A MAIZE
Career

Writer/Director

Lawrence Kasdan

returns to the U-M

campus for a series
of programs in

which he'll address

the art of filmmaking.

ALICE BURDICK SCHWEIGER
Special to The Jewish News

r

amed Hollywood screen-
writer/director/producer
Lawrence Kasdan credits
the University of Michigan
for his diverse and triumphant 'career.
After all, Kasdan, who is responsi-
ble for penning such movie classics as
Body Heat, The Big Chill, Raiders of
the Lost Ark and The Empire Strikes
Back, first earned recognition as a
writer when he became a four-time U-
M Hopwood Award winner. He won
the prestigious award for minor
drama/screenplay in1968 and 1969,
minor fiction in 1969 and major
drama/screenplay in 1970.
"The Hopwood not only helped
pay my tuition but made me feel that
I was a real writer," Kasdan, 50, says
during an interview in his West Coast
office. "The Hopwood gave me the
confidence to continue writing and
the confirmation, that for me, being a
writer could be a reality not a fantasy."

National Merit scholarship, and I was
At 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 20,
a National Merit Finalist and thought
Kasdan will return to Ann Arbor as a
my test scores were good and I would
guest lecturer at this year's annual
go to Harvard, too," he recalls.
Hopwood Awards ceremony at
"But I didn't get in. Then, I heard
Rackham Auditorium. Earlier the same
about Michigan and the Hopwoods,
day, he is scheduled to teach two film
which are still the richest undergraduate
classes on the U-M campus. At 7:30
writing awards around. I heard that
p.m., the film Grand Canyon, which
Arthur Miller went to
Kasdan co-wrote with his
Lawrence Kasdan: "I have Michigan and won a
wife, Meg, will be shown
come back to Ann Arbor a Hopwood, and so did
in a free screening at Ann
lot over the years. [Id is a David Newman, who
Arbor's Michigan Theater,
very
special place for me.
wrote Bonnie and Clyde. I
followed by a question-
applied, and was thrilled
and-answer session with
to be accepted."
the Kasdans and producer Charles
Kasdan, who went on to earn a
Okun. From 2-4:30 p.m. Wednesday,
bachelor of arts in English literature in
April 21, Kasdan will lecture on 'The
1970, and a master of arts in education
Art of Filmmaking" in the auditorium
in 1972, says his years at U-M were
of the Natural Sciences Building.
some of the best of his life. think the
"I have come back to Ann Arbor a
1960s were a great time to live in Ann
lot over the years," says Kasdan, who
Arbor," says the filmmaker, who
has periodically taught classes on the
worked as a busboy at the Delta Phi
U-M campus. "Ann Arbor is a very
Epsilon sorority, and lived in the East
special place for me."
Quad residence hall as a freshman.
It was because of the Hopwoods
"At the time, the University of
that Kasdan chose to attend U-M.
Michigan was the center of the world.
"My brother had gone to Harvard on a

[Radicals like] Barry Bluestone and
Tom Hayden were there. There was a
black action movement, a lot of strik-
ing, sit-ins and even a bombing in the
ROTC office. There was political
upheaval and the threat of the draft.
"Also, there were five or six film fes-
tivals going on, and since I loved going
to the movies, I was able to see less
mainstream films as well as foreign
films, sometimes up to ten a week," he
recalls. A longtime supporter of the
annual Ann Arbor Film Festival,
Kasdan says that Ann Arbor continues
to be a great place for young filmmak-
ers to start having their work seen."
Looking back, Kasdan says that
writing has always been his top priori-
ty, and his life experiences have given
him plenty to write about.
Born in Miami Beach and raised in
West Virginia, Kasdan says that in his
house, "writing was in the air.
Although my father worked for his
brother-in-law who had a chain of
electronic stores, he, as well as my
mother, were frustrated writers. They

'C

4/16
1999

Detroit Jewish News

89