arts & entertainment

She Makes It Out Of Clay

Allison Berlin's "cabbage-themed" pottery will delight
visitors at numerous art fairs this summer.

Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News

A

llison Berlin probably will
become familiar to art fair
enthusiasts making the
rounds of this summer's events.
Those scouting ceramics probably
will find her cabbage bowls becoming
familiar as well.
Berlin, who gives a distinct appear-
ance to each project in her series, will
be showing her work at Royal Oak's
Clay, Glass and Metal Festival (June
11-12), Plymouth's Art in the Park
(July 8-10) Ann Arbor's State Street
Art Fair (July 20-23) and Milford
Memories (Aug. 12-14).
And those are only the fairs in the
Metro Detroit area.
"The bowls look like cabbages
molded by hand with thumb and
fingerprints that collect glaze after
they've been fired," explains Berlin,
49, intent on getting enough pieces to
satisfy the many fair shoppers brows-
ing her works.
"The outside is the color green
found in natural foliage, but the inside
has very light greens and pinks.
"My artwork is not run of the mill.
It combines techniques of throwing as
well as hand-forming clay so I think
the pieces are whimsical, fun and
beautiful. They're all lead-free so they

w s

can be used as serving pieces."
Berlin's interest in pottery started
when she was a student at Oak Park
High School but did not become seri-
ous until her children were students
at Walled Lake Central High School.
"I always loved pottery and hung
out at the Oak Park pottery lab','
recalls Berlin, who earned her bach-
elor's degree in fine arts at Eastern
Michigan University and her master's
degree in education at Wayne State
University
"I taught early elementary classes
in Detroit Public Schools, and I'm also
certified to teach ninth- and 10th-
grade art. I stopped teaching after I
had children and was reminded of
pottery when I walked into an art
class at Central [High School]. I asked
the teacher if I could volunteer:'
That was seven years ago, when
Berlin extended her skills by tak-
ing pottery classes at Oakland
Community College, both at the Royal
Oak and Orchard Ridge campuses.
The bowls developed after she
teamed up with Susan Kramer, the art
teacher she met at Central. Kramer
was making trays and platters based
on leaf patterns.
"We use similar glazing techniques
and colors:' Berlin says. "We wanted
both of our works to be functional
and decorative. They can be displayed

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

amh Tony Time
lid The Tony Awards, for excellence on

0) the Broadway stage, will be broadcast

limui live 8-11 p.m. Sunday, June 12, on CBS.

Neil Patrick Harris will host. At least

A :uulf 20 celebrities will appear as present-

ers. As of press time, three Jewish
celebs have con-
firmed: Joel Grey, 79;
Matthew Broderick,
49; and Daniel
Radcliffe, 21. (The
latter two actors are
the sons of Jewish
mothers and identify
as
Jewish.)
Radcliffe
All three of these
men are connected: Broderick was
once engaged to Jennifer Grey, Joel's
daughter. Radcliffe is currently star-
ring in a Broadway revival of How to
Succeed in Business Without Really

34

June 9 2011

without using them for food.
"I started out working on the edges
of the bowls and moved on to cutting
into the clay. I wanted something that
added to Susan's leaves and thought
petals would do that."
Berlin, who lives in West
Bloomfield, has two home studios —
one in her basement for winter initia-
tives and another in her garage for the
warmer seasons.
Berlin, a substitute teacher at the
Frankel Jewish Academy and former
Jewish family educator for Federation
and the Jewish Community Center,
devotes Tuesday and Thursday after-
noons to pottery.
"I need at least three weeks for the
drying and firing processes to get my
pieces done says Berlin, daughter of
painter Lois Katz and wife .of Jeffrey
Berlin, who manufactures hair care
products.
Berlin explains that Kramer sug-
gested the two sell their works
together, and they found early place-
ment through a friend who had an art
gallery in Farmington. After that, they
explored the summer art fairs, where
they share display space.
"I'm always looking for new ceram-
ics techniques," says Berlin, a member
of Hadassah and the Sisterhood of
Temple Israel. "I'd like to travel to
workshops of famous potters." II

Trying, playing J. Pierpont Finch, the
same role Broderick played in a 1995
revival. Interestingly, Robert Morse
(Bert Cooper on Mad Men), who cre-
ated the role in 1961, also is scheduled
to appear – and I suspect that a special
How To number or comic bit, featuring
all three actors, is going to happen.
Playwright Eve
Ensler (The Vagina
Monologues), 58,
whose late father
was Jewish, is to
receive the Isabelle
Stevenson Award. The
award began in 2009
and is presented to
"an individual from
the theater community who has made
a substantial contribution of volun-
teered time and effort on behalf of one
or more humanitarian, social service
or charitable organizations." In 1998,
Ensler co-founded V-Day, a global
activist movement to stop violence

Examples of the artist's

"cabbage" pottery

Allison Berlin's bowls next can be seen June
11-12 at Royal Oak's Clay, Glass and Metal
Festival along Washington near Fifth. Hours
are 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sunday. www.royaloakchamber.com .

against women and girls.
Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre
Company is this year's winner of the
Regional Theatre Tony Award. It was
co-founded by, and is heavily subsi-
dized by actor David Schwimmer, 44.
Here are the Jewish Tony nominees
I am aware of (not included are pro-
ducers or technical award nominees).
Best original musical score (music
and/or lyrics): John Kander, 84, and
the late Fred Ebb for Scottsboro Boys,
a show about a famous racial injustice
case; Alan Menken for Sister Act; and
David Yazbek for Women on the Verge
of a Nervous Breakdown.
Also nominated in
this category is Matt
Stone (The Book of
Mormon), 40. This
satirical, but not
mean, musical about
Mormon missionaries
features lyrics (but
Stone
not music) by Stone

and Trey Parker. Stone and Parker,
who are famous as the creators of
the animated TV show South Park,
also are nominated for best book of
a musical. (Stone and Yazbek are the
sons of Jewish mothers/non-Jewish
fathers).
Josh Gad, 30, who was raised
Orthodox, is nominated for best actor
in a musical (The Book of Mormon).
Vying for the Tony for best featured
actress in a play are Ellen Barkin, 57,
for The Normal Heart,
a revival about the
AIDS epidemic writ-
ten by Larry Kramer;
and Judith Light, 36,
for Lombardi, a show
about the famous
football coach.
Barkin
Joel Grey is co-
nominated (with
George C. Wolfe, an African-American)
for best direction of a play for The
Normal Heart. I I