university musical society Universit y of Michigan • Ann Arbor
Single Ticket Day
Stage Struck
West Bloomfield native switches careers and makes
his mark on the famed Pasadena Playhouse.
Monday, August 20
All Tickets on Sale!
JENNIFER LOVY
Special to the Jewish News
Beginning Monday, August 20 all tickets go on sale for
individual events on the UMS 2001-2002 Season.
Prior to Monday, August 20 tickets may be purchased
in pre-packaged series at a reduced price.
UMS Members may purchase individual tickets starting Monday, August 6.
Website sales begin Thursday, August 16 at www.ums.org .
Shockheaded Peter (A Junk Opera)
Featuring The Tiger Lillies
Charlie Haden's Quartet West with Strings
Bill Henderson and Ruth Cameron vocals
Liz Lerman Dance Exchange: Hallelujah!
Da Camera of Houston: Marcel Proust's Paris
American String Quartet
Berlin Philharmonic
Claudio Abbado conduct.,
William Sharp baritone
The Chieftains
Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
Wynton Marsalis amsmchrector
A Solo Evening with Laurie Anderson
Children of Uganda
Chunky Move
Evgeny Kissin
Harolyn Blackwell soprano
Florence Quivar mezzo-soprano
piano
Gypsy Caravan II: A Celebration
of Rroma Music and Dance
From the Diary of Sally Hemings
Collegium Vocale Gent and Ensemble Modern
Theatre de la Jeune Lune:
Moliere's Tartuffe
San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas
Hagen Quartet
conductor
Boys Choir of Harlem
St. Petersburg Conservatory
Chamber Ensemble
St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
Yuri Temirkanov conductor
Leif Ove Andsnes piano
Philip on Film:
Guthrie Theater:
Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness!
Live music by Philip Glass
and the Philip Glass Ensemble
Los Munequitos de Matanzas
Netherlands Chamber Choir
The Tallis Scholars
Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice
Peter Sparling Dance Company
Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra
Da Camera of Houston:
Epigraph for a Condemned Book
Sarah Rothenberg director and pianist
Music by Frederic Chopin
Texts by Charles Baudelaire
Anne-Sophie Mutter violin
and the Trondheim Soloists
Sweet Honey in the Rock
Twyla Tharp Dance
Andreas Scholl
Brahms' German Requiem
UMS Choral Union
Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra
countertenor
Joshua Redman Quartet
and Brad Mehldau Trio
Handel's Messiah
Emerson String Quartet and
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio
Kirov Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre
Valery Gergiev conductor
" Alexander Toradze piano
Afro-Cuban Dance Party with
Celia Cruz and Albita
Wayne Shorter Quartet
Les Arts Florissants
Christmas Music of
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
William Christie conductor
Stephan Genz
Les Musiciens du Louvre
Marc Minkowski conductor
Anne Sofie von Otter mezzo-soprano
Takocs Quartet and Robert Pinsky
baritone
Rennie Harris Puremovement: Rome
e Jewels
Brentano String Quartet and Mark Strand poet
Haydn's Seven Last Words of Christ
poet
All the World for Love
Ian Bostridge tenor
Lyon Opera Ballet: Cendrillon ("Cinderella")
A Tribute to Gospel Legend Mottle Moss Clark
e rs/6„.
Call today for a free brochure.
urns
1 734,764.2538
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SOCIet
Outside the 734 area code,
call toll-free
800.221.1229
ou don't have to tell Jayson
Raitt he mixed up the East
and West coasts. The 29-
year-old West Bloomfield
native already acknowledges the irony
of choosing to relocate to Los Angeles
rather than New York.
Raitt currently works in theater,
which means that New York would
have been the logical place to settle
following his 1993 graduation
from the University of Michigan.
But his early aspirations were to
work in movie and television pro-
duction. He earned a master's
degree in film, graduating in 1996
from the acclaimed UCLA School
of Theater, Film and Television.
Raitt, who always appreciated
theater but never really thought of
making a career of it, held a num-
ber of film and television produc-
tion jobs before he realized he
should be working in theater and
not just appreciating it from afar.
"I went to film school, so I
thought I should be working in
film," said Raitt, who frequently
Jayson Rain: A passion for theater.
returns home to visit his parents,
"We know we're going to have a
Steve and Jane Raitt, and to
future with it," said Raitt of "The
spend the Jewish holidays with
Grave White Way"
them in West Bloomfield.
By the time he realized theater
son who makes things happen."
was his passion, Raitt was already
Adds Sheldon Epps, the artistic direc-
rooted in California, where he estab-
tor
at the Pasadena Playhouse, "Jayson
lished a number of excellent contacts
stands out from other aspiring produc-
in the entertainment industry.
ers because of his tenacity, passion and
After a "midlife crisis" at the age of
enthusiasm for the art of theater."
26, Raitt knew he needed to make the
Earlier this year, Raitt also got a
switch to the stage. "I wanted to pro-
night
job. In the spring, two producers
duce theater, but I also knew that at
who
were
familiar with his work asked
least initially I needed a day job where
if
they
could
"pick his brain." They
I could increase my theater knowledge
discussed a musical they were about to
and exposure," he said.
produce and asked Raitt to listen to
Almost immediately, Raitt got that
some of the songs.
day job at the well-known Pasadena
"I told them if they were going to do
Playhouse. Founded in 1917, the play-
the
musical, they could not do it with-
house has been at its current location
out
me," said Raitt, who came on board
since 1925, and in 1937 was declared
with
Michael Weiner and Alan Zachary
the "State Theater of California" by
as
the
third producer of the production,
the state Legislature.
called The Grave White Way.
The first American theater to pres-
The show is a musical satire about
ent all of Shakespeare's 37 plays, the
five dead Broadway actors trying to
Pasadena Playhouse was known during
get into musical theater heaven by per-
the 1930s-'50s as "Hollywood's talent
factory." It launched the careers of
STAGE STRUCK on page 82
KrrrXg `:
SamulNori
Dracula
Shorts (rico, short films by contemporary filmmakers)
Koyaanisqatsi
y
countless playwrights, directors and
actors, including William Holden,
Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman.
Raitt is currently the theater's pro-
duction associate, and is responsible
for managing the artistic and produc-
tion administration of theater pro-
gramming.
"Jayson got to where he is quickly
on pure drive," said Lyla White, the
executive director of the Pasadena
Playhouse. "He won't accept 'no' for
an answer, and he is the kind of per-
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