Michigan's state legislators might want to visit the Boll Family YMCA in downtown Detroit this weekend where 10 of the state's professional theaters will toss aside their differences and collaborate on a three-day festival to achieve a common goal. "It gives us an opportunity to focus people's attention on the professional and pre-professional theaters around here," explained Gary Anderson, producing artistic director of Detroit's Plowshares Theatre Company and one of the co-hosts of this year's Michigan Theatre Festival. "It's a wonderful opportunity for people to get engaged with theater. If you're a supporter of Plowshares, you get to see the other professional theaters; if you're a supporter of Performance Network, you get to see something you wouldn't see normally. And at five dollars each, it's amazingly cheap to get exposed to some of the best talent there is in this area."
Now in its third year, the festival – which runs Friday, June 15 through Sunday, June 17 – will feature a series of eight staged readings of new and established plays directed and performed by area professional theater artists. Following the final performance each day will be a "wrap party" held at the nearby Abreact Performance Space.
With a staged reading, there are no costumes or sets, Anderson said. "It's an opportunity to focus on the pure piece of the work – which is the script and the actors' presentation of it. It's kind of like seeing the natural beauty of someone who's used makeup all their lives. It can be a very revealing experience."
Plowshares' entry, "The Homecoming" by Pittsburgh-based actor Erick Q. Irvis, will open the festival at 7 p.m. Friday evening. "It was sent to us by the author. We constantly get unsolicited plays – and some of them are actually good," Anderson laughed.
Another good script promises to be "Dr. Seward's Dracula" by Joseph Zettelmaier, an adjunct professor in playwriting at Eastern Michigan University. Presented by Planet Ant Theatre, which is considering the show for its fall schedule, the play will show yet another side of the versatile author's talents. "Every time I write a new project I try to do something completely different from what I've done before," said Zettelmaier. "I don't want to get stuck in a rut."
But why Dracula? "I'm such a big fan of the old, classic black-and-white horror movies. They're terrible, but I love them. So I thought it would be fun to write a Halloween show."
Zettelmaier, who will also direct Performance Network's staged reading of "Freedom High" by Adam Kraar on Sunday afternoon, is thrilled to be part of the festival. "I think it's brilliant. It's even better than brilliant; it's essential. I just hope that as many people as possible come out to see this, because the more support we can get, the more likely the chances are that [theater] will survive the coming [economic] maelstrom."
'Michigan Theatre Festival'
Boll Family YMCA, 1401 Broadway Ave., Detroit. Fri.-Sun., through June 17. $5/per reading; $50/festival pass. For information: 313-872-0279 or http://www.heartlande.com/mtffest07.html
