the MASCO Corporation Foundation, the Anti-Defamation League.
the Ravit: Program tcr Confronting Anti-Semitiant & DIE energy
Underwritten by
The Jewish Ensemble eatre in cooperatio wit
Wayne State Univensity'a Hillberry Repertory Theatre reae to
Palmer Park
ay by Joanna McClelland Glass
Ronelle Grier
Special to the Jewish News
y
ou didn't have to live in
Palmer Park to know its leg-
end. After the 1967 Detroit
riots spurred a flurry of "white flight"
from the city to the suburbs, the neigh-
borhood known for its large stately
homes, lush lawns and safe streets lined
with leafy elms became a temporarily
idyllic pocket of racial integration.
Palmer Park, written by Joanna
McClelland Glass and currently play-
ing at the Jewish Ensemble Theatre
in West Bloomfield before it moves to
the Hilberry Theatre in Detroit, tells a
cautionary and still timely tale about
family, friendship and prejudice.
The story centers around two
Palmer Park families — one black, the
other white — who find themselves
living next door to one another.
Jason Echols plays Fletch Hazelton,
a black pediatrician, light-skinned and
impeccably tailored, who
lives with his well-dressed
wife, Linda (Casaundra
Freeman), their daughter
and pedigreed Irish setter. Their new
neighbors are transplants from Iowa:
Martin Townsend (Patrick Moltane),
who has come to Detroit to teach phys-
ics at Wayne State University, his wife,
Kate (Inga R. Wilson), their daughter
and a "Heinz-57 variety" mutt.
Their first meeting is unanimously
uncomfortable, but the couples and
their daughters soon become fast
friends. The Hazeltons introduce the
Townsends to several other neighbors,
who are as much representative of the
population of the time as they are real
characters. There are Ron and Alice
Marshall, a black lawyer and his stay-
at-home wife (Connell Brown Jr. and
Toni Walker-White); Phil Lamont (Phil
Powers), the white guy who owns the
local furniture store, and his wife,
Gretta (Linda Ramsay); and Jewish
real estate agent Sol Rifkin and his
wife, Harriet, played by JET veterans
Greg Trzaskoma and Milica Govich.
Director Yolanda Fleischer meets
the challenge of a large cast on a
small stage, with the capable help of
Christopher Otwell (scenic designer)
and Curtis Green (technical director
and lighting designer). The flavor of
the era is captured by the creative use
of a digital window frame with contin-
ually changing views. Sound Designer
Patrick Field uses background music
Inge R. Wilson as Kate Townsend and
Casaundra Freeman as Linda Hazelton
in Palmer Park
encompassing time-related artists and
subject matter.
Mary Copenhagen's costumes
enhance the characters and the story,
especially in the poignant scene where
the Hazeltons and the Townsends are
preparing to leave on their respective
vacations. Both families are travel-
ing by car, and the Townsends, who
are dressed casually and comfortably,
are surprised to see their
neighbors wearing clothing
more suited to a party than
a long car ride. The reason
is stunning and saddening, both to the
Townsends and the audience.
The drama centers on the proposed
moving of students from overcrowded,
working-class, mostly black Bagley
Elementary School to Hampton, the
school attended by children of the
carefully integrated upper-middle-
class families of Palmer Park. There
are no easy answers to this Solomon-
like dilemma; and Glass does not try
to create a one-color-fits-all solution
with a collective happy ending.
The play, which is as much docu-
mentary as theater, presents the per-
sonal and political issues surrounding
integration in a realistic way that
presents all points of view: black and
white, professional and working-class.
The local references make Palmer
Park a special treat for native
Detroiters, but any native of the
human race will appreciate the play
for its sensitive and objective por-
trayal of universal themes. El
Palmer Park explores an upper-mit/die-class Detroit neighborhood and its hishtv
rated Hampton School in the years follo•ins the 1967 racial disturbances.
Two families. one black and one white, rally their neighbors. desperately hopins
to maintain the prcbile off: their racially integrated community and school.
EN%
_
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1apte Road • Wes t Bi.ccrntietti. MI
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2972 or hilberry.com .
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Sunday thru Thursday Buy one
get 2nd Dinner of equal or
lesser value FREE!
With purchase of 2 beverages
' A minimum of 15% gratuity will be added to
original bill.
Offer not valid on Holidays, with any other promotions
and subject to Rules of Use. Offer expires 5116/10.
Must present coupon to receive discount
110
Palmer Park runs at the Jewish
33080 Northwestern Highway
West Bloomfield, MI
Phone: 248-539-8300
Fax: 248-539-8303
Hours: Mon-Fri 10-9 • Sat & Sun 9-9
www.georgeshoneytree.com
IAN GRILL
Since 1920...The tradition continues
Check Out Our NEW Menu and Lower Prices
Banquet Facility and
Outside Catering Available
Sunday thru Thursday Buy one
• Open 4 pm-10 pm •
Lounge open till 1 am
get 2nd Dinner of equal or
lesser value FREE!
With purchase of 2 beverages
A minimum of 15% gratuity will be added to
• Thursday thru Saturday•
Visit us online at: www.larcositalian.com
original bill,
Offer not valid on Holidays, with any other promotions and
subject to Rules of Use. Offer valid 5/7/10 thin 5120/10
Must present coupon to receive discount
West Bloomfield
6480
Orchard Lake Rd. I 248-626-6969
0
aN
April 22 • 2010
49