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 . 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- www.ums.org