arts&life

PHOTO BY JAN CARTWRIGHT

theater

For David Mamet’s American Buffalo, set
designer Elspeth Williams transformed the
JET stage into a resale shop in Hamtramck.

A New Beginning

As the JET theater is forced out of its home at the JCC, it looks forward to what will come next.

RONELLE GRIER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A

fter almost three decades in the
Aaron DeRoy Theatre at the D.
Dan and Betty Kahn Jewish
Community Center in West Bloomfield,
the Jewish Ensemble Theater (JET) will
be leaving its longtime home at the end
of June, coinciding with the conclusion of
its 2017-18 season. A new location for the
longest continuously running professional
Jewish theater in North America has not
yet been determined, but JET officials are
optimistic about the coming move.
The change was precipitated by the
JCC’s decision not to renew the JET’s
lease, which had been month-to-month,
after June 30. The theater space will be
taken over by Frankel Jewish Academy
(FJA), which is located at the JCC, to be
used for the school’s performing arts
program. According to Brian Siegel, CEO
of the JCC, the decision was basically eco-
nomic, made in accordance with the JCC’s

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April 26 • 2018

jn

Jennifer Maiseloff’s set for The Sisters Rosenzweig

ongoing facility changes
and financial goals. A
major goal of the JCC
is to increase revenue
and reduce its footprint
within the building, a
goal supported by leas-
ing the space to FJA
Brian Siegel,
instead of the JET.
JCC CEO
Siegel says the deci-
sion has been a long
time coming, with multiple discussions
between JCC and JET leadership over
the past two years. Principals discussed
the possibility of FJA sharing the space
with the JET, but that turned out to be an
unfeasible option.
“We’re sad about it, too, but we’ve all
been preparing for this for some time,”
Siegel said. “What they could pay was less
than our costs, and funding the JET is not
within the JCC mission. We have great