SIN Entertainment

Right: Kitty Dubin's

Taking Their
Comedy

Mystical Bodywill

be presented for
the first time at
Playscape '96.

Below: A rehearsal
shot from Three

Big Couches,

PHOTOS BY GLENN TR IEST

directed by John
Seibert.

p

layscape '96 will hit the
boards at the Meadow
Brook Theatre beginning
July 25. Presented by the
Heartlande Theatre Company, a
nonprofit organization founded
in 1990, the festival of original
plays will run in repertory
through Aug. 11 and be "every-
thing from the writer's first burst
of inspiration to the finishing
touches on a world-premiere pro-
duction."
Kitty Dubin's Mystical Body
will be one of five one-acts or
playlets strung together on a
necklace called Concert Perfor-
mances. Each of these five
works, by four local women play-
wrights, will be readings with
scripts in hand but combined
with some action and presented
on stage under Kim T. Sharp's
direction.
Dubin, no stranger to Jewish
Ensemble Theatre audiences
(Change ofLife, '94/95 season) or
Purple Rose patrons (Ties That
Bind, 1991) has crafted a canny
mono-comedy to be presented at
Playscape '96. It's about, she says,

Ari Weinzweig

Sample the recipes of
Ann Arbor's Zinger-
man's Deli co-owner

Sat., 7:30 p.m.

and author of Zinger-
man's: A Guide to
Good Olive Oil. Bor-
ders, Birmingham.
(810) 644-1515.

"a woman who teaches or
leads an aerobics class
the morning after her
lover ends their relation-
ship." Perhaps a step-
down class?
Hardly. "About 10 to
15 minutes long, [it's] fun-
ny and sad," says Dubin.
This is a first time out in
front of an audience for
this piece, and Dubin
hopes to find out what
works and what doesn't.
Dubin, who's been
writing steadily since
1983, also supports
herself by teaching writ-
ing at local colleges and
universities and as a psy-
chotherapist in Birming-
ham.
Therapy and playwrighting?
Compatible? They are "so com-
plementary," she says enthusi-
astically, likening her clients to
characters in plays, "protagonists
in their own lives, trying to
change their scenarios." Dubin
finds "tremendous material" in
her counseling work.

Married 26 years, with a 19-
year-old son, Dubin wrote her
first play when she returned to
Wayne State University in 1969
to get a master's in English to en-
hance her teaching career.
Mentored by Dr. Vincent Wall,
she was encouraged to enter a lo-
cal contest. She won — money

Art at the
Pavilion

"Weird Al"
Yankovic

Benefiting the Kar-
manos Cancer Institute,
the fair features art, food
and entertainment.
Southfield Civic Center.
(810) 644-1550.

He "lost on Jeopardy,
baby," but the singer/co-
median will steal your
heart (or at least he'll
try). Meadow Brook Mu-
sic Festival.
(810) 645-6666.

Sat.-Sun.,
10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Sun., 7 p.m.

SERIOUSLY

and a production of the play. Du-
bin immediately sent off the
script to Edward Albee's agent.
It was returned with a "kind" let-
ter. "I said, 'Never mind,' " she re-
calls.
And then, for 12 years, noth-
ing. "I was unsure of how to pro-
ceed," she says. But things were
working, internal dramas oc-
curring. At the end of these
years, Dubin felt that she was
able to deal with rejection and
the discipline which play-
wrighting calls for. She took an-
other course — this time with
Howard Burman, also at
Wayne. The natural talent was
now sculpted by craft, and Du-
bin felt she now knew the me-
chanics.
And it was off to the races. The
proof, as they say, is in the pud-
ding.
Dubin and compatriots Kim
Carney, Elaine Kaiser and Janet
Torreano Pound provide the five
works in concert. A full produc-
tion of Ohio playwrights James
and Bronwyn Jameson's Three
Big Couches, a two-act comedy
about "three older sisters, two
sons and a house full of over-
stuffed memories," is the center-
piece of Playscape '96. Another
staged reading, The Northeast

Electric Boogaloo

Comics and roomies John
Heffron arid Joel Zimmer pre-
sent. Comedy Fest 2 — a trib-
ute to life in the '80s — at the

Mon., 8 p.m.

Royal Oak Music Theater to
benefit the Sarah Fisher
Foundation. (810) 645-6666.

Comet by New Yorker John Pet-
rick, rounds out the comedy fes-
tival.
In addition, the Jewish En-
semble Theatre will present a
play reading of In Vino Veritas
and a companion piece at 8 p.m.
on Wednesday, July 31; A Gift
of Stones by Kim T. Sharp will
be read at 2 p.m. on Sunday,
Aug. 4; and the Mosaic Youth
Theatre will present a play read-
ing at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug.
4. All guest play readings are
free.

❑

— Michael H. Margolin

Heartlande Theatre pre-
sents Playscape '96 at Mead-
ow Brook Theatre. The
festival opens July 25 and will
run in repertory through Au-
gust 11, with performances
Thursday through Sunday,
with some matinees. Call for
specific times. Moderated au-
dience talk-backs with play-
wrights, directors and actors
follow some performances.
Tickets are $6-$15, depending
on the show. A festival pass is
$25. To order, call (810) 377-
3300.

Paul
Westerberg

Former songwriter/gui-
tarist/cool guy of the
Replacements is out on
his own with his sec-
and solo tour. The
Sanctum, Pontiac.
(810) 333-2362.

Tues., 8 p.m.

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