Cultural Corridor
The annual Detroit Festival of the Arts, a three-day extravaganza of fine
and performing arts for all ages, lures crowds back to the city.
SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News
eter Cummings, co-chair of
the Detroit Festival of the
Arts, has a prediction for
what will be the best-
attended event at this year's arts and
entertainment marathon:
Repercussion Theatre's Shakespeare in
the Park.
"It's the only theater c mpany in
North America dedicated to touring
i
high-quality,
pro essona
hakespeare-
i
in-the-Park productions, and they're
going to be performing on the lawn of
the Detroit Institute of Arts," says
Cummings.-He also serves on the
board of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit and as chairman
of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
(DSO).
Cummings, who attended the festi-
val in years before he had an inkling
he would be invited to serve as co-
chair, has enjoyed the variety of acts
and looks forward to seeing some
repeats side-by-side with new attrac-
tions in this free offering.
The Detroit Festival of the Arts, in its
13th year, will be held Sept. 17-19 in a
20-block area of the city's University
Cultural Center. Produced by the
University Cultural Center Association
and Wayne State University; it will
include more than 500 visual and per-
forming artists. Some will work on one
of seven stages; others will engage guests
with street antics; and many will show-
case their juried fine artwork in a variety
of media.
Unfortunately, the schedule goes
into Yom Kippur, but there's plenty
for Jewish audiences to enjoy before
the holiday.
The first time I went to the festi-
val, I found a colorful and friendly
way to be in the city," Cummings
says. To many suburbanites, the city
can be forbidding, but if you come
down to the festival, you see what you
hope to see in the city, which is a mix
of young and old and black and white
p
The Repercussion Theatre presents Shakespeare in the Park
at this year's festival. `!11 Midsummer Night's Dream" takes the stage
at dusk Saturday, in front of the Detroit Institute of Arts.
9/17
1999
Detroit Jewish News
involved in a whole range of activities.
"The festival is really three different
pieces — an art fair, a children's fair
and a performance festival. With per-
formers from all over the world repre-
senting ethnic backgrounds from all
over the world, it's an interesting cul-
tural portrait of the city itself"
In music, diversity is represented by
the Cut-Time Players, eight DSO
musicians presenting light classical
favorites; the Hastings Street Revue, a
troupe of musicians, singers and
dancers belting out the blues from the
1940s; and Paris Combo, a French
band with vocals.
Engaging audiences along the
streets will be Neighbourhood Watch
Stilts International, a British dance
group in unusual costumes; John Pike,
a specialist in living sculpture; and
Tales & Scales, storytelling musicians.
"Lit Fest on the Lawn" will present
more than 65 national, regional and
local poets and writers, reading their
works under an open-air tent on the
north lawn of the Main Branch of the
Detroit Public Library.
"There are lots of festivals in vari-
ous venues in the southeastern
Michigan environment, but none of
them takes place in an environment as
rich as the environment of the Festival
of the Arts," Cummings says. "It's got
all the cultural institutions involved
and participating, and there are per-
formance stages at the Center for
Creative Studies, Charles H. Wright
African American Museum, Wayne
State University and the Detroit
Institute of Arts, and that makes it a
very unique event.
Cas Anvar, producing artistic direc-
tor of Repercussion Theatre in
Montreal, has been doing unique
work since forming his not-for-profit
company 12 years ago. He steps on
stage as Bottom when the troupe pre-
sents A Midsummer Night's Dream at 8
p.m. Saturday on the Woodward lawn
of the DIA. Audience members
should bring their own lawn chairs.
"The shows are completely family-