SOUL from page 63

"We're committed," says Judy Sauer, 36, of
Ypsilanti. "We love each other so much."
"We're a community," says Schreiber.
Thirty minutes before the show, the audience's
cards are collected and the theater members go to
work. From the cards, they create beginnings, mid-
dles and endings to scenes.
This unique seven-year-old theater company prac-
tices three Saturdays and performs once each month.
Its creator and director Sara [pronounced sah'-rah]
Schreiber of Ann Arbor is a vibrant woman in her
60s, raised in an Orthodox Jewish family. Schreiber
brings a variety of skills to Empatheatre. She has
acted and directed and, in the 1980s, produced Off-
Broadway plays. She also earned a Ph.D. in counsel-
ing psychology at the University of Michigan and
has three children.
The sum of her experiences shapes
a theatrical venture that combines
improvisation with a deep concern
for life's truths.
"Theater," says Schreiber, "has a
collective, unconscious reality. Our
training is to contemplate it.
Performer and audience engage in
unspoken discussions of what reality
is."
Her performers, chosen from work-
shops open to the public, rarely have
theatrical experience. More concerned
about "telling the truth," Schreiber
selected an eclectic group that is com-
passionate, open to exploration and
takes risks.
"Sara taught us, groomed us, devel-
oped trust and being-ness," says
Rucker, also from an Orthodox Jewish background.
"We learned from her how to let go of extraneous
layers of the self to produce shades of humanity we
re-enact."

The Art Of Living

"All of my past comes into my work," says Schreiber,
whose mother died when she was born. Her father,
whom she never met, ran away. "When we're treated
badly as children we owe our parents a kind of grati-
tude. You have to go into the darkest parts of your-
self, and this shadow part is the rich energy of life."
Her Orthodox grandparents brought her up in a
"very, very rigid household," and yet it was a very
warm community.
It was so memorable, she says, that she tries to re-
create that warm community in her work with
Empatheatre.
A youthful venture in New York led Schreiber to
the work of Jacob Moreno, the founder of psy-
chodrama. "Not until I was 27," says Schreiber, "did
I call and tell Jacob, 'I'd love to study with you, but
I have three babies.' And he replied, 'Bring the
babies!' "
Moreno became Schreiber's mentor and teacher.
His support of her work led Schreiber to graduate
school in psychology and to create three tl --ater
ensembles in Flint.
"Only theater stirs an audience's soul," she says.
"Well, music can do that too. But Empatheatre takes

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2001

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risks by striving toward reality. We are not a therapy
group. "
She also acknowledges the importance of tzedakah
— of giving back, which she learned when she was
religious and active in Hadassah and synagogue sis-
terhood.
Empatheatre, she says, is a way of giving back a
sort of realism. "With all of people's foibles and mis-
takes, underneath they still have a true spirit. I
learned that as an Orthodox Jew. There was lots of
laughing and dancing — a community. And that's
what the theater is."
Schreiber and her group also present workshops
around the country, but she has "a special place in
her heart" for the Washtenaw County Jewish
Community Center seniors. She is currently working
on a documentary about older women in America.

dle of a skit and ask the audience what they need to
do to move things along. Or at the beginning of a
skit, a performer may ask a question. "What comes
to mind?" asks Diane Kreger at a performance where
the theme is "The Morning After."
"A migraine," someone shouts.
The theater group responds with twisted move-
ment, until someone else in the audience shouts out,
"Sex." And the group moves again. "The pill,"
another cries. A performer plays a kazoo and the
others burst into a chorus of sounds echoing the
word "pill." Someone else calls, "Can't find it."
"Uh, oh!"
Audience and performers meld into one force as
the theater goes black. The experience of "the
morning after" begins to take hold in both per-
former and viewer.
"It's important to learn to listen,"
says Jerry Lemenu. "We don't take
lightly what people write. We
honor their situation."
Kreger says that her Jewishness
plays a part in her work. She once
got a card during diversity training
at a high school which requested an
improvisation of a Jewish child who
is challenged to explain his faith to
friends who aren't Jewish.
The performer understood the
experience of not belonging, having
gone to non-Jewish schools. The card
reminded her of the time in junior
high when she wanted to connect to
other students and tried to hide her
J 11
dai SM.
When she told her grandmother
what she had done, Kreger was encouraged to take
pride in her religion.
Her grandmother's lesson takes on another dimen-
sion as Kreger now uses humor "to bridge differ-
ences" on stage.
"What we're trying to do," she says of the Martin
Luther King event, "is tell a story with the audience
that is respectful and understanding of people."
"Empatheatre is about being true to yourself,"
Schreiber offers. "Remember what Hillel said, `If I'm
not for myself, who am I for?'"

Director Sara Schreiber
grew up in an Orthodox
Jewish community with
lots of laughing and
dancing. 'And that's
what the theater is,
a community.

King Performance

Schreiber laughs heartily when asked how
Empatheatre connects to Martin Luther King Jr.
"We're about equality," she says. "We're the improb-
able theater. To ask people to be tolerant, loving and
have compassion is improbable."
The 13th annual University of Michigan Business
and Finance Convocation in Recognition of Martin
Luther King Jr. takes place 12:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 15,
at Arm Arbor's Power Center for the Performing Arts.
When asked how they will prepare for the event,
members of the troupe offer a variety of responses:
"We've been preparing for it all our lives," says
Jerry Lemenu, who is earnest and warm. "That's 54
- ears of experience for me. I expect to reflect charac-
ters that Martin Luther King stood for and those
who resisted him. I can't go up and pretend to be a
black man. I'll be a white man dealing with black
issues —segregation, issues of justice and injustice
that still exist."
Judy Sauer explains that a committee from the
MLK Jr. convocation will view the theater's work
during a practice session and then will write the
index cards on the theme of renewal for the Jan. 15
performance.
"Our motto is to expect the unexpected," says
Sauer, "for the performers as well as for the audience."
The group also uses various techniques to promote
discussion. They may freeze their action in the mid-

❑

Empatheatre's next regular productions are 7:30
p.m. Fridays, Jan. 12 and Feb. 9, at the
Kerrytown Concert Theater, 415 N. Fourth
Ave., Ann Arbor. Cost: $10-15. Empatheatre is
seeking new members of all backgrounds. For
information about all-day workshops or per-
formances, call (734) 913-9733.

The troupe will join Highest Praise Gospel
Ensemble, the Business and Finance Diversity
Choir and John E. Lawrence and Friends at the
13th annual University of Michigan Business
. and Finance Convocation in Recognition of
Martin Luther King Jr. It begins at 12:30 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 15, at Ann Arbor's Power Center
for the Performing Arts. The event is free and
open to the public. (734) 763-3333.

