44 | SEPTEMBER 16 • 2021
JEWISH PERFORMERS
Sussman, an architect, sits
on the Village Players Safety
Committee made up of Village
Players members, including two
physicians. They have worked
tirelessly to implement safety
measures such as requiring that
the cast and crew are fully vacci-
nated. In addition, the first row
of seats has been removed in the
auditorium to provide greater
spacing and separation between
the audience and onstage actors.
There are no afterglows or gath-
erings, and audience members
can greet the cast only outside
following the show. The theater
is cleaned and sanitized after
each performance.
Besides COVID protocols
to consider, rehearsals had to
be changed to accommodate
the Jewish holidays for the two
Jewish actors in the cast of 25
— Sussman and Alan Binkow
of Troy.
“Because our director, Holly
Conroy, moved around our
dress rehearsal and brush-up
rehearsal, I was able to attend
services at Temple Shir Shalom,
”
says Binkow, who plays Wabash,
the stuttering tailor. “It’s so great
to be back on stage. It’s been 18
long months without theater,
but I hope we are here to stay.
”
Sussman’s family and in-laws
enjoyed Rosh Hashanah din-
ner outdoors at his home in
Bloomfield Hills.
When Sussman wasn’t
onstage rehearsing his role of
Richard Burbage, he was cho-
reographing the three sword-
fight scenes, including one
with Sussman as the dueling
theater owner.
“While fencing is very phys-
ical, it also has a mental com-
ponent that they call ‘physical
chess’ because you’re always
plotting moves and planning
your strategy,” says Sussman,
who was on the fencing team
at Michigan State University as
a freshman. He also volunteers
once a week as the begin-
ner foil fencing coach at the
Honor Guards Fencing Club in
Auburn Hills.
“There is a big difference
between the sport of fencing
and sword-fighting on stage.
In fencing, the goal is to hit
your opponent. In theater, it’s
the exact opposite. With stage
combat, the number one thing
is that both actors are safe. It’s
kind of like a dance number
where it’s choreographed so
you know each other’s move-
ments while making it look
realistic and exciting,” Sussman
adds.
In rehearsals, they practiced
with wooden swords. In the per-
formances, they use steel rapiers.
“Just like the Three
Musketeers,
” says Sussman. “It
looks great on stage. Shakespeare
in Love is a very entertain-
ing production with period
costumes, lots of humor and
romance, live renaissance musi-
cians and singers, a marvelously
talented cast and even a dog. It’s
got everything.
”
continued from page 43
COURTESY OF STEVE SUSSMAN
Alan Binkow
and Steve
Sussman
NEW SERIES: CATCH-UP
Scenes from a Marriage,
a five-part mini-series, pre-
miered on HBO Max Sunday,
Sept. 12. New episodes will
be streamed on successive
Sundays. The series is based
on an acclaimed Ingmar
Bergman Swedish TV mini-se-
ries (1973) of the same name.
It was about the dissolution of
a marriage over a 10-year peri-
od. The series was condensed
as a film for American audi-
ences and the film won many
awards. Woody Allen has
cited it as a major influence.
The original Scenes starred
two Berman “favorites”: Liv
Ullman and Swedish Jewish
actor Erland Josephson
(1923-2012). Scenes was
so well-received and so
important to Bergman that
he made Saraband (2003),
an acclaimed TV/film sequel
about the divorced couple
(Ullman and Josephson) and
their adult children’s problems.
It was Bergman’s last work.
This is quite a legacy, and
advance reviews almost
all say that the HBO series
doesn’t live up to that lega-
cy. It stars Jessica Chastain
and Oscar Isaac as Mira and
Jonathan, an upper-middle-
class American couple whose
marriage dissolves over sever-
al years. The acting, critics say,
is first rate and there are truly
very good “fireworks” scenes.
However, most reviewers
say that changes Israeli direc-
tor/writer Hagai Levi, 58 (In
Treatment, The Affair) made to
the original story are not inter-
esting or illuminating. There
is one potentially big change
that caught my eye: Jonathan
is Jewish (the Swedish hus-
band was not).
Daniel Fienberg, 55ish, the
Hollywood Reporter’s chief
TV critic, writes: “[Levi] has
also added a surface coat of
Jewishness … the fact that
Jonathan was once Orthodox
is treated as an empty series
of data points — a challah on
a table in one scene, a kippah
attached to his hair with bobby
pins in another. At no point
did that minor embellishment
make me think, ‘Well, now, this
is a tale for 2021’ in the way
that changes to the economic
circumstances, race or, par-
ticularly, sexuality might have
done.”
Ordinary Joe, an NBC
series, stars James Wolk, 36,
as Joe Kimbreau, a guy who
faces a pivotal decision after
college. The decision could
lead to three different lifepaths
and the series follows all
three possibilities — he could
become a police officer, a
music star (like his father) or a
nurse. Veteran character actor
David Warshowsky, 60, has a
supporting role as Frank, Joe’s
father. (Premieres Sept. 20, 10
p.m.).
Wolk, as I have noted in
this column before, is a hand-
some guy who was born and
raised in Farmington Hills.
He was raised a Reform Jew
and emceed at bar and bat
mitzvahs. A U-M grad, he has
been steadily working in film
and TV since 2008. Career
highlights include a recurring
role on Mad Men and a star-
ring role on Zoo, a CBS drama
(2015-2017).
NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST
CELEBRITY NEWS
ARTS&LIFE
BY SAMHSA VIA WIKIPEDIA
James
Wolk