and met Nehru
and Indira Gandhi, a stint
with the American Mime
Theatre in New York and
recent casting in two local-
ly-produced films, Lunatics:
A Love Story and Let's Kill
All the Lawyers.
"I use myself to prepare
for a role to the point where
talking about the role
becomes talking about me,"
she explained. "I read the
play to know the world that
I, as this character, live in
and relate to; I see where I
fit, where I am, where I'm
coming from and where I'm
going."
Growing up in Detroit,
Ms. Hermelin-Weinberg
comes from a family in
which her mother
expressed a love for music
and her father, a one-time
actor in Europe, expressed
a love for the theater.

She felt comfortable
singing in front of people at
age 3, taking dance classes
privately and at the jewish
Community Center and
appearing in plays planned
by B'nai B'rith Girls,
Shaarey Zedek and Central
High school, where she had
the lead in her senior class
production.
At the University of
Michigan, she majored in
theater and signed up for
every dance class that was
offered. Before graduation,
she spent a summer with
the American Dance
Festival in New London,
Conn.
After moving to New
York to further her dance
and acting studies, the for-
mer classmate of Alvin
Ailey returned to Detroit to
get a teaching certificate in
secondary English at
Wayne State, where she
also auditioned for its pro-
fessional theater.
In her first year, she had
a role in every play pro-
duced by WSU's Bonstelle

EXPERIENCE page R47