0
• Gift Baskets
• Sweet Trays
• Muffins
• Soups
• Cookies
H E
Everything; Made Fresh Daily
Surreal Script
An early screenplay by forrner Detroiter and TV writer Craig Silverstein
gets staged as part of U-M Festival of New Works.
SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News
Ann Arbor
Voted Best Citallah Bread!
q.00 Off Any
Bread
Order
• 1 coupon per order
Expires 05/31/04
Not good with any other discount or special
offer Not valid on holiday orders
24-hour notice please on
Specialty items
(some exceptions)
6879 Orchard Lake Rd.
in the Boardwalk Plaza
248-626-9110
Em ,orakt ray
840070
ervice-,5
Catering & Banquet Services
Since 1988
In association with the
eet#
A
University of Michigan
script assignment helped
propel Craig Silverstein
into a television writing
career in Hollywood and now returns
him home to see its staged reading.
Hungry, a surreal action comedy
about a Jewish chef forced into drug
smuggling, will be performed as part
of the U-M Festival of New Works,
which runs May 13-29 and includes
two other staged readings.
The annual festival, in its sixth year,
presents new works by professional
writers, directors and actors from across
North America and invites audiences to
comment on what they have seen.
"Hungry got me my first writing job,
and I'm very curious to see what it
looks like on stage," says Silverstein,
29, whose piece will be workshopped
May 20-22. "Although it was never
turned into a film, it did get the atten-
tion of agents and gave me the chance
to work as a [TV] series staff writer."
Hungly, directed by James Meade,
t01
' 1
are proud to announce
the opening of the new
Banquet & Event Center
offers some directorial challenges because director. "We use equity actors and
students as performers. Staging screen-
the piece is adapted from what was
plays is unique to this festival."
intended to be shown on film. The
The screenplays are recommended
script, which features an older woman-
by U-M screenwriting coordinator Jim
younger man romance, has some unusu-
Burnstein.
al elements, including a stolen stomach,
Ultimately, all submitted plays are
being readied for an organ transplant.
"I wanted to experiment with a dark evaluated in a selection process admin-
istered by Neville-Andrews, artistic
comedy," Silverstein explains about
producer. Usually, the festival includes
the origin of his work. "Although my
main character is a lapsed Jew, he talks a straightforward play, musical and
screenplay, although there is no musi-
about Yom Kippur and what it means
cal this year.
to a guy who loves food."
"Plays workshopped in Ann Arbor
Pig Farm, written by Urinetown cre-
have gone on to full productions,"
ator Greg Kotis and directed by John
Chlipala says. "Summer of '42, with .
Neville-Andrews, pits farmers against
the Environmental
Protection Agency. End of
the Universe, written by
Kerry Russell and directed
by Neville-Andrews, fol-
lows an astronomy profes-
sor plagued by new scien-
tific theories and romantic
conflicts.
"The Festival of New
Works was modeled after a
similar program at
Carnegie-Mellon
University," explains Mary
Craig Silverstein: "Television's been very good to me."
Lou Chlipala, managing
From Premed To Pirate
Aaron Lazar takes the stage in MOT's "The Pirates of Penzance."
BILL CARROLL
Special to the Jewish News
Bar and Bat Mitzvahs
Wedding Receptions
Bridal & Baby Showers
Graduations
Corporate Events
Reservations now being
taken through 2005
Mis is et smoke um! Liquor free emit -oilmen,
Call for details
248.689.2494
5/14
2004
36
www.Emeraldfood.com
S
tudying music and premed at Duke University,
Aaron Lazar had a tough decision to make: pur-
sue a career in the medical field or show busi-
ness. He chose the latter.
The Jewish baritone is making his operetta debut —
in his first appearance with the Michigan Opera
Theatre — in The Pirates of Penzance, which continues
through Sunday, May 16, at the Detroit Opera House.
He plays Samuel, the pirate king's best friend, in the
lighthearted tale that ranks with H.M.S. Pinafore as two
of the most popular of 13 operettas written by Gilbert
and Sullivan.
Lazar had no serious interest in performing until high
school. Even chanting his bar mitzvah in a Conservative
synagogue gave no indication of his musical talent.
He started singing to keep busy when he wasn't toss-
ing the javelin and discus for his Cherry Hill, N.J.,
high-school track team. He got immersed in a few of
the school's dozen nationally recognized choirs, leading
to roles in local musical productions.
He attended Duke on a music scholarship but also
took premed courses. "My parents always wanted me to
become a doctor," he reflected, "and I scored very well
on my medical school admission test. But show busi-
ness was really my elusive dream."
First, though, he obtained a master of fine arts degree
at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.
Since then, Lazar, in his 20s, has had a mixture of
Broadway and regional theater roles and understudy
parts, such as Curly in Oklahoma and Raoul in The
Phantom of the Opera. He also toured nationally as