COMING HOME

from page 53

experimental play Tamara, in which a
dozen characters tell their stories in
different acting areas, with the audi-
ence moving from place to place.
"I had friends who'd moved to
L.A.; they said it's a great place for an
actor," Bass says. "I hated it the
moment I arrived."
He eventually found a home with
the Pasadena Shakespeare Company.
At the same time, he and Nancy
started a breakfast catering business
for the film industry. But California
was no place to raise children. "We
had no idea how bad the schools are,"
he says.
Unlike most actors, Bass always had
complete support of his parents,
George and Lenore. One of the joys
of coming home is that his mother
sees all his shows — more than once.
He wishes his father could see him
act as well, but George Bass passed
away two years ago, six months
before his son moved back to
Michigan.
The Bass family owned a landscape
supply business in Waterford. Now
called Bedrock Express, it is currently
run by Bass' brother, Barry. "We lived
in one room on one side of the store
and my grandparents lived on the
other side," Loren Bass remembers.
"My parents and grandparents

Dennis North, Loren Bass and Phil Powers in the Meadow Brook Theatre
production of 'Art"

started out in Detroit. They had a
summer home on [Waterford's]
Woodhull Lake, and, when my par-
ents had their fifth child, we refur-
bished the cottage."
The only Jewish family in
Waterford during the school year, the

Basses joined the Birmingham
Temple. "My mother would run a
regular bus service to all the Jewish
events," says Bass.
The performer resists being stereo-
typed as a "Jewish" actor. "It only
limits you," he says. "I'm happy to be

`an actor who is Jewish.'"
"Being an actor, I have to be all
kinds of people," he continues. "In
Dirty Story at the Jewish Ensemble
Theatre, I played a Palestinian."
The New York theater world may
call again, he says, — "when the girls
are in college."
Meanwhile, Bass begins his third
Michigan acting season this fall.
Since returning, he's had leading roles
in the Detroit Repertory Theatre's
production of Sorrows and Rejoicing,
Sins of Sor Juana at Ann Arbor's
Performance Network; and Dance
Like No One's Watching at the
Boarshead in Lansing.
In Art, Bass plays the role of Yvan,
who tries to maintain a friendship
when one friend buys a ridiculously
over-priced painting and the other
friend mocks the purchase. After Art
closes on Nov. 7, he'll return to JET
in West Bloomfield for a two-person
adaptation of The Dybbuk, playing
Dec. 1, 2004-Jan. 2, 200511

The first production of the 2004-
05 season at Meadow Brook
Theatre, Art, by Yasmina Reza,
runs Oct. 13-Nov. 7. For show
times and ticket information, call
(248) 377-3300.

Now Playing In Rochester

Meadow Brook Theatre's new season has a lot to offer Jewish theatergoers.

"Basically, we're not going to upset the apple cart
quite so much," he said. "We would like to push the
envelope — but we're willing to do it slowly."
Jewish theatergoers have never
eadow Brook Theatre has changed in several
flocked in large numbers to
crucial ways since John Manfredi and David
Meadow Brook, which had
Regal took over in summer 2003.
gained the reputation of present-
Meadow Brook is now fiscally independent of
ing conservative productions of
Oakland University, although the 600-seat theater is
tried-and-true Middle American
still located squarely in the middle of the Rochester
fare. But this year may change all
campus. About $1 million has been cut
that.
from the budget; ticket prices have been
First, Meadow Brook is one of
dropped about 20 percent; and still the
the
only theaters not formally
theater made a small profit last year.
connected with the Jewish com-
And, although A Christmas Carol is still
munity to observe the 350th
on the 2004-2005 season, there's not a
anniversary of the Jews in America with specif-
single work by Agatha Christie anywhere
ic programming.
in sight.
Of the six productions in the current sea-
"We are trying to broaden our pro-
son, two are specifically linked to the
gramming without totally changing
American Jewish community — Alfred Uhry's
Meadow Brook as it has become," said
John Kander and
Driving Miss Daisy and The World Goes
Manfredi, who became managing direc-
`Round, a revue of the music of John Kander
tor after a committee of the theater's sup- Fred Ebb
(who died last month) and Fred Ebb, the duo
porters rescued Meadow Brook from
responsible for Chicago, Cabaret and others. In
OU's budget axe.

DIANA LIEBERIMAN
Special Writer

BE

10/ 8
2004

60

addition, the season opens with Art, by French-Jewish
playwright Yasmina Reza and also includes And Then

They Came For Me: Remembering the World of Anne
Frank, by James Still.
"We thought honoring the Jewish community of
America was an important thing to do," Manfredi said.
Increasing the size of its audiences and the number
of its supporters was another factor, he admitted.
"It's definitely part of the reason we chose these spe-
cific plays," he said. "The Jewish community is a very
arts-friendly community"
Along with its six-play season, the theater is also
partnering with the Oakland University Department
of Music, Theater and Dance in an April production
of The White Rose, by Lillian Groag, based on a true
story of a group of college students who stood up
against the Nazi regime by publishing anonymous
protest leaflets. ❑

For more information on the 2004-2005
Meadow Brook Theatre season, call (248)
377-3300 or go to www.mbtheatre.com