its owv, to
arts & entertainment
Star Deli slow-cooks
tewiptAtiovls"
Daymy Zaskiih, wiz
TAR
DELI
Heartwarming Holiday
Two Muses Theatre presents
interdenominational Greetings!
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WITH ANY DELICATESSEN IN TOWN!
MEAT TRAY
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$8.99 =—
$9.99 'gr.
DAIRY TRAY
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* Potato Latkes
* Handcut Lox
I
SALAD TRAY W/
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$13.49 person
On Star's beautiful I
already low-priced
meat or dairy trays
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Fat-Free Tuna Can't Be Beat!
* Vegetarian Chopped Liver
*jomemade Potato Salad
eColeslaw
Expires 12/15/12. One Per Order. Not Good Holidays.
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Just west of Telegraph Road • Southfield
248-352-7377
1793080
Fv,ONG Hu4
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November 15 • 2012
Di
EPIC
KOSHER
CATERIN
A DIVISION OF
MILK & HONEY
GLATT KOSHER
Adat Shalom Synagogue
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
I
n his younger New York years, Tom
Dudzick had a Jewish girlfriend who
considered herself an atheist, and he
reflected on the relationship from his point
of view as a comic playwright.
What would happen if he brought the
young woman home to meet his very
Catholic parents in Buffalo, N.Y.?
Dudzick, succumbing to practical
instincts, kept this romantic interest away
from family but put remnants of it on the
stage instead. His ideas came together in
Greetings!, the next production of Two
Muses Theatre.
The holiday show — with interdenom-
inational themes — runs Nov. 23-Dec.
16 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in
West Bloomfield. The comedy starts out
with some brawling and ends with some
miracles.
As I'm watching the play being per-
formed, I like to sneak glances at the faces
in the audience when 'that moment' in the
play occurs:' Dudzick says.
"I'm not going to say which moment
and spoil the surprise, but it's wonderful.
People check their programs to make sure
they're in the right theater:'
Directed by Barbie Weisserman, Two
Muses co-founder, Greetings! features
Stephen Blackwell as the suitor, Jan
Cartwright as the mother, Richard Payton
as the brother, Henry Nelson as the father
and Angela Kay Miller as the girlfriend.
Weisserman, in a household where
Jewish and Christian holidays are
observed (her husband is Jewish, she is
Christian), feels a special connection to
the production.
"The values of the Jewish and Christian
celebrations are the same although the
practices differ," she says. "My husband
and I have realized the similarities in the
ways we were raised:'
Dudzick, a long-ago piano major who
had no formal training for a writing career,
launched his scripting by working on
dinner-theater musical comedies.
Greetings!, becoming a holiday favorite
around the country, was his first New York
play, started as a one-act. Other works
include Over the Tavern Trilogy, Hail
Mary! and Don't Talk to the Actors.
At 62, married and the father of two,
Clockwise from bottom: Richard
Payton, Jan Cartwright, Angela Kay
Miller, Stephen Blackwell and Henry
Nelson in Greetings!
Dudzick recalls writing Greetings! when
he was 35 and explains how he has
moved on to later projects while utiliz-
ing some early, basic ideas.
"My approach to writing is the same:
Come up with a story that delights you;
then sit down and write it out until it's
finished:' says Dudzick.
"My outlook toward the subject of
Greetings! has changed in that I'm now an
even more emphatic believer in the law of
attraction precepts.
"The philosophy of the character Lucius
is one I've adopted for my own — being
positive, feeling tolerance for others' differ-
ences and accepting reality as created by
personal beliefs and emotions:'
Dudzick, working on one project based
on a book of memoirs and a second that
involves a fantasy taking place at the
Vatican, explains how that former Jewish
girlfriend also came to have a lasting
impact beyond stage success.
"Up until my arrival in New York,
I hardly knew what a Jew was:' says
Dudzick, who has been called the
"Catholic Neil Simon:'
"I knew some of my favorite com-
ics were Jewish, and I had seen The Ten
Commandments.
"My first real experience with Judaism
was getting to know that girlfriend of
mine and contemplating a future with
her. We eventually split up, but years later,
she introduced me to the girl I eventu-
ally married — a nice Jewish girl from
Queens!"
❑
Greetings! will be performed Nov. 23-Dec.16 at the theater inside Barnes
& Noble Booksellers, 6800 Orchard Lake Road, in West Bloomfield.
Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays with
a preview at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 21. $10-$18. (248) 850-9919;
www.twomusestheatre.org .