A man
"not easily
definable"
returns
to his
favorite
role.
Fiddlin' Around
With Bikel
I)
uring the month
that Theodore
Bikel plays
"Tevye" in Fiddler
on the Roof at
the Fisher The-
atre, his autobiography, Theo,
comes out in bookstores.
Mr. Bikel, who will be in Detroit
Sept. 7-Oct. 2, believes his 50th
anniversary as a professional per-
former and his 40th anniversary
as an American make for a
momentous time to release his
memoirs.
"For years, people said, 'What
is he? An actor? A singer? A lec-
turer? A Jewish activist? A union
activist? A teacher? A director?'
"I'm not easily definable, and
the book makes that quite clear,"
he said. "There has been a lot in
my life and consequently in my
book.
"I am an actor who got off his
first long run in Fiddler on the
Roof and became a delegate at the
Democratic Convention in Chica-
go. I protested at the Soviet Em-
bassy in Washington and was put
in jail. I was a civil rights activist
in Alabama and was arrested.
"The chief message I am com-
municating probably is that mere
survival isn't enough. You have to
survive for a purpose, whatever
with tefillin on his head and arm,
davening away. They looked at
him because he hadn't done it in
two years. He looked up and said,
`Maybe this will help.'
"Now, you can't get more like
Tevye than that!"
Although Mr. Bikel has played
the role so many times, his per-
spective on it has not changed sig-
nificantly over the years.
`°There are obviously changes,"
he said. " A live, breathing per-
formance cannot stay the same.
You paint a picture, and it is what
it is. You do a sculpture, and it is
what it is. You do a television show
or a film, and it is what it is on
tape or film. "But it is impossi-
ble to give a carbon copy of your
own performance on stage."
Mr. Bikel—a 20-album record-
ing artist who has brought folk
music concerts to the area and
SUZANNE CHESSLER
concert lectures to the University
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
of Michigan and Wayne State Uni-
versity—also has been taken with
the role of Zorba.
your purpose may be. There has
"I had to reach a little further
to be some devotion, some dedi- to get hold of that character," he
cation, some kind of commitment said "I envied him because he had
to make life better, not just your that extraordinary freedom that
own but other people's."
so few of us, if any of us, ever at-
With that perspective, Mr. tain.
Bikel has never thought of him-
"He is unfettered, not tied to
self as pursuing a show-business material possessions, living every
career.
day as though it were the best and
"I've always maintained that the last. That kind of extraordi-
the people who sit in the box office nary fullness of existence is some-
and sell tickets are in show busi- thing to strive for, and I felt I
ness," declared the entertainer, wanted to play him."
Mr. Bikel has appeared in some
now begirming a nine-month tour
with the musical that has featured 35 motion pictures, including The
him in more than 1,000 perfor- Enemy Below and The Defiant
Ones and numerous TV shows in-
mances.
"I'm in the arts. I was attracted cluding "Murder, She Wrote" and
"Law and Order."
to the theater as an art
form that spoke to me, that Theodore Bikel:
At age 20, he was co-
appealed to me because it Actor, director; founder of the Israel
singer, teacher, Chamber Theatre.
is live and immediate."
Mr. Bikel launched his activist.
"The propagation and
career at the Habima The-
promotion of Jewish cuh
ture is something that
atre in Israel, where his first paid
role ironically was as the consta- spells survival far better than the
ble in a straight play called Tevye warding off of attacks," said the
the Milkman.
chairman of the Artistic Advisory
After that 29-word part, he Committee of the National Foun-
studied at the Royal Academy of dation for Jewish Culture (NFJC).
Dramatic Arts in London and ap- "We have had defense organi-
peared inA Streetcar Named De nations for a long time, and they
sire under the direction of Sir mostly react to attacks on Jews.
Laurence Olivier and The Love of Warding off attacks has to be
Four Colonels with Peter Ustinov. done, and I've been in the forefront
Americans stage credits include of those fights, too.
"But if that were the only way
The Sound of Music, My Fair
Lady and Threepenny Opera.
of asserting your Jewishness, then
The role of Tevye, which he re- you allow your enemies to define
cently performed in Muskegon Your Jewishness for you. When
and Grand Rapids, is among his the attacks are bait, your instincts
of preserving yourself as a Jew
favorites.
"Tevye is really my grandfa- lessen and sometimes even die. cc;
'The propagation of Jewish cul-
ther," the Vienna-born performer
revealed. "My grandfather was in ture does exactly the opposite. It ,}7,
turn observant and pious and in is unconnected to whether or not
turn rebellious, not davening and anybody attacks you for being a
Jew. It is a positive, active corn- <
not going to shul.
"One day the family walked into
the living room, and there he was FIDDUN' page 98
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NI-
89