is & Entertainment
Playwright
Ted Herstand
focuses on the
immigrant family
in a new comedy
opening at JET.
Photos by Yaacov Fay',lin
Loren Bass and Evelyn
Orbach in Ted Herstand's
It Should Be
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
ewish Ensemble Theatre takes its audiences back to the
1930s in Ted Herstand's It Should Be. The play, also
directed by Herstand, will be performed Jan. 23-Feb. 18.
"It's really the story of many immigrant families, no matter
where they came from:' says Herstand, who introduced the play
through a reading in California and a staged reading for JET
about two years ago. The main character, a Russian immigrant,
motivates her family to move beyond their modest means in New
York City, recalling Herstand's family history.
"These were interesting people with interesting backgrounds,
and they said something about the warmth of many families
coming to America from different places:' says Herstand.
"The extended family in my play lives in a little apartment and
has a rough time financially, but
the matriarch is able to take control
and move all of them toward a fuller
integration into society and success.
The comedy comes across as the
woman adjusts to her surroundings
and empowers the family"
Evelyn Orbach, JET artistic direc-
tor, takes the lead role, and JET
veteran Loren Bass, who appeared
in Arthur Miller's The Price ear-
lier this season, plays her husband.
The other characters sharing the
apartment are the couple's daughter
(Nancy Kammer), their son-in-law
(Fred Buchalter) and three grand-
children (Andrew Zimmer, Rachel
Allison and Jesse Miller).
"This is a large-cast play; and it's
A
very difficult to get large-cast plays,
except for musicals, produced in
any professional regional theater:' says the 76-year-old Herstand,
who lives and writes in Vermont, where he is extending a lengthy
career as an actor, playwright and academic.
"I had the idea for the play in mind for many years, but it
moved very quickly once I started it. I completed my ideas in
narrative and the first draft in a couple of months, while most of
my other plays have been in development a year before the play
itself was even started."
Herstand's interest in theater performance developed as he
grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, after his family moved from
New York. When he was 12, he won a scholarship to the Cleveland
Play House and was cast in productions until he graduated from
high school.
"This was a resident company, and the public schools I
attended made time accommodations so I could go to rehearsals:'
j
Herstand says. "I also worked in radio and appeared in indus-
trial films. Before deciding to go to college, I moved to New York,
where I was cast in theater, radio and early television, including
the Philco Television Hour."
Herstand earned a bachelor's
degree in theater at the University
of Iowa, where he began work on
a master's in theater and play-
writing before serving in the Air
Force during the Korean War. He
returned to Iowa, where he corn-
pleted degree requirements and
married actress Jo Ellen Gillette.
As he earned a doctorate
degree at the University of Illinois,
Herstand headed up the school's
experimental theater and conduct-
Ted Herstand: "I had the
ed workshops for actors, directors
idea for the play in mind
and playwrights.
for many years?'
Herstand moved on to the
University of Minnesota, where
he developed actors for the Guthrie Theater during the tenure of
Tyrone Guthrie; Case Western Reserve, where he trained actors
for the Cleveland Play House; and the University of Oklahoma,
where he became director of the School of Drama and organized
the Oklahoma Professional Theatre.
"I retired from teaching in 1992 and did a bit of acting and
increased my writing," says Herstand, the father of two and
grandfather of three. "I wrote six plays that were produced at
regional and academic theaters. Not all of them had Jewish
themes."
The Jewish themed includes The Emigration of Adam
Kurtzik, about the head of the Jewish community in a Nazi-
occupied Polish city, and Dov, about a man fighting for Israel's
statehood.
Herstand, who remains active in stage organizations such as
the Dramatists Guild and the College of Fellows of the American
Theatre, has begun his first book, a memoir of a solo bicycle
trip. To celebrate his 70th birthday, he rode from the state of
Washington to Maine — more than 4,000 miles — in 80 days.
"My days are just as full as when I was a professor and doing
other work as well," says Herstand, who is active in his local tern-
ple."I'm continuing with interests I've had all my life."
Jewish Ensemble Theatre presents It Should Be Jan.
23-Feb.18 at the Aaron DeRoy Theatre in the Jewish
Community Center in West Bloomfield. Performances
are at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Thursdays, 5 and 8:30 p.m.
Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. The play also can be seen
at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 23, and 2 p.m. Wednesday, Feb.
14. $24-$39, with discounts available for seniors and stu-
dents. (248) 788-2900.
January 18 • 2007
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