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SATURDAY AUGUST 13 | SUNDAY AUGUST 14 2016
SUNDAY BREAKFAST ILLUSTRATION BY BARRY BLITT
Sunday Breakfast with Jim Styer — chair of the Healthcare Foundation of Highland Park. P30
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SPORTS
Highland Park's Reeven and Levy Nathan are ready to swim the English Channel. P27
SOCIAL SCENE Mariani Landscape held a ribbon cutting ceremony at their Design Studio in Lake Forest. P16
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NO. 200 | A JWC MEDIA PUBLICATION
NEWS
Port Clinton Art Festival Coming Up BY JULIE KEMP PICK
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azing at beautiful artwork is a feast for the eyes, but festivalgoers will also have the opportunity to let their creative juices flow by participating in interactive art demonstrations at the Port Clinton Art Festival, August 27-28. “One of the most exciting things at the festival this year will be the art demonstrations, and Richard Borden will be doing an ancient art form known as Ebru art or marbled paper,” said Amy Amdur, president of Amdur Productions. Amdur developed the Port Clinton Art Festival 33 years ago. Borden is among the 100 new artists appearing at the festival this year. Amdur described the process for creating Ebru art: The silk scarf demonstration will be done in vats that are about two feet wide and 10 feet long, and the process involves floating special pigment on top of the water, while Borden demonstrates swirling techniques. The swirling forms different shapes like paisley or other designs. Continued on PG 12
HIGHLAND PARK GRAD MAKES BROADWAY DEBUT BY GREGG SHAPIRO
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n December 2015, Highland Park native Jesse Kovarsky made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-nominated revival of Fiddler On the Roof, now playing at the Broadway Theater in Manhattan through December 2016. Kovarsky isn’t playing just any part. He’s the symbolic titular fiddler, whose rooftop balancing act and fiddling opens the show with the triumphant “Tradition” number. A member of the Highland Park High School class of 2006, Kovarsky is a graduate of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. No stranger to Fiddler On The Roof, Kovarsky appeared in a production at Highland Park High just a few years before returning to it on Broadway. I had the pleasure of speaking with Jesse about the show and more in July 2016. Gregg Shapiro: Jesse, I’d like to begin by congratulating you on the success you’ve achieved in your Broadway debut in Fiddler On The Roof. Jesse Kovarsky: Thank you so much! GS: What has the experience of being in Fiddler on the Roof meant to you? JK: I think it’s provided many different exciting opportunities for me to reflect upon. As a performer, as a dancer it’s given me a chance to be part of a show that I find severely meaningful and is communicating a message that I think transcends across many different cultures and ideals. It reaches a broad audience. When I have performed
Jesse Kovarksy (right) in the 2015 production of Fiddler On the Roof at the Broadway Theatre in Manhattan.
in other shows, the audience can tend to be a little bit smaller and more niche, especially in terms of contemporary dance. It’s a gift as a performer to perform for a large scale (audience) and to reach so many different people. Also, to get to be performing in a role that some people would consider relatively iconic; it’s amazing to be in the title role, to be a Jewish person retelling a
story of my people’s history. GS: What was it like to perform with the cast on the Tony Awards broadcast in June 2016? JK: It was so exciting. It was quite the buzz. We had to rehearse at the Tonys really early in the morning and then we had to do our own show and then go back to the Tonys to perform in the evening. It was really
interesting because backstage you got to see all the other casts from the other Broadway shows. It felt like we were representing our own little tribe with our interesting costumes. It was cool to be on a platform showcasing every thing that we have to share. It didn’t feel like a competitive night. It felt celebratory. Especially considering what had happened earlier that day in
Orlando. It became a meaningful experience. One memory that comes to mind is when I was right about to go onstage and be lifted up in my harness, the cast of She Loves Me was coming off stage and I got a nice highfive from Jane Krakowski. GS: Was theater a part of your life while you were Continued on PG 12
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