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54 October 27 • 2016
play by Kitty Dubin.
Ronelle Grier | Contributing Writer
B
irth. Bar Mitzvah. Marriage
(and sometimes divorce).
Death.
We can all relate to these life-cycle
events and the emotions they evoke.
When family dynamics are added to
the mix, milestones often become mill-
stones, as Kitty Dubin’s newest play,
Rights of Passage, running through Nov.
13, so aptly portrays.
The world premiere of this emo-
tionally rich and well-acted play kicks
off the 2016-17 season of the Jewish
Ensemble Theatre (JET), which
includes four stage plays in addition to
its expanded repertoire of student out-
reach productions.
While the play is new to the JET
stage, its creator is not; the JET has
produced six previous works by Kitty
Dubin, who, in addition to teaching
playwriting at Oakland University,
has been the theater’s Playwright-in-
Residence for more than a decade.
The play, skillfully directed by
Williamston Theatre Artistic Director
Tony Caselli, consists of five vignettes,
each depicting a different stage of life,
beginning with birth and ending with a
bereaved widow sitting shivah. A skilled
six-actor ensemble plays multiple roles,
and each one manages to convincingly
assume different personas with mini-
mal costume changes.
Good actors, by definition, are able to
play a variety of roles with equal believ-
ability; however, when the same actors
play more than one role in a single play,
their talent is all the more apparent. In
Rights of Passage, the ensemble is made
up of Fred Buchalter, Ruth Crawford,
Meredith Deighton, Julia Glander, Brian
Michael Ogden and Jamie Warrow.
Some, including Deighton, Ogden,
Crawford and Buchalter, have graced
the JET stage before; Glander and
Warrow have extensive experience on
other stages and screens in Michigan
and beyond.
In the first scene, cleverly titled
“Cutting it Close,” the idyllic view of
two exhausted but happy new parents
(Deighton and Ogden) is interrupted by
the arrival of Ogden’s mother (Glander).
The first-time grandmother imme-
diately launches into a high-pressure
campaign to convince her son and his
non-Jewish wife to have a bris for their
newborn son, despite the couple’s deci-
sion to skip this particular ritual and
have their doctor perform a circumci-
sion in his office.
In the next scene, the most poignant
of the production, two parents (Ogden
and Warrow) argue over the best way
to handle the impending bar mitzvah
of their autistic son, whose anxiety is
threatening to up-end the celebration
they have carefully planned.
“It would be so nice to be able to
make a decision without consulting
an expert first,” says Ogden’s character
when his wife suggests calling the boy’s
therapist. It’s a sentiment any parent
who has a child with special needs can
relate to and a situation that is bound
to spark compassion regardless of per-
sonal experience.
What is noteworthy in this scene as
well as the others, which cover pre-
marital counseling, divorce mediation
and the death of a spouse, is that there
are no heroes or villains. From the
overbearing grandmother who wants
her first grandson to have a bris to the
Conservative rabbi struggling with his
own traditional (if outmoded) views
of marriage, Dubin has written real-
istic characters who are trying to see
another point of view despite their own
ingrained beliefs and prejudices.
The set, by Elspeth Williams, is
simple yet effective. Between scenes,
the actors themselves move sofas, chairs
and tables from one part of the stage
to another to create a living room, an
office and a funeral home, and the
actors who are not part of a particular
scene literally “wait in the wings,” in full
view of the audience.
A screen that fills the entire back
wall, covered by sheer curtains, features
various nature scenes that presumably
correlate to the cycles of life depicted on
the stage.
Soothing music is provided by sound
designer Matt Lira, and the production
is rounded out with lighting by Neil
Koivu, props by Diane Ulseth and cos-
tumes by Mary Copenhagen.
*
details
Rights of Passage runs through Nov. 13, at the JCC in West Bloomfield. $44; stu-
dents and senior discounts available. (248) 788-2900; jettheatre.org.
www.traditiontradition.com
Alicia R. Nelson (248) 557-0109
arts & life
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