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Available at: Tradition! Tradition! 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 1991560