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Coming
Home
`Art" actor returns to Meadow Brook
afier 18 years.
DIANA LIEBERMAN
Special to the Jewish News
Loren Bass stars
in the MBT
production of `Art. ':•
"I had friends who'd
moved to L.A.;
they said its a great
place for an actor.
I hated it the moment
I arrived"
L
ife has come full circle for Loren Bass, co-star of Art, the three-man
show that opens Meadow Brook Theatre's 2004-05 season. It was 18
years ago that the Detroit-born actor, then living in New York, was
called by Terence Kilbourne, then Meadow Brook's artistic director, to audi-
tion for a part in Shakespeare's Richard III. To sweeten the deal, Kilbourne
offered to sponsor the young actor for membership in Actors' Equity, the
labor union that represents professional actors and stage managers.
If you look carefully at the photograph of that 1986 production, now hang-
ing in the Meadow Brook lobby in Rochester, you can see Bass on the far
right — he's the intense-looking one with a sword and a bowl haircut.
In Richard III, his first
role at Meadow Brook,
Bass worked with John
Manfredi and David
Regal. After detours in
New York and Los
Angeles, where he earned
accolades for his acting
and founded the
Pasadena Shakespeare
Company, he's back in
Michigan. And once
again, he's working with
Manfredi, now Meadow
Brook's managing direc-
tor, and Regal, now artis-
tic director.
"I'm having a ball,"
says Bass, who grew up
in Waterford. "David
Regal has been terrific.
He's not at all demand-
ing. He says, 'I cast you
guys — I want your
opinion.'"
Bringing up his two
daughters, Halley, 8, and
`Art" revolves
Emma, 5, in a whole-
around the purchase
some environment near
of an exorbitantly priced "white" painting.
family is a top priority
for Bass and his wife,
Nancy Eubanks, catering manager at Zingerman's. Fortunately, the family dis-
covered a place where they can combine family life with the theater, his first
passion.
"I love being back here," Bass adds. "It's the fulfillment of my mother's
dream."
Bass, 48, didn't decide to become an actor until his undergraduate days at
the University of Michigan. He never acted in school plays. Instead, he spent
his time on sports, studying and working in the family landscaping business.
"I took a lot of courses, Hilt nothing really attracted me," he says. "I remem-
bered that my mother always said I'd make a great actor, so I took one drama
course. I knew that was it, immediately."
He was awarded a full scholarship to the U-M drama department for gradu-
ate school and, after earning a master's degree, went on to Southern
Methodist University in Dallas, then part of the League of Professional
Training Schools. Again, he received a full scholarship.
He went directly from Dallas to the Virginia Shakespeare Festival and then
to New York, where he worked during the day for a Wall Street publication
and acted at night. A highlight of those 10 years was his three-year role in the
10/ 8
2004
COMING HOME
on page 60
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