Arts & Entertainment

Appearing in Fired!

are, clockwise

from top left,

filmmaker
Annabelle Gurwitch

and comedians

Jeff Garlin, Sarah

Silverman and

Harry Shearer.

When One Door Closes

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With wit and empathy, Annabelle Gurwitch examines the "fired" experience.

Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News

A

nnabelle Gurwitch clearly
remembers the one Passover
she wishes she could forget.
As soon as her rabbi announced that
she had been cast in a Woody Allen play,
Gurwitch had to face a room of 50 people
and fess up to the fact that she just had
been fired ("You look retarded," Allen told
her).
"Working with Woody Allen was an
incredible life dream for me': explains
Gurwitch, an emerging actress at the time.
"I felt I had let down the Jewish people
because I was fired by Woody Allen."
Caught up with all the emotions of
losing that job, Gurwitch went on to talk
with others and found many dramatic,
and often humorous, experiences related
to dismissal. She decided that would be a
worthy topic for a book and came up with
Fired! (Touchstone; $13), published last
year. Among the nearly 60 essays is her
own, "Crimes and Mythdemeanors."
The book soon was followed by
Gurwitch's documentary film of the same
name but with some new angles. It will be
screened Thursday-Saturday, March 22-24,
at the Detroit Film Theatre in the Detroit
Institute of Arts.
"The overall tone of the book and the
film is comedic, although this really is a
serious subject': says Gurwitch, who has
branched out from acting and now writes
articles and does commentary for Day to
Day on National Public Radio. "We're not

invites commentary.
laughing at the experience of being fired.
"I dreamed that by telling my story and
We're laughing to cope with the experience
collecting
these stories, I would open the
of being fired.
door for other people to tell theirs. I feel
"I made a comedic bent to help lighten
it's very cathartic to tell a personal story.
up the spirits of people going through job
The experience gets put in perspective."
loss, so the book contains many really
Gurwitch's interest in acting started
funny stories that end in triumph and
preteen as she participated in
being led to a better place. I
temple programs in Miami
think there's a great tradition
Beach, and she continued with
of Jewish comedians who take
school productions. While
their suffering and turn it into
attending New York University,
comedy:"
she got her first part in a city
Gurwitch, 45, includes
Shakespeare festival.
many essays by famous Jewish
After playing a role for many
employees, including writer
years in The Guiding Light
Andy Borowitz (fired from
soap opera, she went on to
the TV series Facts of Life
Not Necessarily the News
for not "getting Tootie"), TV
on HBO. Her television credits
personality Bob Saget and
include co-host of Dinner and
Fired!: A collection
comedians Jeff Garlin, Sarah
of mostly humorous a Movie on TBS and appear-
Silverman, Judy Gold, Harry
ances on series such as Boston
essays.
Shearer, Jeffrey Ross and
Legal. Film roles have placed
Maxine Lapiduss. Labor advo-
cate Robert Reich weighs in, and Gurwitch her in The Shaggy Dog and Melvin
Goes to Dinner.
also brings in family members, husband
"I've definitely become an activist for
Jeff Kahn and mother Shirley Gurwitch.
labor," says Gurwitch, also developing a
While Gurwitch's book covers many
pilot for the Lifetime network with her
otherwise short-term jobs on the way to
building a career, her film delves into more husband, a writer-producer for the short-
long-term themes and includes interviews lived, Emmy-winning Ben Stiller Show.
"I am a member of three unions and
with Michigan autoworkers. Many of the
very proud of that. I have seen firsthand
stories are unfinished because the prob-
the power of numbers, and I feel I have a
lems being faced remain unresolved.
great deal in common with everyone, par-
"The most satisfying part of all this has
been meeting people at book signings and ticularly the union members at GM I met
while working on my projects."
screenings and hearing their stories': says
As Gurwitch talks to people about
writer-producer Gurwitch, whose Web
employment issues, she becomes more
site, www.firedbyannabellegurwitch.com ,

concerned with health-care plans. On the
board of a new nonprofit, nonpartisan
organization, United Professionals — for
unemployed, underemployed and anxious-
ly employed white-collar workers — she
hopes the group will be able to offer a
health plan for members.
"We're hoping to extend the community
of people who are either out of work or
feeling disenfranchised:' she says. "We
need to band together to have a national
voice."
Gurwitch, who has a 9-year-old son and
spends family time playing tennis, defines
herself as a secular Jew and considers her
attention to employment issues part of the
Jewish consciousness.
"I think that being an activist is part
of a great Jewish tradition:' she says. "My
grandmother and mother were social
workers, and I feel like I'm helping to
carry on that tradition as well. I've shown
the film at several Jewish film festivals,
and it's also been screened in Israel, where
I worked on a kibbutz when I was 16.
"When I reach out and talk to people
about the common-ground insecurity of
working today, it extends me. I feel like
I've joined a national community in a
greater way." I

Fired! screens 7:30 p.m. Thursday

and 9:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday,
March 22-24, at the Detroit Film
Theatre in the Detroit Institute of
Arts. $5-$7.50. (313) 833-3237 or
www.dia.org/dft.

March 22 2007

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