{"id":3538,"date":"2007-05-27T07:34:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-27T14:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=3538"},"modified":"2007-05-27T07:34:00","modified_gmt":"2007-05-27T14:34:00","slug":"cherishing-a-relationship-that-grows-over-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=3538","title":{"rendered":"Cherishing A Relationship That Grows Over Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Last night, we went to one of our favorite theatres, the Reperatory East in Newhall<\/a> to see their current production, \u201cDriving Miss Daisy<\/a>\u201d. One of my favorite stories (for reasons I\u2019ll discuss later), Driving Miss Daisy<\/i> tells the story of<\/a> Daisy Werthan of Atlanta Georgia. As we meet her in 1948, Daisy has just had an accident that has crashed her Packard, and her son Boolie, who is in the printing business, wants to hire her a driver. This being the deep south, and this being a family with money, this means hiring a black man. Daisy is opposed, but the man he hires, Hoke, is on his<\/i> payroll, not Daisy\u2019s, so she\u2019s stuck with him. Hoke\u2019s a respectable older man (perhaps in his 50s as the play starts), who always treats Daisy with respect. He drives Daisy to the Piggly-Wiggly<\/a>, to the synagogue<\/a>, to visit friends, to the cemetary… and over time the relationship between them grows into a deep friendship (cemented at the time The Temple is bombed, bringing together the issues of antisemitism and racism). The play is really the story of the relationship. The play ends in 1973, when Hoke is in his 70s and Daisy, by now in a nursing home, is in her 90s. The friendship is still there, bringing in the sentiment of the Simon & Garfunkel song \u201cOld Friends<\/a><\/i>\u201d, who are now like bookends, paired for time. Here\u2019s a study guide<\/a> on the play.<\/p>\n

REP East did a remarkable job with this production. Although there were one or two minor line pauses, these were quickly forgotten as you became aware of the chemistry between the actors. These actors inhabited their characters: you grew to like them, and they didn\u2019t just appear to be playing their characters, they were<\/i> their characters. The cast<\/a> starred Tina Baldridge* as Daisy Werthan, Stuart Calof* as Boolie Werthan, and Doug Jewell* as Hoke Colburn. All were great. I was particularly touched with how they portrayed their relationships, and how they captured the nuances of aging. All of the actors were new to the REP family (and all were Equity members).<\/p>\n

The crew was equally remarkable. The production was produced by Bill Quinn<\/a>, with direction by Rebekah Dunn assisted by Eric J. Stein. They did a great job; there were little directorial touches (such as the Daisy\u2019s smile in the closing scene) that added significant depth. Also remarkable was the background music and sound: Steven \u201cNanook\u201d Burkholder went above and beyond this time with his little touches. The set was designed by Katie Mitchell and Scott McKim and lit by Tim Christianson, who turned the simple REP space into multiple locales that came easily to the imagination. Costumes were by Janice Zeller, and these combined with the makeup to age the players very gracefully. The production was managed by Kelly Hardy<\/a> and Katie Mitchell<\/a>, with print design by the ever capable Mikee Schwinn<\/a>, production by Bill Quinn<\/a> and Ransom Boynton<\/a>. Everything was under the ever capable artistic direction of Ovington Michael Owston<\/a>. The play was written by Alfred Uhry<\/a>. The production continues at the REP East through June 16th<\/sup>; click here<\/a> for tickets.<\/p>\n

One of the things this play emphasizes is family, and I\u2019d like to touch on family for a bit. First, let\u2019s look at the REP East family. We started going to REP East in early 2006 with the Abridged Shakespeare production<\/a>. Since then, we\u2019ve been to almost every main stage production<\/a>, and have seen this company grow and thrive under O\u2019s capable leadership. We\u2019ve gotten to know them, and they\u2019ve gotten to know us… and they are just a bunch of really good people. They care about their audience, they care about their community, they care about their art… and it shows. They are a gem of a company, and we are really glad to have found them. We hope to be part of their lives for many many years (and congrat\u2019s to O on being a new daddy<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at the other aspect of family, and why I like Driving Miss Daisy<\/i>, for everytime I see this show, it reminds me of my family in two ways. First, the family of the show, the Werthan family, isn\u2019t fictional. There is a real Werthan family in the south, although not in Atlanta. The real Werthan family<\/a> (which was a wealthy Jewish family) was in Nashville TN, and had a business making and selling burlap bags. The business was started by Maier Werthan in 1866, continued by his son Joe and his grandson Howard<\/a>. Joe was married to Sadie Mae Bogatsky, who may very well have been the model for Daisy. Sadie Mae was the daughter of Rosa Weinbaum, and Leopold Bogatsky; Rosa was the daughter of Daniel Weinbaum, my great-great granduncle. So I have a personal connection here. Daisy also reminds me of my grandaunt, Minnette Loewe, who was very much like Daisy. Aunt Minnette (who lived into her 90s) was an elegant, feisy, stubborn, and delightful St. Louis lady, active in her temple, strong in her opinion, and notable for her quirks. I miss her to this day, and this play brought back some pleasant memories. I look forward to seeing Aunt Minnette\u2019s only son, Les, in Nashville at the end of June. <\/p>\n

One last DMD connection: The current senior rabbi at The Temple in Atlanta (Rabbi Jeff Salkin<\/a>), which is the likely congregation of Miss Daisy…. is also connected. His ex-wife, Nina, was one of the cofounders with me of the Usenet newsgroup soc.culture.jewish.parenting.<\/p>\n

Returning to the theatre from the world of memory, what\u2019s next on the theatre calendar. First and foremost, of course, is The Wizard of Oz… And Then Some<\/a><\/i> at Nobel Middle School<\/a> in Northridge<\/a> on Thu 5\/31 [6:30 PM], Fri 6\/1 [6:30 PM], and Sat 6\/2 [2:00 PM and 6:30 PM]. No tickets are required; donate at the door. Alas, we\u2019ll miss the last performance of this, as we\u2019ll be at \u201cThe Constant Wife<\/a><\/i>\u201d at The Pasadena Playhouse<\/a>. Following that is \u201cSide Show<\/i>\u201d at UCLA Theatre Arts<\/a> on 6\/9 @ 8pm; \u201cThe 25th<\/sup> Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee<\/i><\/a>\u201d through Broadway\/LA<\/a> on 6\/16 @ 2pm. We\u2019re on vacation the end of June in Nashville, and when we return, it is \u201cJersey Boys<\/a><\/i>\u201d at the Ahmanson Theatre<\/a> on 7\/15 @ 7:30pm; \u201cCan-Can<\/a><\/i>\u201d at The Pasadena Playhouse<\/a> on 7\/28 at 8:00pm; \u201cBeauty and the Beast<\/i>\u201d at Cabrillo Music Theatre<\/a> on 8\/4 @ 2:00pm, and the DCI 2007 World Championship Finals<\/a> in Pasadena on 8\/11 @ 5:00pm . I\u2019ve also ordered season tickets for the Ahmanson, as discussed here<\/a>, and there\u2019s likely to be a Hollywood Bowl show<\/a> in there somewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night, we went to one of our favorite theatres, the Reperatory East in Newhall to see their current production, \u201cDriving Miss Daisy\u201d. One of my favorite stories (for reasons I\u2019ll discuss later), Driving Miss Daisy tells the story of Daisy Werthan of Atlanta Georgia. As we meet her in 1948, Daisy has just had Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,28,1],"tags":[462,272,265],"class_list":["post-3538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-theatre","category-lj-xfer","tag-rep-east","tag-reviews-2007","tag-theatre-2007"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}