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CLASSICAL NOTES

The Juilliard String Quartet opens
the 69th season of the Chamber Music
Society of Detroit at 8 p.m. Saturday,
Sept. 8, at the Seligman Performing
Arts Center, 22305 W. 13 Mile Road,
Beverly Hills. The quartet, founded in
1946 by then-Juilliard School President
William Schuman, will perform two of
Beethoven's late string quartets, widely
considered to be among the greatest
musical compositions of all time. At 8
p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15, duo pianists
Christina and Michelle Naughton open
CMSD's piano series. $30-$60; student
tickets available. (248) 855-6070;
chambermusicdetroit.org.
The Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra,
under the baton of Maestro Arie Lipsky
and joined by four vocal soloists and four
Southeastern Michigan choruses, opens
its 2012-2013 season at 8 p.m. Saturday,
Sept. 15, at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor
with an all-Beethoven concert. $10-$58.
(734) 994-4801; a2so.com .

F About

POP / ROCK /
JAZZ / FOLK

Nashville-based Melissa
Greener, an interna-
tionally touring singer-
songwriter-guitarist in
the contemporary folk-
pop tradition, frequently
returns to perform
concerts in her native Detroit. She'll present
her original songs at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept.
8, at the Trinity House Theater, 38840 W.
Six Mile Road, Livonia. $12-$15. (734) 464-
6302; trinityhousetheatre.org .
In support of its new album, Clockwork
Angels, Canadian rock trio Rush, includ-
ing lead singer/bassist Geddy Lee (ne Gary
Weinrib, the son of Jewish refugees from
Poland), takes the stage at the Palace of
Auburn Hills at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18.
$49.50-$126. (248) 745-3000; palacenet.com.

ON THE STAGE

Two Muses Theatre presents the world

premiere of A Little Work,
a play about a writer of self-
image help books who gets a
little work done, by best-sell-
ing authors Anita Diamant
(The Red Tent) and Stephen
McCauley (The Object of My
Affection) at 8 p.m. Fridays
and Saturdays and 2 p.m.
Sundays, Sept. 7-30, in the
theater inside Barnes & Noble Booksellers,
6800 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield.
The large cast, including Maureen
Mansfield (Maxine) of Farmington
Hills and Rae McIntosh (Ruth) of Beverly
Hills, is filled with women, supporting Two
Muses' mission to provide opportunities in
theater for female artists. The authors will
discuss the play and read from recent work
at Barnes & Noble at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 8, prior
to the performance, and will take questions
from the audience following the 2 p.m.
matinee on Sept. 9. Advance tickets: $18
adults/$15 students and senior citizens/$2
additional at the door. (248) 850-9919;
twomusestheatre.org .

The Village Players present the Tony
Award-winning drama A Man for All
Seasons about Sir Thomas More's struggle
to balance his life between politics and con-
science in the time of Henry VIII, at 8 p.m.
Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays,
Sept. 7-16, at Village Players Playhouse,
34660 Woodward, Birmingham. Groves
High School senior Brendan Alpiner
(Richard Rich) and Birmingham architect
Stephen Sussman (Villain) are in the cast.
$17. (248) 644-2075;
birminghamvillageplayers.com .
Northville's Tipping Point Theatre
presents Deathtrap, a comedy thriller by
Ira Levin (Rosemary's Baby), at 8 p.m.
Thursdays and Fridays, 3 and 8 p.m.
Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, Sept. 7-Oct.
7. 361 E. Cady St. $29-$32. (248) 347-0003;
tippingpointthreatre.com .
Stagecrafters kicks off its season with
Legally Blonde — The Musical, run-
ning Sept. 7-30 at the Baldwin Theatre in
downtown Royal Oak. $18-$20/student and
senior discounts. Show times and tickets:
(248) 541-6430; stagecrafters.org.

