Don Calamia
Watching potential grow at the Purple Rose
It's always a treat sitting in the audience at The Purple Rose Theatre. With its commitment to producing original works, theatergoers are given a rare opportunity to experience the birth of new voices and ideas that might otherwise not be heard. [...]
Curtain Calls
Review: 'Blues for an Alabama Sky' Plowshares excels with Michigan premiere of Pearl Cleage drama Yes, there's homosexuality in the black community – and character sashays into the hearts of theatergoers The migration of black Americans from the [...]
Improv returns to the heart of the city
DETROIT – The prodigal son has returned to Downtown Detroit – and local improvisers and improv lovers alike have the Y-Arts program at the Boll Family YMCA to thank for it. "Improv had a real strong presence here in the city, but it's obviously been [...]
It's sweet, cheesy fun at The Ringwald
There's something somewhat perverse in describing "Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical" as "sweet," but this tongue-in-cheek parody of one the world's first successful "mainstream" porno flicks is just that: sweet. Yet it's also fun and cheesy and [...]
Curtain Calls
Theater community responds with suggestions on how to make Detroit 'cool' in 2004 and beyond "How can we create 'cool' in Michigan?" That's the million-dollar question Governor Jennifer M. Granholm asked an energized audience at the Dec. 11 [...]
Domestic abuse: Everyone pays the price
One by one 11 women spanning three generations quietly enter the theater. When each reaches the stage, she takes a seat and looks out at the audience with no hint of emotion. There is nothing to distinguish them from the dozens of women staring back [...]
No refunds expected at Williamston Theatre
If there's one business that WON'T have dissatisfied customers demanding a refund, it's the Williamston Theatre. And it has "Hate Mail" to thank for it. No, not the kind of nasty correspondence that's delivered by the post office – although I [...]
Tongue-in-cheek 'Debbie' does The Ringwald
It's not your typical musical. And that's precisely why Who Wants Cake? Theatre is staging "Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical" at The Ringwald in fashionable downtown Ferndale beginning March 28. "We hadn't officially done one as a company," explained [...]
Local theaters unite for The Albee Season
When most people turn 80, friends and family might buy a cake and throw a party. But for playwright Edward Albee's 80th birthday this month (March 12), two Detroit-area theaters are joining a handful of producers in and around New York to honor the [...]
Marble Lounge: It's not your parents' DIA
It's imaginative. It's edgy. And it's certainly not what you'd expect to find at your parents' Detroit Institute of Arts. But then again, the Marble Lounge isn't an event your mom or dad would likely attend. That's because the once-a-month, Thursday [...]
Sky Covington sings the blues - and more at 1515 Broadway
DETROIT – Ask the average chanteuse where she got her first big break, and most will likely talk about a dark, smoke-filled gin joint. But not Nicole "Sky" Covington, who returns March 7 to Detroit's 1515 Broadway with the "Seventh Annual Billie [...]
Out of the mouth of babes at Planet Ant
One advantage small theaters have over their big-budget siblings is the ability to take chances with new and untested playwrights. With less at risk – an audience of five or 10 won't drive them to bankruptcy – such venues are a great place for new [...]