55 &
counting

Kitty Dubin's new play
confronts issues faced by
aging baby boomers.

boomers suddenly having to adjust to a
have spent a week together, vacationing
whole different stage in their lives:' Orbach -
with
their
spouses
at
a
cottage
on
Lake
Diana Lieberman
said.
Michigan. At the start of the play, Holly, a
Special to the Jewish News
"She uses a truly legitimate premise
recent widow, arrives alone and inconsol-
— as she has in her earlier plays •— and
able.
creates moving theater." •
Meanwhile, Sarah and her husband,
he droopy face you have when
In 2002, Dubin received a Jewish
Ben, are facing an empty nest, the loss of
you get out of bed in the morn-
Women in the Arts Award for Lifetime
their parents, the prospect of retirement
ing no longer snaps back into
• Achievement from the Jewish Community
and possibly the deterioration of their
shape after that first cup of coffee. Your
Center of Metropolitan Detroit. A member
marriage. Complicating matters is the
doctor is the daughter of the boy you had
of the Dramatists Guild, the Birmingham
disturbing presence of Jake, a free-spir-
a crush on in junior high. Your friends are
resident received two playwriting grants
ited and undisciplined artist and house
retiring; your children are reproducing;
from the Michigan Council for the Arts
painter.
you go to the movies and Paul Newman is
and Humanities.
Acting in Coming-of Age are Naz
an old man.
She was recently named JET playwright
Edwards of Ann Arbor, last seen in -
Let's face it — you are no longer . a tee-
in
residence by the theater's board of
JET's performance of Side By Side
nybopper. (Do they even use that phrase
directors.
By Sondheim; Babs George of Austin,
anymore?)
No other playwrights have had their
"Some people Texas; Mark Rademacher of Commerce
works
presentedmore than three times in
Township; and Thomas Hoagland, a for-
try to reset the
JET'S
17
seasons, Orbach said.
mer Detroit actor now living in New York.
hands of time
"It's
true
that I do pay special attention
"Let's faCe it, aging is a hard pill to swal- •
. with every fiber
to
local
playwrights,
but I don't produce
low," said Dubin, who turned 60 earlier
of their being,"
gifts:'
Orbach
said. "This play
this year. "I've been preparing for it for the plays as
said Kitty
reads
well
and,
once
you
start fleshing it
last 10 years. Everyone Fknow is in the
Dubin, whose
out,
you
see
so
many
levels
you didn't even
same boat.
newest play,
think of."
"Something is happening that we
Coming of
Age, is the final thought would never happen — we are
Therapeutic Insights
getting old. It's a shock; it's unsettling."
production
Before turning to drama, Dubin spent
of the Jewish
more
than 20 year's as a psychotherapist,
Repeat Performance
Ensemble
and
she
uses the 'insight of a psychothera-
Coming of Age, which opens Tuesday,
Theatre's 2005-
pist
to
sensitively
examine life's passages,
April 25, is the fifth of Dubin's plays to be
2006 season.
Kitty Dubin
bringing
both
pathos
and humor to seri-
performed by JET and the fourth to be
The play's
ous issues.
protagonist, • premiered by the West Bloomfield-based
"To me, a play is good if you can take
professional theater company.
Sarah Simon, is one of those people who
something
away with you after you've seen
This is no accident, said Evelyn Orbach,
refuse to accept the reality of aging, Dubin
it:'
the
playwright
said.-"If someone can
JET founder and artistic director.
said.
take
something
from
my plays, if they help
"Kitty is dealing with a topic we're not
•
Every summer, the 50-plus Sarah
them
sort
out
the
process
of their lives,
seeing a lot of in the theater — baby
and her best friend from college, Holly,

T

that's all to the good."
Dubin teaches playwriting at Oakland
University. The program she founded eight
years ago has proved so popular that, this
year, she added an advanced playwriting
course. For the first time, the university
will stage a full-length play by one of her
students later this spring.
In addition to the JET production,
one of Dubin's one-act plays, Mimi and
Me, was performed earlier this month
at Seligman Hall, on the campus of
Detroit Country Day School, as part of the
Heartlande Theatre Michigan New Works
Festival. The two-person play featured
Shirley Benyas and Catherine Lutz.
The same one-act play is part of
the touring theater festival, "6 Women
Playwrights Turning 60 in 2006," to be
performed in sites thro . ughout.the United
States.

❑

JET•presents Coming of Age April
25-May 21 at the Aaron DeRoy
Theatre in the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield.
Performances are 7:30 p.m.
Wednesdays (excluding May 17
when there will be a matinee at 2
p.m.); 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 5 and
8:30 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p:m.
Sundays. $28-$37 with discounts
available for seniors and students;
$15 rush tickets, when available, go
on sale one hour before each per-
formance. For information or reser-
vations, call (248) 788-2900.

iN

April 20 • 2006

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