{"id":7532,"date":"2018-10-23T07:27:35","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T11:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7532"},"modified":"2018-11-01T07:27:05","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T11:27:05","slug":"dont-miss-detroit-67","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7532","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Miss! Detroit \u201967"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Detroit

photo: T. Charles Erickson<\/p><\/div>\n

Just a few more performances of McCarter Theatre\u2019s stunning production of Detroit \u201967, directed by Jade King Carroll and on stage through October 28. The summer of 1967 is unforgettable for native Detroiters such as myself, and I\u2019ve looked forward to seeing what light playwright Dominique Morisseau would shine on that bleak page in history. Morisseau is a 2018 MacArthur Foundation \u201cgenius grant\u201d recipient and the third most-produced playwright in the country at the moment, so my expectations were high.
\nThey were certainly met, with this powerful story and strong cast. In her story, sister and brother Chelle (played by Myxolydia Tyler) and Lank (Johnny Ramey) have inherited the family home in Detroit, and Chelle is using her portion of their parents\u2019 savings to send her son to the Tuskegee Institute. Lank and his best friend Sylvester (Will Cobbs) have other plans. They want to buy a bar. This would be a big step up from the low-budget blind pig (unlicensed drinking establishment) Lank and Chelle operate in their basement, which is the set for the play.
\nThe Detroit Police Department is going through a repressive period, in which tactical squads of four police officers terrorize, intimidate, and assault residents. If the police discover the blind pig, Chelle and Lank are in deep trouble. Contraction in the auto industry and a significant population decline have decreased economic opportunities for the city\u2019s residents, another reason Lank and Sly want to strike out on their own.
\nThe unexpected presence of the white woman in the household gives the characters a chance to talk about the difference in choices available to them. Chelle is deeply, angrily disappointed that her brother has, in her view, \u201csquandered\u201d the family inheritance\u2014an opinion manifesting in events when the city begins to burn.
\nAlthough these are heavy subjects, Morisseau lightens the mood with the humorous efforts of Sly to romance Chelle, and the observations of her best friend Bunny (Nyahale Allie).
\nIt\u2019s also a story about the power of dreams and the importance of having them, and although these insights are not new, the precarious situation of the protagonists makes them all the more pointed. The fact that half a century later the play\u2019s issues regularly resurface in the daily news underscores their continuing importance and well worth seeing.
\nThe theater has put together a rich set of background resources that includes\u2014of course!\u2014a Spotify playlist that leads off with The Temptations\u2019 \u201cAin\u2019t Too Proud to Beg.\u201d Find it here!
\nMcCarter Theatre is easily reached from New York by car or train (New Jersey Transit to the Princeton Junction station, then the shuttle train into Princeton. The shuttle ends a short walk from the theater and the university\u2019s new arts district, as well as two innovative new restaurants.
\nFor tickets, call the box office at 609-258-2787 or visit the ticket office online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just a few more performances of McCarter Theatre\u2019s stunning production of Detroit \u201967, directed by Jade King Carroll and on stage through October 28. The summer of 1967 is unforgettable for native Detroiters such as myself, and I\u2019ve looked forward … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Don\u2019t Miss! Detroit \u201967 - Fifty years ago, 10,000 people participated in summer violence in Detroit. What it was like on the inside.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1288,366,266,632,104,147,785],"tags":[140,1425,1426,99],"class_list":["post-7532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-drama","category-history","category-police","category-the-morgue","category-theater","category-tragedy","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-67","tag-dominique-morisseau","tag-urban-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1Xu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7534,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532\/revisions\/7534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}