arts & entertainment
Some 'Kind ' Of Performer
Singer-actress-comedian brings show to Macomb Center for the Performing Arts.
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Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
I
n other years, Roslyn Kind could be
spending Rosh Hashanah with half-
brother Sheldon Streisand in New
Jersey and Yom Kippur with half-sister
Barbra Streisand in California.
This year, however, a singing engage-
ment between the two holidays has put
her on the road, and she will be appear-
ing Saturday evening, Sept. 27, at the
Macomb Center for the Performing Arts
in Clinton Township.
"This will be a new show I debuted
in New York last April," says Kind in a
phone conversation from her home in
California. "It has some songs I've done
and found that people love and some
new songs from theater and the contem-
porary stage.
"I bring a trio of musicians with me
and talk about my career and life."
The audience can expect to hear
"Beautiful Day" and "Fool on the Hill"
among many selections she likes to keep
as surprises for the people in the crowd.
As an entertainer, I keep my bottom
line as wanting to make people happy,"
says Kind, whose appearances have
taken her to venues from New York's
Lincoln Center to London's Cafe Royal.
"The world is so troubled that I want
to bring some happiness to people for
the time I'm on stage and touch their
hearts in the ways they need?'
When Kind premiered this show ear-
lier this year, it turned out that her first
two albums (Give Me You and This Is
Roslyn Kind, both released in 1969 by
RCA) came out on a new CD by Sony
Masterworks.
"It was beshert, but I don't like to be
pigeon-holed into one area [of songs to
choose from]," she says.
Kind, 63, defines herself as the baby
in her family. Her brother, Sheldon, a
commercial artist who also worked in
real estate, is seven years older than
Barbra (nee Barbara), who is nine years
older than Roslyn (nee Rosalind).
Kind believes that she and her sister
got their singing abilities from their
maternal grandfather, who was a cantor
in Russia and whose talents also were
passed along to his daughter and their
mother, one-time aspiring singer Diana
Rosen Streisand Kind.
Diana was first married to Emanuel
Streisand, who died when Barbra was 16
A Jewish 'Annie'
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months old; Diana later married Louis
Kind, with whom she had Roslyn.
"My sister and I are two different
personalities, and I want to make my
own mark and not rely on somebody
else's success," says Kind. "My music is
somewhat different from Barbra's. I per-
formed the music of the era when I first
started at 17. I was into the Beatles and
the rest of the British invasion, and my
recordings reflected the songs of those
times."
Describing herself as a shy and chubby
child, Kind's life changed as she turned
14 and lost weight. After singing around
the house and creating a pretend world
while popular recordings played, she
began doing her own demo records. She
was signed at RCA by the same man
who signed Elvis Presley.
After her first nightclub engagement
at the once popular and now closed
Hungry I In San Francisco and a book-
ing on the Ed Sullivan Show, she went
on to appear in clubs.
She also did acting that included a
role in the stage production Show Me
Where the Good Times Are, the sit-
com Gimme a Break and the film The
Underachievers.
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September 25 • 2014
There have been lulls in her career.
When her mother became ill, for
instance, she took time off to supervise
care.
"Because my mom had Alzheimer's
The sun is out for Issie Swickle.
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
n her first professional role, 9-year-
old Issie Swickle plays the title char-
acter in the newly redesigned nation-
al tour of Annie. She begins her run Sept.
26-Oct. 4 at Detroit's Fisher Theatre.
"My husband and I are still asking
each other how we got here," says mom
Dana Swickle, an attorney accompany-
ing her daughter and taking a leave of
absence from the Florida firm part-
nered with her husband, Adam.
Mother and daughter talked by phone
with the Jewish News from New York
during rehearsals for the Tony-winning
musical about an orphan and her dog.
"Five girls were up for the part of
Annie, and we trained with the dog for
one of the auditions," Issie says. "We
sang, and at the end of the day, they
told us to stay for another audition.
"Then they took me into a room, and
Martin Charnin, the director, asked me
if I wanted to be Annie. I freaked out."
Last year, Roslyn Kind, pictured, toured
with her sister, Barbra Streisand,
including a performance in Tel Aviv.
Issie Swickle
Issie as "Annie"
Issie quickly got her composure and
had no problems as Charnin explained
that she would have to say bye-bye to
her long dark hair. The actress and
fourth-grader decided to donate the
strands to Locks of Love for a young
cancer patient.
"They cut my hair really short and
dyed it red," Issie says. "It's actually cute
the way they cut it?'
Issie, who started taking ballet when
she was 3, soon asked for singing les-
sons. Her parents agreed to classes at
Broadway Kids Studio in her hometown
of Davie, Fla., where she was cast as
Annie in two studio productions as well
as other parts in other studio shows.
"Issie loves performing?' says Dana
Swickle, who picked the name Isabelle
with her husband using a Jewish book
of names and moved on to the nick-
name.
"A friend of mine, whose daughter
also goes to the studio, suggested last
summer that we go to an intensive
weeklong theater camp in New York
City. During a showcase, an agent
requested to represent Issie. Through
the agent, we came to the auditions?"
Issie's favorite song in the show is "It's
the Hard-Knock Life
"I like that song because I'm really
spunky and sassy?' says Issie. "I got the
script before rehearsals started, and I
thought they would be impressed if I
was really prepared. I memorized all my