Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/905725
50 November 23 • 2017 jn S tan Zimmerman's one helluva funny guy. The prolific, highly creative and award-winning writer has penned many beloved comedies, including Golden Girls, Roseanne and Gilmore Girls and continued the story of the lovely lady and her three very lovely girls on to the big screen in the Brady Bunch movies. So the last subject his fans would expect from him is a play about suicide. "Right Before I Go is the first really seri- ous play that I've written," Zimmerman, a Southfield native, says of his upcoming one-night-only benefit for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the JED Foundation in New York City. "After my friend took his life five years ago, I was in such shock. I wanted to somehow use my craft to work with the pain and help others." So he started collecting suicide notes from war veterans, singer Kurt Cobain, author Virginia Woolf, members of the LGBTQ community, kids who were terribly bullied and others who had suffered heart- break and loneliness. He initially titled it Suicide Notes: In Their Own Words. "I did a staged reading in my living room [in the Hollywood Hills] and my friends encouraged me to write and write so that it would end with a feeling of hope and that people would feel uplifted to reach out to those who were suffering," says Zimmerman, who returned to Michigan in August for his 40th Southfield High reunion. "There is a huge suicide rate among war veterans. So I wanted to represent them and get people talking about what they can do to help. It makes me want to get this play up and running even more," Zimmerman says. Developed to be presented as a one- hour scripted narrative, a la The Vagina Monologues or Love Letters, Zimmerman polished the final piece, directed it with four actors and premiered it at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2015, taking home the Encore Producer's Award. "It's a lot to shoulder," Zimmerman says. "As Diane Orley so eloquently said to me, 'We didn't choose to be involved in this subject so we have to make a difference.'" Orley, who lives in Birmingham with t h e a t e r arts&life Writer Stan Zimmerman brings Right Before I Go to NYC. JULIE SMITH YOLLES SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS From Southfield To L.A. Stan Zimmerman