Detroit Repertory Theatre Announces 60th Anniversary Season

Michigan's longest running, non-profit, professional theatre announces its 60th anniversary season. The Detroit Repertory Theatre continues its mission to produce indigenous, diversity centered theatre and democratize the arts from its legendary inner city stage in the heart of Detroit.

The plays include: The Realization of Emily Linder, Firepower, Capital, & Countdown to the Happy Day.

Artistic Director of the Detroit Repertory Theatre, Bruce Millan, said about reaching this approaching milestone: "Never in the cultural history of Detroit has an independent, grass roots, non-profit professional theatre attained the longevity, the institutional stature and the artistic prominence of the Rep. The Detroit Repertory has proved diversity acting in unity creates a powerful cultural voice. The Theatre has been hailed as an inspiring manifestation of Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream for America. America's realization of King's dream has a long way to go but the theatre work of the Repertory encourages Detroiters and Southeastern Michiganders to cling to and foster that dream."

The Detroit Repertory Theatre began in 1957 as a small band of actors, writers and artists presenting children's plays to students in southeast Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and western Pennsylvania. The plays were performed by multi-racial casts. Often this was the first time children of the late 1950's and early 60's were exposed to black and white actors on stage together.

In 1964 the Theatre made its permanent home in an inner city neighborhood in Detroit, creating a theatre and offices out of a dry goods store and bar, a scene shop/rehearsal space in an old garage and a prop/costume/print shop in a former bank. The Detroit Repertory Theatre began producing theatre for adults utilizing diversity centered casting, unless germane to the play.

The "Rep" as it has come to be known, has become the envy of regional theatres nationwide, cultivating unique audience development techniques, creating steadfast supporters and theatregoers, playing an active role in neighborhood revitalization and through numerous cultural and educational outreach programs serving the looked over and the left behind.

An example of the loyalty of these audiences can be seen in the Theatre's one of a kind "Anna Holley" Dollar-a-Week Pledge Program. This pledge program is about to reach its own miraculous milestone. Since its inception in 1999, the "Anna Holley" Dollar-a-Week pledge fund has raised over $990,000. Thousands of supporters have donated $13 every quarter or $52 yearly to the Theatre over the past decade and a half, and a million dollar mark raised from this simple little program is upon the Theatre.

The DRT honors the visual arts as well as theatre. The Rep boasts the elegant Gilda Snowden Lobby Gallery, named for Gilda, a nationally renowned artist who curated the gallery for 30 years until her death in 2014. Her former student and current Dean of Arts Instruction at WCCCD, Jocelyn Rainey, now curates the art of four local mid-career artists' exhibitions during the season.

Since its inception, the Detroit Repertory Theatre has produced 211 plays featuring 779 actors for audiences that number over 2,130,000 in its intimate theatre.

The Detroit Repertory Theatre will kick off the 60th anniversary celebrations onThursday, November 03, 2016 with a Champagne Celebration and toast to theatre and this vital Detroit arts institution.

The Annual Black Tie Gala Awards Night and Homecoming Celebration benefit for the Detroit Repertory Theatre will be Saturday, November 19, 2016. Tickets for this event are $75 and tax deductible sponsorships are available.

Love and family are central themes in each of the four plays on the 60th Season. These themes encompass what the Detroit Repertory Theatre is and has been all about since the beginning. The mission, to use the unifying power of theatre to prove the power of diversity acting in unity, has united Metro Detroiters since 1957.

Regular performances are Thursdays and Fridays at 8:30 PM, Saturdays at 3 PM and 8:30 PM, and Sundays at 2 PM and 7:30 PM. Tickets will remain the most affordable for professional theatre in the region at $17 in advance, and subscriptions remain the unheard of price of $100 for two for a year. Small group 10 ticket Bargain Books are available for $100 and $110. Large group packages are available to organizations who wish to utilize the Rep for charitable fundraisers, and early bird bookers will get free champagne for their reception.

For tickets and information call (313) 868-1347 or visit detroitreptheatre.com

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