arts & entertainment 3 WEEKS ONLY??? Mgch 3 I" tAru April I 9tiAmzia, Family Secrets Closet NV 20% OFF selected merchandise Frames Unlimited 20% OFF any complete framing Order JET's season finale explores identity and responsibility. 'NEW' Just Girls 20% OFF of everything with this ad Marguerite 20% OFF (1) one item. (Special orders excluded) u dh. Rear Ends 20% OFF any ONE item. One item per household. Ruby's Balm 20% OFF any 2 items in stock (excluding Laura Mercer, Nars, Kiehl's, Clarisonic, Darphin & Smashbox) Salon Nadwa 20% OFF ALL SERVICES for new clients (excluding extensions, hair attachments, Kersten & brazilian Blowout & green Peel) Smashburger 20% OFF Purchase of $10 or more. Ad must be presented for offer. Steven Franklin Optics 20% OFF in stock frames w/ purchase of rx lenses /0" Sundance Shoes 20% OFF Storewide Sale. Check out our new store!! Like Us On facelassk Semi Annual off Event! Expires April 19' With this ad only! Previous purchases & sale items excluded. Some restrictions apply. One redemption per person unless otherwise noted. THE BOARDWALK orchard lake road I south of maple I west bloomfield Mon thru Fri - 11 am to 9:30 pm I Sat - 12 pm to 9:30 pm I Sun - 12 pm to 8:30 pm c 15% OFF Entire Bill Dinner Special Dine in Sun-Thur 10% OFF Entire Bill Dinner Special Dine in Fri & Sat 10% OFF Entire Bill Carry Out Special Any Day Of The Week MUST PRESENT COUPON Expires: 4.30.14 One coupon per visit please 248.649.6761 2846 W. Maple Rd. (Maple & Coolidge, next to Whole Foods) Troy, MI 48084 MICHIGAN MODERNISM exposition 20141 APRIL 25, 26 &27 Southfield Civic Center Suzanne Chessler I Contributing Writer 0 ne family's secrets and their possible revelation cause tension and emotional con- flict in Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities, the final play in the 2013-2014 season of the Jewish Ensemble Theatre in West Bloomfield. The play, running April 23-May 18, is a co-production with Performance Network Theatre in Ann Arbor under the direction of David Wolber. The PNT staging will be June 12-July 20. The action takes place as a family gathers for a Christmas celebration in the Palm Springs home of Polly and Lyman Wyeth. The couple's daugh- ter, Brooke, sets off havoc with the announcement that she is about to release a tell-all memoir. While the parents oppose the book, the tension is complicated by the pres- ence and comments of the author's brother, Trip Wyeth, and Polly's sister, Silda Grauman. Silda, unlike her sister, has not con- verted from Judaism. Taking the roles are Naz Edwards as Polly, Hugh Maguire as Lyman, Leah Smith as Brooke, Bryan Lark as Trip and Sandra Birch as Silda. "This play is about identity and giv- ing up identity:' says David Magidson, JET artistic director. As the playwright explores what it means to face these issues, he suggests that the psychologi- cal costs of forsaking identity can be too high:' Other Desert Cities won the Drama League Award for Distinguished Play. Baitz's other stage projects include The Paris Letter, Three Hotels and Mizlansky-Zilinsky. The playwright, who created the TV series Brothers & Sisters, has developed the senior Wyeths as a conservative couple in a family situation some crit- ics have compared to what was experi- enced by the Reagan family. While Lyman Wyeth served a lead- ership role in the Republican Party, his relatives represent more liberal Playwright Jon Robin Baitz inclinations. Baitz, 52, told the Daily Beast that the drama, with some witty scenes, has a lot to do with forgiveness and forgiv- ing oneself. "It's something you have to learn to do, or you'll end up phenomenally bitter; Baitz explains. "In order to forgive yourself, you have to first come to terms with all the things you don't know and all the assumptions you've made, which is an active part of this play. "To me, also, on a profound level, the play is about the emergence of humility in human nature and how vital that is. Again and again, one is reminded of how little one knows. "I live in real doubt about most things. I think I know something about what people feel, and yet that may just be a vivid projection. So I've become tentative as I get older about my claims. For example, the older I get, the less simplistic my politics are:' Magidson says that he finds com- plexity of human nature very much a part of the play, a 2012 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. "Identity and responsibility become tangled in Other Desert Cities:' Magidson says. "It's about people who become very real as they dramatize life's experiences:' ❑ Evergreen Rd at Civic Center Drive Sat 10 - 6 . Sun 12 - 5 • $10 with ad W...1\Alf:111,5J1;11.1.1\/.1 Vintage 7vidern., of i iil .11.1 jewelry • furniture • fashion • art • ojeets noadiv_irg_ APRIL 25th Preview Party + Early Buying_ TO3r-t ?_ tickets 46 Other Desert Cities runs April 23-May 18 in the Aaron DeRoy Theatre on the lower level of the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield. Performance times are 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, April 23 and May 14, and Thursdays; 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays; and 7 p.m. Sunday, May 4. Matinees are at 2 p.m. Wednesday, May 7, and Sundays, April 27 and May 4-18. $41-48, with discounts for seniors, students and groups. (248) 788-2900; jettheatre.org .