The Neuman Family
and Staff of

STAR DELI

Get In On The Act(s)

JETS annual Festival of New Plays invites
audience feedback in the development
of new works for the theater.

le

SUZANNE CHESSLER

Special to the Jewish News

ver want to try writing a
play?
The Jewish Ensemble
Theatre doesn't offer that
exact opportunity, but it does offer a
chance to help rewrite plays. That
happens every spring when JET pres-
ents its Seymour and Ethel S. Frank
Festival of New Plays.
Each week, for four weeks —
Wednesdays at the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield and
Thursdays at the Jewish
Community Center in Oak Park
— a new program with at least
one play will be presented.
Although there are no sets and
costumes, performers will act out
their roles and then invite audi-
ence comments and suggestions.
This year, the festival runs
April 11-May 3 with perform-
ances starting at 7:30 p.m.
"This is an opportunity to see
work in progress," says Evelyn
Orbach, JET artistic director.
"It's also a time to view talents
of new people and help expand
JET's resources. These plays
[may] have been read before a group,
but they have never been seen as full
productions."
Some 200 plays were submitted and
then reviewed by Orbach and the Play
Selection Committee, which includes
Rosalie Beer, Sidney Dillick, Kelly Pino
and Bert and Larry Weather.
Former Detroiter Susan Merson will
get the festival started April 11 and 12
with three short plays, Hair: A
Reminiscence, Sara's Last Dance and
Beyond the Sea. They are based on her
experiences in Michigan.
An actress in the JET production
Family Secrets, Merson, now living in
California, touches on the themes of
love, passion and coming of age.
Yolanda Fleischer is director.
A Few Prayers, directed by Orbach
and showcased April 18 and 19, goes
back to the Great Depression and
questions what really makes people
rich. Julius Landau is the playwright.
Two one-act plays, both directed by
Chris Bremer, will be introduced April

25 and 26. Elaine Denholtz, a college
reacher, will be represented by Doggy
Bag, a dark comedy about an older
couple who clip coupons, take advan-
tage of specials and outsmart the sys-
tem. Bruce Bloom, who acts in com-
munity theater, wrote The Last Request
of Eddie Carmichael/Cohen, a story of
compassion as a mitzvah.
In the final sessions, May 2 and 3,
Michigan playwright Kitty Dubin will
introduce Dance Like No One's Watching.
The play, about a couple going through
marriage counseling, builds on Dubin's

Kitty Dubin;-
"Dance Like No
One Watching"
6
builds on her
firsthand experience
as a former
marriage counselor.

firsthand experience as a former mar-
riage counselor. The play will be directed
by Geoffrey Sherman.
Other Dubin plays performed in full
productions at JET include Change of
Life and The Day We Met.
"We ask audiences ro think about
identifying with the characters, finding
elements that are redundant, offering
something that was missing, deciding
the way the whole play works and just
reacting to what they have seen,"
Orbach says.

The Seymour and Ethel S. Frank
Festival of New Plays runs
Wednesdays and Thursdays, April
11-May 3, at the West Bloomfield
Jewish Community Center
(Wednesdays) and the Oak Park
JCC (Thursdays). Performances
begin at 7:30 p.m. Free to season
ticket holders and 55 at door for
others. (248) 788-2900.

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4Th

4/6
2001

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