irt 7 hen Eden

Cooper
Sage was a
student at
Andover
High School,
she knew ex-
actly what she
wanted to be—
a journalist.
Although her career resolve
changed in college, she decided
to become what still would al-
low her to be a journalist along
with anything else that struck
her fancy—an actress.
As she takes on the role of
Grete in the play Sight Unseen,
she is able to act out the pro-
fession of her early dreams
while bringing to life a person-
ality very different from her
own. She portrays a critic in

\-,

said. "For a long time, I've been
struggling with whether obser-
vant Jewish women are cut off
from certain careers.
"Even when I was in college,
I used to stumble along think-
ing there are going to be Sat-
urday matinees and Friday
evening performances and won-
dering if women don't get to be
actresses if they choose to be ob-
servant.
"I was raised as a Reform
Jew, and at the same time that
I was struggling to find the lev-
el of observance that I felt com-
fortable with, I was struggling
to settle on a career choice.
"I have been called to work
on Saturdays and have done so,
and I imagine my own views
will evolve over time."
When Ms. Cooper Sage was

Eden Cooper Sage has
embarked on several careers,
and keeps returning to acting.

SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

the April 6-May 1 production
planned by the Jewish Ensem-
ble Theatre (JET).
"I'm playing a German art
critic who had studied in the
United States for a year," said
the actress, now preparing for
her part by listening to German
language tapes so she can fine-
tune an accent.
"She interviews a Jewish
artist for the German papers as
he is opening his first European
exhibit. Throughout the inter-
view, there is an undercurrent
of conflict based on their differ-
ent backgrounds, which helps
to set the tone for the drama."
The Donald Margulies play
will be the first JET production
for Ms. Cooper Sage, who has
done theater work in Michigan
and California, daytime drama
and industrial films.
"I'm anxious to work with
JET and experience the per-
spective of Jewish theater," she

a student at the University of
Michigan, she thought an act-
ing class would make her feel
comfortable in front of people
and enrolled in one as a second-
term freshman.
Impressed with the level of
achievement that she immedi-
ately showed, her adviser urged
her to take additional theater
courses.
"The more classes I took, the
more I was hooked," she re-
vealed. "After I started getting
cast in plays, the decision was
made."
At the university, Ms. Coop-
er Sage appeared in
Rashomon, Anatol, Marathon
'33 and The Crucible. While
earning her master's degree at
the University of Southern Cal-
ifornia, she acted in college pro-
ductions of As You Like It,
Bower Boys and The White
Crow.
During her six years on the

West Coast, she found an agent
and landed a role on a short-
lived soap opera, "Generations."
"It was a great training
ground, and I made it my busi-
ness to learn the ropes," she
said. "I was on about a year and
a half, and I learned the way
the shooting day went. I ap-
peared once or twice a week as
a hostess in a restaurant and
kept auditioning for other roles.
"I had survival jobs, too. I
typed scripts, was an assistant
for a commercial production
agency and did temporary
work. My first temp job was for
a synagogue in Los Angeles,
and before I knew it, I was
teaching kindergarten in Sun-
day school.
"I continued teaching when
I moved back here, and now I
teach several classes at Temple
Israel."
Ms. Cooper Sage and her
husband, Jeffrey, who also is

from the area, decided to move
back to Michigan about two
years ago, when he was offered
an ophthalmology residency at
Botsford Hospital.
Since then, she has expand-
ed her work at Temple Israel
and currently is directing a mu-
sical production for older stu-
dents, teaching a Holocaust
course and supervising a train-
ing program for high school stu-
dents so they can be Sunday
school assistants.
`Teaching is like acting," she
said. "I do whatever research
is necessary to prepare and
then make my presentation."
Since returning to Michigan,
the actress has appeared in the
Attic Theatre production of The
Misanthrope as well as com-
mercials. She still gets resid-
uals from her soap opera days
and audience reaction as well.
"Last year, I got phone calls
from friends who were living in

Israel, where episodes of "Gen-
erations" were still running,"
she reported. 'They knew I had
done the soap and were sur-
prised to see it there two years
later."
Because of her role at the At-
tic, she was asked to be part of
a five-member Education and
Outreach Ensemble adminis-
tered by the theater. The pro-
gram used grant money to send
ensemble members into Detroit
and Pontiac schools, where they
performed and conducted work-
shops.
"It was an all-day, everyday
commitment, and I think it was
a marvelously effective pro-
gram," Ms. Cooper Sage said.
She also has spent summers
doing leadership training at the
Kutz Academy in Warwick,
N.Y., where she and her hus-
band were campers and start-
ed dating. The actress directed

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