arts & entertainment Clowning Around Performer brings together mime, movement and magic. I Suzanne Chessler Contributing Writer A vner Eisenberg, regularly performing as Avner the Eccentric, was discovered for the professional stage while working at Camp Ramah in California. While appearing in a talent show — offering mime, juggling and sketches he developed — Eisenberg was seen by a Fresno, Calif., venue owner, the father of a camper, and invited to be Frankie Avalon's opening act for one weekend. That first paycheck, arriving some 40 years ago, has been followed by pay- checks earned around the world. Soon, he will receive one in Michigan. Avner the Eccentric in Exceptions to Gravity takes the spotlight 7:30-9 p.m. Monday, Jan. 16, in Varner Recital Hall at Oakland University, where his visit also will have him teaching the day before. Essentially in silence, he brings togeth- er mime, movement and magic for his innovative clown persona. "My character is really in the camp of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin:' says Eisenberg in a phone conversation from his home on an island off Maine. Avner Eisneberg performs as "Avner the Eccentric." "He comes out to give the stage a sweep and discovers that the audience is already there. He picks up pieces of paper, and a sign comes out about the show starting in five minutes. So we wait. "The show is kind of an existential time warp. What does the character do waiting for those five minutes?" Manipulating a hat and a ladder with the intent of physical comedy is among what he does. Eisenberg, who has appeared in Michigan as the opening act for Andy Classical Composer DSO plays work of Gabriela Lena Frank. Suzanne Chessler I Contributing Writer "This is my first orchestral piece, and it translates into Indian Elegy, paying trib- ute to my mother's family and culture abriela Lena Frank earned from Peru. her doctoral degree in "The music is lyrical with a great music composition from the deal of emotion behind it. The start is University of Michigan, where her piece very serious with lush harmony and Elegia Andina served as her thesis. orchestrations, reminiscent of the kind Frank returns to Michigan of music heard in the to hear the piece played mountains and meant to be by the Detroit Symphony folklore. Orchestra as part of a Mozart "It moves into a faster and Bach program to be middle section, and then performed Jan. 16-19 at four there's a cadenza, a solo- venues in the Neighborhood like moment [such as those Concert Series. Mozart incorporated]. The The repertoire, depending work goes back to the open- on the venue, also includes ing, scored more lushly" Bach's Concerto for Two Concerts will be conduct- Gabriela Lena Frank Violins, Bartok's Romanian ed by Jamie Laredo. Much of Frank's work Folk Dances and Mozart's Symphony No. 20. connects with her maternal heritage "I'm happy that a youthful work is and the travels she made to explore getting performed because it's usually that identity. She takes her Jewish cul- my more recent works that are pro- tural identity from her father, who also grammed," Frank, 41, says in a phone attended the University of Michigan and conversation from her California home. met her mother while serving with the G 36 January 9 • 2014 JN Williams, was invited to Oaldand University by Anthony Guest, a theater faculty member. "In doing his continuing education, Anthony came to a workshop that my wife, Julie Goell, and I have been teach- ing in Maine Eisenberg explains. "It's a summer course we've done for the past 22 years. He was one of the students five years ago, and we stayed in touch. "When I'm in the Oakland classroom, I'll take up several topics, including personal balance and relationship to the audience. Every exercise and theme that is presented in the workshop comes right out of my show. "I've tried to ease out the principles — construction, timing, relationships — and then let the students apply the principles to their own unique sets of talents:" Eisenberg, 65, the first solo clown performer on Broadway in the 1980s, has done more acrobatics in his act. As time passed, he has taken out the more strenuous routines but believes that the act has become funnier. "There's a difference between a comedian and a clown:' he says. "The comedian comes on stage knowing that what he or she is doing is funny and doing it because it is funny. The clown doesn't know what he's doing is funny and wonders why people are laughing:" Eisenberg, who entered Tulane University as a "science near had learned to juggle as a kid and had been a gymnast and high-jumper. After get- ting a part in a play, he became a the- ater major and went on to Georgia State University, where he started clowning. After earning his bachelor's degree in theater from the University of Washington in Seattle, he became inter- ested in mime and studied with Jacques Lacoq in Paris. As his clowning coalesced around what has become his current show, Eisenberg also took on other types of entertaining, such as the film role of the holy man in The Jewel of the Nile with Michael Douglas. A second career, as a hypnotherapist specializing in actor-related issues, rounds out his initiatives. "I think that my humor is basic Jewish humor," says Eisenberg, active with an unaffiliated synagogue. "There's kind of an existential accep- tance of predicament and a kind of basic optimism. When the roof falls in, instead of panicking, the comedian says, 'Now we can see the stars."' ❑ Avner Eisenberg will perform 7:30-9 p.m. Monday, Jan.16, in Varner Recital Hall at Oakland University in Rochester. $10-$20. (248) 370- 2030; mtd@oakland.edu . Peace Corps. A full-time freelance composer who also takes on piano performance, Frank's works include Quijotadas for the Brentano String Quartet, Dos Canciones de Cifar commissioned by the Marilyn Home Foundation with Carnegie Hall and Manchay Tiempo for the Seattle Symphony. "At any one time, I can have as many as 20 open projects:' she says. "I jump around from one to another. I just finished a big piccolo concerto for the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra." Frank, who started playing piano at 4 years old, thought she would be a Russian studies major because of her interest in the upheaval of the 1980s. That changed during her senior year, when she enrolled in a music program at the San Francisco Conservatory. "I didn't realize the possibilities of going into music as a professional; says the single composer, born with perfect pitch as well as hearing issues brought under control. "My exposure to Jewish American composers influenced me, especially the ones that my dad's mom loved:' Frank, who earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from Rice University in Texas, has been nominated for several Grammys. Her most recent recording, Compadrazgo, performed by Ensemble Meme, was released in November. "This will be the first time my work has been performed by the DSO:' says Frank. "I'm glad my piece is with work by [anti-fascist Hungarian composer] Bela Bartok, one of my heroes. He beau- tifully married folk and classical music. He was doing it at a very dangerous time in European history because of the anti-Jewish sentiment. I find his courage incredibly inspiring:' ❑ Mozart and Bach will be performed 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan.16, at the Berman Center for the Performing Arts, 6600 W. Maple, West Bloomfield; 8 p.m. Friday, Jan.17, at Village Theater at Cherry Hill, 50400 Cherry Hill Road, Canton; 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan.18, in Kirk in the Hills Presbyterian Church, 1340 W. Long Lake Road, Bloomfield Hills; and 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan.19, at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church, 16 Lake Shore Drive, Grosse Pointe. Tickets start at $25. (313) 576-5111; dso.org .