SUZANNE WEISS
Bulletin Correspondent
Dana Lewenthal is having the time of her life in "Private Lives."
The young East Bay actress, herself a newlywed, plays Amanda, the glib and sophisticated divorcee who is the heroine of Noel Coward's comedy, through Saturday, June 24 at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.
This is an important role for the Marin County native, who recently returned from a five-year stint in Chicago to resume her career closer to her family. Growing up as a member of Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael, she became a bat mitzvah, was confirmed and performed in temple dramas. She has been to Israel twice.
"My Jewishness infuses every character I play," the actress said last week from her home in Oakland's Montclair District. "I think -- being Jewish -- you bring a sense of history with you and it makes you a very full person.
"Whenever I can make a character Jewish, I do that. Even if the character isn't actually Jewish, I make an internal choice."
While this does not apply to Coward's Amanda, it has led her to play a Jewish prince of Verona in "Romeo and Juliet" and a persecuted Muslim whom she decided to make partly Jewish in the Chicago premiere of "Pentecost," a play that also appeared at Berkeley Rep several seasons ago.
"This woman was a persecuted Muslim," Lewenthal said, "but I imagined that her father was Jewish. She was run out of Bosnia for being Muslim so she was not safe on either side of her ethnicity.
"Nobody else knew it. It was a secret between the character and me."
Sometimes Lewenthal does not have to pretend. During the long Chicago run of "Tony N' Tina's Wedding," she was cast as the Jewish caterer. "I made her very Jewish, to the extent of making up some of my own Yiddish-sounding words," she said laughing. "It was a nice contrast to all the Italian characters in the show."
She also played Sydelle, an Orthodox single mother in a new musical titled "Shabbaton," and, most recently, a young Jewish actress struggling with her faith in "Greetings," produced at the Bus Barn Theatre in Los Altos.
"Greetings" is a story about a boy who brings his somewhat disaffected Jewish girlfriend home to his Catholic family. In the course of the visit, she moves from a mere cultural attachment to her faith to one of deep spirituality.
"It was quite a journey," Lewenthal said.
In real life, the actress travels with the full consciousness of her Jewish identity.
"I don't believe anyone is really impartial," she said. "There is always a prejudice. If you go to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, you will see two doors. One is marked 'Prejudiced,' and the other one 'Non-prejudiced.' That one's locked."
"Private Lives," presented by Act Now! is performed at 8:15 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:15 p.m. Sundays, through Saturday, June 24 at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, 1501 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. Tickets: $20. Information: (925) 943-SHOW or www.dlrca.org.