TEMPLE ISRAEL'S FAMILY LIFE CENTER,
THE TEMPLE ISRAEL TREASURES & THE
CARING COMMUNITY
PRESENT:
PEOPLE WATCHER from page 75
Thursday, May 10, 2001
1:30-3:00 PM
Temple Israel
Open to the community & free of
charge!
As part of our regular afternoon
program for Seniors, we invite you
for coffee, cookies & great
company. Bring your friends to
this wonderful afternoon!
.11
TEMPLE ISRAEL
FAMILY LIFE CENTER
Partially funded by the
David Arthur Stulberg Memorial Fund
& the Harry & Phyllis Kellman
Memorial Fund
5725 Walnut Lake Road
West Bloomfield, MI
48323
Phone: 248-661-5700
www.temple-israel.org
(941/2001
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-
"The characters realize that they have
a great deal in common, and that tran-
scends their differences."
Jones, who has worked with the
Plowshares Theatre Company and the
Attic Theatre, has had Ansuini as a
director while appearing in the play
Three Ways Home. For the current pro-
duction, Jones finds it interesting
being exposed to a different culture as
expressed by the playwright.
Denker, born and raised in New
York City, where he earned his law
degree during the Great Depression,
wrote as a hobby throughout school
and after, especially when he found his
profession dull and discouraging.
His first play, though never pro-
duced, brought attention to him as a
writer, and he was hired into radio.
One series, The Greatest Story Ever
Told, ran 10 years and was the basis of
the motion picture.
A second try for the
stage met with a string of
successes. The first was
Time Limit, a play about
the Korean War. Other
productions included A
Far Country, which was
about Freud's first patient,
and A Case of Libel, which
was done three separate
times on television.
Filled with ideas,
Denker became adept at
deciding which medium
would offer the best form
of expression for each. He
was happiest when the novel was the
right approach because that gave him
the most independence.
"I often have had Jewish characters in
my books," Denker says. " The Healers,
which begins in Vienna in 1848, was
about a young Jewish boy who was a
medical student, got involved with the
revolution and had to flee Austria. It
[relates] his [fictional] experiences in
this country with the original Mt. Sinai
Hospital [in New York City], which
was called 'Jews Hospital' then."
The King Maker, Denker's only
book detailing a real person, Ronald
Reagan, has to do with the transfor-
mation from actor to governor of
California on the threshold of the
presidency. The author, incidentally, as
producer of TV's Medallion Theatre,
was glad to work with Reagan on vari-
ous programs because of the former
president's pleasant ways, punctuality
and facility with learning lines.
Coincidentally, it was the same
program that brought Denker to
Detroit's automotive board rooms,
where he met with the high-powered
sponsors of his shows.
"Reagan's campaign was the first
time they began to have campaign
[managers] instead of political big
shots running campaigns," Denker
explains about his book and the moti-
vation for writing it. "Reagan also
[pioneered] the whole idea of the 20-
second sound bite as a way of control-
ling what goes on television."
Most of Denker's writing has to do
with law and medicine, and Horowitz
and Mrs. Washington is a prime example.
"We treat, in a very specific and
accurate way, the problems that are pre-
sented by someone who has a stroke,"
he says. "A big problem, from a medical
point of view, is that stroke victims are
very depressed and often give up.
"The books and play explore how to
deal medically and therapeutically with a
man in his mid-60s and how he [copes
Playwright
Henry Denker on
the characters in
"Horowitz and Mrs.
Washington: "I liked
the opportunity
to not just tell the
story but at the same
time take part in
the revolution that
was going on in this
country in terms
of race."
with the aftermath]. Everything in the
play in relation to the stroke, such as the
implements used and the exercises, is
very authentic. I did a lot of research."
Denker, still writing, has transitioned
to the computer, not an entirely happy
move because of early equipment prob-
lems. With his defective model
replaced, productivity is returning.
"When I'm working on a long proj-
ect, I have to concentrate," Denker
says. "I have to work at it seven days a
week because if I take time off, I lose
momentum." Ell
Horowitz and Mrs. Washington
holds previews May 9-13 and
runs through June 10 at the West
Bloomfield Jewish Community
Center. Opening night, Sunday,
May 13, begins at 7:30 p.m.
Other performances are at 7:30
p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and
Sundays; 8 p.m. Saturdays; and 2
p.m. Sundays. $16-$26 with sen-
ior, student and group discounts.
(248) 788-2900.