ThE JEwish COMMUNITY
CENTER Julius CI-IAJES/ENCORE CONCERT
SERIES, YESI-liVAT AkIVA ANd TI-IE
INVITE
you
NEiqhboRhood
PROJECT
ELECTRifyiNg SOUNdS Of
TO HEAR
Sam Glaser
CRITICALLY ACClAIMEd, L.A.-bASEd SiNgER/SONWRITER
and
(
Beat'Achon
Courtroom Caper
WORLd RENOWNEd, JEW'iSl-I A CAPPELLA ENSEMDE
Lee Rosender and Wayne Yashinsky bring their
talents to "Witness for the Prosecution."
SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News
and set design.
Yashinsky also got into community
theater by chance. After noticing some-
one in his office building reading a
script, he asked about it and decided to
audition for the same company. That
was three years ago, and since then, he
has brought his family — wife Stephanie
and stepchildren Ashley Gaum and
Lorne Gaum — into Village Players
productions.
"I'm a ham at heart," says Yashinsky,
of Bloomfield Township, who has partic-
ularly enjoyed appearing in The Man
Who Came to Dinner. "I saw Witness for
the Prosecution as a movie many years
IIII or Lee Rosender, it's an exten-
sion of her professional skills.
For Wayne Yashinsky, it's
type-casting.
For both, it's a satisfying expression of
special interests.
All these meanings are invested in
Agatha Christie's mystery Witness for
the Prosecution, the production run-
ning March 9-24 on the Village
Players' Birmingham stage.
Rosender, a retired teacher and interi-
or designer, uses her skills to bring out
the best in the actors and plan
the sets. Yashinky, an attorney,
gets to play the judge in this
courtroom drama.
"The set design came first,"
says Rosender, who has been
with this community theater
group for more than 20 years.
"The challenge was to suit the
dimensions of the stage and
so I had to put an office with-
in a courtroom and make
that realistic to fulfill the
action of the play."
Rosender did not intend to Lee Rosender and Wayne Yashinsky
become involved with com-
munity theater when she was first asked ago and really liked it."
Yashinsky, a member of Congregation
to act in a Will-O-Way Playhouse pro-
Beth Shalom, likes family experiences
duction by a woman she knew there.
and so was glad to share the stage with
The invitation came after one per-
his stepdaughters in Bye Bye Birdie.
former had to leave the now-defunct
Being a judge seems appropriate at
theater company.
this time in his life and perhaps serves as
"I was hooked because it relieved per-
a signal that he took a theater tradition
sonal pressures at the time," explains
too literally. He's gone way beyond ful-
Rosender, of West Bloomfield, who
filling the meaning of a wish often spo-
went on to perform with Stagecrafters
in Royal Oak and St. Dunstan's Theatre ken by one actor to another: "break a
leg," which means "good luck."
Guild in Bloomfield Hills.
While sitting somewhat hidden as the
As she got into set design, she built
judge,
he can conceal that he needs to
on class experiences and planning the
rest the leg he broke falling down the
interior of the Ronald McDonald
stairs in his home.
House in Detroit.
"Acting takes a lot of time, but it's a
Rosender, who has been a member
wonderful outlet," he says. ❑
of the Jewish Community Center and
went to services at Temple Israel as she
was growing up, has performed in a
Witness for the Prosecution will be
Nancy Gurwin production of The
presented
8 p.m. March 9-10, 15-
at
the
JCC.
Her
Diary of Anne Frank
17 and 23-24 and 2 p.m. March
favorite role was Eleanor of Aquitaine
11 at the Village Players Playhouse,
in The Lion in Winter.
752
Chestnut, Birmingham. $14.
"Working with the entire cast is very
(248)
644-2075.
interesting," says Rosender, who has
given up acting to focus on directing
Sunday, March 18,. 2001 • 7:30 p.m.
YEShIVAT AkIVA •
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An exciting musical experience
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ANd ESThER ANd PETER ShifRIN PhILANThROpiC FUNd
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