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Behind 'Ballyhoo'

A Jewish actor readies
the cast for Dearborn
production of the
award-thinning play.

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Speciatto the Jewish News

hen you're one of only
two Jewish actors in
Alfred Uhry's The Last
Night of Ballyhoo, there
comes a responsibility to educate your
fellow cast members about certain
Jewish rituals.
Thus the "staging" of an authentic
Shabbat dinner at the Birmingham
home of Julie Yolles, who plays Lala
Levy in the Players Guild of Dearborn
production of the Tony Award-winning
play about a society-obsessed Jewish
family forced to face where they come
from and who they reall y are.
"To ensure that the Shabbos scene
at the end of the play is truly authen-
tic, I held a Shabbat dinner for the
cast, director and assistant director,"
says Yolles,
"I called in the troops, the top
Jewish mavens, to help me with the
dinner. Nancy Simons and her daugh-
ters, Helene and Debbie, both sixth-
graders at Hillel Day School, recited
the prayers and explained our Jewish
customs. They came with two challahs
and a bottle of Manischewitz.
"From Shirlee Bloom, I ordered
latkes, vegetarian chopped liver, kugel
and matzah balls. My mother-in-law,
Elinor Yolles, came over and made the
chicken soup. I made the roast chick-
en, a salad and the gefilte fish, which
was a big hit, surprisingly."
Finally, for dessert, Yolles' friend and
local food expert Annabel Cohen pro-
vided a delicious kuchen.
"Before we ate the kuchen, I took a
picture of it for the props people so
they would be able to re-create it for
the show," says Yolles. Actor Dennis
Decker, she adds, is lucky enough to
get to eat it every night on stage.
The Last Night of Ballyhoo takes place
in Atlanta, Ga., in December 1939, on
the eve of World War II. The play's first
scene opens on the night of the world
premiere of Gone With the Wind, "the
most important event in the history of
Atlanta," according to Yolles' character,
Lala, who is part of a well-to-do, assim-
ilated German Jewish family.
As Lala prepares for the premiere
and the annual Jewish society gala,

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Maria Kovac (Sunny Freitag) and Julie
Yolles (Lala Levy) in the Dearborn
Players production of "The Last Night
of Ballyhoo."

Ballyhoo, she sings Noel and decorates
the Christmas tree.
"I always wanted to be in this show,
and I really wanted to play Lala," says
Yolles. "She has such interesting idio-
syncrasies. She's dreamy, awkward,
starry-eyed. She says of her beautiful,
Wellesley-educated cousin Sunny
Freitag (Maria Kovac), 'Sunny got the
bpins; I got the moxie.'"
Sunny's mother, Reba Freitag
(Jeanine Matlow, an interior designer
from Royal Oak) brings the other
Jewish perspective to the show,
though her character embraces the
Junior League sensibility of her
Atlanta neighbors.
Yolles initially promised the director,
Michael Falzon, she would consult on
"the Jewish stuff," but ended up audi-
tioning for the ingenue part, after all.
"I dressed and acted as a 22-year-old
for the audition," she says. "Getting
the part was a big coup for me."
Yolles has played Jewish roles in
Lost In Yonkers and The Sisters
Rosenzweig, and a born-again
Christian in Steel Magnolias. ❑

The Players Guild of Dearborn's
The Last Night of Ballyhoo will be
performed 8 p.m. Fridays and
Saturdays, Jan. 12-27, and 2:30
p.m. Sunday, Jan. 21.
Tickets are $11; all seats
reserved. (313) 561-TKTS.

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