C4

ABLE
FOR TWO.

While Sherman's work is about real
people, he thinks of them as fictional
characters, and invents situations while
trying to project the essence of their
personalities and actions. His goal
within the plot, certainly not total
accuracy, was to be true to who the
people were and what they represented.
"My characters are all composites of
people I know and become a combina-
tion of observation and invention,"
Sherman says about his reality-based and
totally fictional works. 'All my plays
look at individuals in their social milieu
to show the effects of the world on the
individual and the intent of the individ-
ual to have an effect on the world."
Sherman, who started writing plays
while still in high school, graduated
from the Creative Writing Program of
York University in 1985. Before devot-
ing himself to writing for stage and
television, he produced and edited a
literary magazine and penned reviews,
essays and articles for various newspa-
pers and magazines.
"I've written a few Jewish-Chemed
plays, and they're all about the rela-
tionship between Jews outside Israel to
Israel," says Sherman, whose personal
religious observation remains fasting
on Yom Kippur. "I was born and
raised Jewish, and I am Jewish. So
when I write about the world and my
place in it, I go to those reference
points that I have naturally.
The League of Nathans is about
three Jewish guys all named Nathan
and attempts to show how people
are influenced by things they are

taught at a young age. The central
character shows up in a sequel,
Reading Hebron, which looks at the
history of Israel and how it came to
be what it is now. The Retreat, about
a young Hebrew schoolteacher, has
questions about Jewish identity, dias-
pora and Israel.
The League of Nathan won a Floyd
S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award in
1993. Three in the Back, Two in the
Head, about a military scientist, won a
Governor General's Award in 1995.
Sherman, married to actress
Melinda Little, whom he met in col-
lege, and the father of two, takes little
time away from family and work. He
just completed the script for a TV
film, Lie With Me, which is about a
university track coach falsely accused
of raping a student.
"I'm usually juggling four or five
projects," says Sherman, whose Ann
Arbor production will include live
music and will be directed by Daniel
C. Walker, artistic director of the
Performance Network. ❑

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Sept. 28. And Showtime was to
broadcast The Believer on Sept. 30.
"In order to be sensitive to the cur-
rent mood of our country, we feel
that it would be appropriate to delay
the broadcast to a time when our
audience might be more receptive to
this kind of strong drama," the cable
network explained in a statement.
The Believer was a sensation at this
year's Sundance Film Festival, earn-
ing director Henry Bean the Grand
Jury Prize for Drama. Normally, this
would merit a fat distribution deal
with Miramax, but after Bean
screened the film at the Simon
Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles,
interest in a volatile film about a
confused young Jew who becomes a
skinhead to defy Jewish weakness
withered.
Time of Favor, the controversial
Israeli entry for the 2000 Academy

Awards, has also generated considerable
media attention long before its sched-
uled premiere. A profile of the New
York-born Israeli director Joseph Cedar
appeared on the front page of the New
York Times arts section in January.
Gary Palmucci, general manager of
distributor Kino International, who
handles all theatrical bookings, decid-
ed to postpone the film's opening
because Jewish terrorism is not a sub-
ject moviegoers are ready to
encounter just yet, especially as the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict smolders.
The Believer and Time of Favor are
complicated portraits that demand
empathy for their protagonists, angry
young men driven to righteous vio-
lence. Distributors think those por-
trayals are out of sync at a time when
90 percent of Americans favor mili-
tary action against those responsible
for terrorist attacks. ❑

(1/2 block W. of Raggedy, inside Pheasant Run Plaza)
Coupons & discounts may not be used on buffet

(248) 477-8600

6676 Orchard Lake dd.
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West Bloomfield

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FAX 248-851-7685

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