Out & About on page 33

Playwright from page 31

up and ally himself with the Jews of [Israel], which
was still a dream.
There is certainly a debate in the play between
Hecht, who says people have to wear their Judaism
on their sleeves if need be, and Selznick, who was
very cautious [about feelings of anti-Semitism among
Americans].
There's an exchange when Hecht forces Selznick to
find out what non-Jewish Hollywood thinks of the
Jews, and he phones Leland Hayward, a writer and
a power player. Its in Hecht's book that there was
real resentment of Jewish domination in the movie
industry by people who had worked closely with
those men.
I use that, and it's one of the moments when the play
gets grounded before the comedy takes over again.

IN: Is there something that you did with the
comedy lines that you think expresses Jewish
humor?
RH: Selznick wore English tweed suits, and there
were no Yiddishisms in his delivery or his vocabulary.
Hecht was not playing up to any archetype of Judaism
whatsoever; he was an aggressive reporter in Chicago
and an aggressive screenwriter in LA, not falling
back on any stereotype. Victor Fleming is as Anglo
as they come. I didn't want the play [to incorporate]
Yiddishisms because [these three didn't use them].

JN: What does this play express about you and
your approach to writing?
RH: I hope each play leaves audiences thinking
something never realized about the world. In this
particular case, it's the discomfort that the early
Jewish pioneers of Hollywood felt about being in
such an exposed position and fearing that it all would
disappear. This was 1938, and people knew what
was happening in Europe. It was a terrifying time to
be Jewish and an exposed Jew in Hollywood such as
Selznick was.

❑

32

September 6 @ 2012

The 2012-2013 Season

C

ooped-up Jewish writers - characters frantic
with deadlines - should score lots of laughs for
audiences watching the first two productions
of the 2012-2013 season of the Jewish Ensemble
Theatre.
The first, Moonlight and Magnolias (Sept.19-Oct.7)
by Ron Hutchinson, captures Jewish writer Ben Hecht
as he is trapped into doctoring a weak script for Gone

with the Wind.

The second, Laughter on the
23rd Floor (Oct. 24-Nov.11) by Neil

Simon, introduces fictional char-
acters similar to the actual
writers Simon knew develop-
ing weekly programs for Sid
Caesar's Your Show of Shows.
"Our season showcases
Jewish values that apply to the
larger community," says David
Magidson, JET artistic director, who
explains that each of six major pro-
ductions will run three weeks instead of four in a
schedule that includes touring shows and films.
Music - appropriate for JET's New Year's Eve cel-
ebration - comes with the production / Do! I Do! (Dec.
5-31) by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt. The play
recalls one couple's experiences through a 50-year
marriage.
A straight dramatic tone colors Photograph 51
(Jan. 23-Feb.10) by Anna Ziegler. The true story of
scientist Rosalind Franklin's discovery of DNA struc-
ture, it calls attention to the recognition given three
men for the finding and is part of JET's Women in
Science initiative.
Back to comedy, End Days (March 6-24) by
Deborah Zoe Laufer deals with a woman who con-

verts from Judaism in her obsession with being part
of the Rapture and achieving eternal life. In her kitch-
en, she hangs out with Jesus Christ.
Back to drama, My Name Is Asher Lev (May 1-19) by
Aaron Posner explores a man's struggle in choosing
between his artistic talents and dedication to Torah.
Enhancing the longer-running productions will be
That Dorothy Parker (Jan.12), with Carol
Lempert in a biographical show as the
writer/critic; and tentatively, Clutter:
I'm Saving My Life and It's Killing Me
(April 6), with Nancy Redman as a
Jewish woman trying to clean up
her life.
Two films, in cooperation
with the Lenore Marwil Jewish
Film Festival, include Kutsher's:
The Last Catskills Resort (Nov.
20) and Schmatta (April 13),
which is about the Jewish pres-
ence in the garment industry.
A celebration of the season with "A Behind the
Scenes Gala" (Oct.15) will honor Jewish News
Publisher Arthur Horwitz, CEO of Renaissance Media.
"I will be directing the two dramas because I
haven't done that kind of directing as much with
JET," says Magidson, a longtime theater professor at
Wayne State University. "As we close the season with
My Name Is Asher Lev, audiences will have something
to think about over the summer and then hopefully
think about returning for our 2013-2014 season." El

- Suzanne Chessler

For information about season ticket subscriptions,
go to www.jettheatre.org or call (248) 788-2900.