Theater Review

There are lessons to be learned all around in Wendy Graf’s play of the same name presented by the West Coast Jewish Theatre and the Group at Strasberg at the Lee Strasberg Institute through August 27. And perhaps the biggest lesson is for Ruth (Mare Winningham), the Rabbi, whose study and knowledge of the Torah have prepared her for a life of teaching and guidance, but who forsakes that calling through crisis of faith. A great and sorrowful tragedy has crippled her with guilt and numbed her to the greatest lesson of life’the healing that love teaches. Ruth is hired by Ben, a secular Jew, to teach him Hebrew in preparation for his Bar Mitzvah. She agrees, reluctantly, but adamantly rejects Ben’s hope that she prepare him for the hallowed ceremony that marks the transitional phase into Jewish adulthood. Remote, sleepless and living on coffee and cigarettes, which she hides hither and yon around the apartment in a wan attempt to quit, Ruth gradually gives into Ben’s ebullient and loving self-confidence. The play, tightly controlled by director Adam Davidson, unfolds in a series a vignettes, like too many sitcom breaks, which is an unfortunate structure, no doubt attributable to Graf’s many years as a television writer. As their relationship deepens into a friendship, Ruth and Ben become comfortable in their gentle repartee, lightened by Ben’s joy and deepened by Ruth’s credible scholarship. Graf, a Palisades resident, portrays Ruth and conveys the Jewish teachings with respect and seriousness. As a non-Jew, I liked learning about the significance of the Torah passage and was quite moved by the simultaneous recitation of the Kaddish, in Hebrew and English. Certainly the strength of this play lies in the work of Mare Winningham (“St. Elmo’s Fire”) and Hal Linden (“Barney Miller”). Both accomplished actors, these two have created characters who find a place of reference in all of us. Produced by Gail Katz (“The Perfect Storm,” “The Agency”), “Lessons” is the second in Graf’s trilogy exploring Jewish philosophy. Her first play “The Book of Esther” premiered in 2001 at Theater East. The West Coast Jewish Theatre is devoted to the quality production of dramatic and comedic plays, musical theatre, revues and special performance that portray Jewish history, philosophy and culture. “Lessons” plays Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. at the Lee Strasberg Institute’s Marilyn Monroe Theatre, 7936 Santa Monica Blvd. For tickets, call (323) 650-7777.

Thousands of words have been written about a woman named May Knight Rindge, who for 33 years battled in one court after another, including the United States Supreme Court, in her attempt to keep a highway from going through her ranch. She even offered land along the upper border of her 27-mile rancho instead of the much-sought-after beach right-of-way. But it wasn’t to be. On April 16, 1919, Los Angeles County was given the right-of-way through Rancho Malibu for construction of the Pacific Coast Highway. And by 1921, the rugged road was paved with concrete that was 20-feet wide and six inches thick. Finally, on June 16, 1929, motorists were allowed to drive through Malibu. This tidbit of Malibu history is the just a taste of the entertaining local history included in the new book “My Fifty Years in Malibu,” by Dorothy D. Stotsenberg, who with her late husband Ed has lived in Malibu since 1949. The book also contains a wide range of topics, including the Chumash natives, early on-location filming, disasters and controversies. The Stotsenberg name is firmly woven into the history of Malibu, where a love of sports, music, art and philanthropy shaped their lives and where, over the years, they lent their name and support to numerous programs at Pepperdine University in Malibu, including student scholarships, recital series and a classical guitar competition, to name a few. Stotsenberg, who received her master’s degree in journalism from UCLA, will sign books on Tuesday, August 23 from 7 to 8 p. m. at the Sculpture Garden of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art on Pepperdine’s Malibu campus, 24255 PCH. Contact: 506-4745.

Theatre Palisades and Friends of Film will be showing excerpts from Barbara Trent’s film-in-progress, “Soldiers Speak Out,” on Friday, August 26, at Pierson Playhouse, 961 Haverford. The pre-screening reception starts at 7 p.m. and the film and presentation will begin at 7:30 p.m. “Soldiers Speak Out” gives a loudspeaker to the courageous and patriotic anti-war and anti-occupation movement within the military and their families. It will be a tool for enlightenment, organizing, mobilizing and counter-recruitment, Trent says. She will be on hand to speak about the importance of this film: “The words of these soldiers returning from Iraq are moving and authentic,” she says. “We need the public to hear their stories.” Other speakers on the program include Blase Bonpane, Office of the Americas; Jane Bright, Gold Star Families for Peace; and Nick Przvbyla, Iraq Veterans Against the War. Trent is a veteran of making significant documentaries on a shoestring and then engaging theaters such as the Laemmle chain to show those films and include political consciousness-raising Q & A sessions afterwards. “Cover-Up: Behind the Iran-Contra Affair” was created by Trent and her partner David Kasper, thanks to the help of many volunteers in their Santa Monica Empowerment Project, a maxed-out credit card and a free place to live in Venice. The film was completed in 1988 and shown widely in theaters and homes in the months leading up to the Bush-Dukakis election. Trent and Kasper’s next film, “The Panama Deception,” won the Oscar for Best Feature Documentary in 1993 despite the lack of national broadcast. It was made with similar budget problems, but thanks to community peace and justice groups throughout the country, it was screened in 80 cities whose citizens learned the truth about the 1989 invasion “Operation Just Cause” and saw, in Trent’s words, “a blueprint for how the war on Iraq has been carried out.” For the event at Pierson Playhouse, 941 Temescal Canyon Rd., R.S.V.P. to Bob@FriendsOfFilm.com or call 429-5016. A donation of $10 is requested. Trent will be showing “Soldiers Speak Out” again for the Topanga Alliance on Saturday, August 27 at 5:30 p.m. It includes a pot-luck dinner, free child care, and a bonus showing of her first film, “Bus to Topanga.” For reservations and information call 455-9389.

“Retirement means not running a business, but going to my studio every day with my dog, Beau, and being the artist I’ve always been,” Ed Buttwinick says. After 35 years, Ed and his wife Linda are retiring and selling the Brentwood Art Center School of Fine Art, which has grown to over 600 students, with 50 employees, including 35 teachers. Their business is a testament to faith and the power of passion. After Ed graduated from UCLA with double degrees in art and education, he started out teaching in the inner-city schools for five years before transferring to Warner Elementary School in Westwood. When the teachers went on strike in 1969, a parent at the school asked Ed to teach art, offering her house and garage. After nine months, Ed had 80 students. After the strike ended, Ed and Linda were faced with a decision. Should they follow Ed’s passion for art and teaching, or take the safe route and have Ed go back with LAUSD at Warner? At the time, they had two small daughters, and a wrong decision could have spelled disaster. Linda knew her husband’s dream. “I just want to teach art,” he said. She backed him completely and they opened a school. “Linda’s the gambler,” Ed says. “She gave me 100-percent total support.” In the beginning years, “it was very scary,” Linda says. “In addition to our start-up costs, we also had to give $4,500 back to LAUSD, which was half a year’s teacher’s salary.” Ed had taken a sabbatical and LAUSD paid half a teacher’s salary on the condition that the teacher come back for two years. “We sold some of my comic book collection for $800 for the seed money to start the business,” Ed says. They hired a second teacher and moved to their current site at 26th Street and Montana in Santa Monica. At the time, the building housed a beauty shop, liquor store, and cleaners in addition to their art school. “We had to be young to do it because we didn’t know any better,” Linda says, smiling. She quit her job in a medical office and became the administrator for the school. They were living in North Hollywood at the time, so she’d drop her six- and seven-year-old off at the local school, drive over to Santa Monica, work a few hours, then turn around and do the commute back to the Valley. One night while Ed was teaching in 1979, the owners of the building called Linda and told her they were going to sell the building. She talked to them and made an instant decision. When Ed got out of class, she told him, “I think I just bought the building.” It was month to month for the next four years. Ed says, “Linda had faith in me.” They rolled up their sleeves, dived in and improvised. Their first art tables were hand-me-downs, complete with nails and splinters. Much of the early furnishings came from Linda’s grandfather, including cabinets that now house over 500 art books that Ed started collecting as a teenager. They contain visual references, instructional books and art-historical texts. When Ed and Linda leave, the books will stay. In the small administrative office, the far wall is completely occupied by a massive six-foot-long antique desk that belonged to Linda’s father. When they moved it to the Brentwood Art Center, there was no administrative office. The 6-ft by 12-ft office was simply built around the desk. When the Buttwinicks retire, the desk will stay because there’s no way to get it out, unless a wall is torn down. That there’s not more attention given to the luxury of administrative office is typical of the Buttwinick style. “It’s always the students and people and their art first,” Linda says. Those first years were intense. Ed taught 13 classes a week. As the school’s popularity increased, Ed found himself training teachers to help with the demand for classes. Now they proudly say that half of their current teachers were either students, worked at the front desk, or were their blue crew (maintenance). “The teachers have given us life, people and place in the community. The school is a collective spirit,” Ed says. “It’s a family, a blessing. “I feel nachas,” he continues, “that’s Yiddish for good fortune, a deep sense of gratitude and fulfillment.” Both Ed and Linda nod their head in agreement. Ed and Linda, so different, yet so complementary. They met at Fairfax High School, when both were on the student council. Linda says, “We were very different in every way except values.” He, the artist, she, the business person. Linda continues, “We let each other do what we do best.” Ed adds, “My passion was art and she supported me. I was lucky.” Linda goes on to explain, “If it came down to a decision between whether money should go for the business or the school’it all came down to the school, because the school made the business.” Ten years after the school was opened, Linda took her first art class. She’s shy about her painting. “I don’t think of myself that way.” Reflecting, she adds, “I love the process of art. I don’t care about the end result, which gives me artistic freedom to do what I want, which allows me success.” “She’s become a better artist than I’ve become an administrator,” Ed says matter-of-factly. Ed specializes in assemblage, a sculptural technique that combines found and other objects in composing different objects into a unified whole. Over the desk in the office is a glass, wood and metal piece that he put together during the Gulf War. He explains that much of his work deals with themes of Judaica and the history and conflict of Israel. He has a piece on permanent collection in the Skirball Museum and piece in the Sha’arei Am synagogue in Santa Monica. They have two married daughters: Jill, who is a speech pathologist, and Karen, who trained as a lawyer, but now works as a sculptor and a jeweler. The Buttwinicks have four grandchildren with whom they’d like to spend more time. Five years ago, they started worrying about what would happen to their school if they retired. Linda wistfully says, “It’s like a third child to us. It has a life of its own. Three generations have come through here.” “We prayed to find someone in the family whose heart was in the same place,” Ed continues. That person is new owner Sarkis Melkonian, a musician from Malibu. “Linda and Sarkis have been working together for seven years.” Linda adds, “Ed and Sarkis laugh together.” As part of the sale agreement, Ed and Linda will continue at the school as advisors for the next year. Don’t expect many changes with the new owner. “The school is perfect the way it is,” Melkonian says.