Detroit Repertory Theatre RED NIGHT BENEFIT Celebrates Drama, Passion, History and Love
By: BWW News Desk Jan. 20, 2017
On Saturday, February 11, 2017 the Detroit Repertory Theatre welcomes the public to an evening of drama, romance, a silent auction, champagne and appetizers at the Board of Trustees' annual "RED NIGHT" benefit beginning at 7:30 p.m. There will be a "reddest red" contest so guests are encouraged to wear the color of love. Tickets are $60 each, or $300 for recognition as a Citizen Sponsor for the entire season and may be purchased online or with Visa or MasterCard by calling the Repertory Box Office at (313) 868-1347. There is no surcharge.
The all-inclusive evening begins with a reception and silent auction. The silent auction features a 7 days & nights vacation to Costa Rica. Everyone attending will enjoy champagne and appetizers in the intimate, candle-lit atmosphere of the theatre's art gallery and lobby cocktail lounge.
Onstage, the theatre will present the Wertz Patron of the Year award followed by the professional premiere of the drama Firepower by Kermit Frazier. Politics, passion and family secrets are revealed in this story of a first-term African American councilman in Washington in 1989 as he is reunited with his prodigal sons. After the show, guests can enjoy coffee or cocktails and sweets as the Board of Trustees announce the reddest red contest and silent auction winners.
The 60th Anniversary celebrations all season honor the Repertory's accomplishments and future plans. Since 1957, the Detroit Repertory Theatre has served Southeast Michigan from its inner city location in the heart of Detroit.
This historic, homegrown arts center has served over 2 million theatregoers from across the state for its professional productions, educational work, and cultural programs. To raise working capital necessary to establish a new level of operation, the Repertory has established its Anniversary Growth Fund. This would make the Rep capable of recruiting a new artistic team and developing a Cultural Pocket in the geographic center of Detroit. Metro Detroiters are invited to join the Board of Trustees to help meet the challenge and continue the theatre's vital service to the community for the next 60 years.
About the Play
It's 1989 in Washington D.C. With an important piece of legislation pending, treatment for a serious illness about to begin, and engagement to a woman half his age in the balance, a first-term African American City Councilman is visited by his two adult sons, the younger one a gay man who must find a way to come out to his father, the older one an ex-football star who has been living out of the country and out of touch for nearly twenty years. Both sons, in addition, carry a long-held secret agreement that is destined to explode in their father's face.
Irma Wertz was the first recipient of the Patron of the Year Award in 1997, during the Detroit Repertory's 40th Anniversary Season. She was an original prime-time player with the Detroit Repertory Theatre.Instead of performing onstage in front of bright lights and rapt audiences, the longtime volunteer preferred toiling anonymously behind the scenes in her role as a tireless mover and shaker.
The union between Mrs. Wertz and the Theater began nearly half a century ago, while she was president of the Detroit Council of the Parent Teacher Association. In the late 1950's and early 60's, the Detroit Rep toured the Public Schools in Detroit and the suburbs, with musical plays for children, performed by an inter-racial cast of adult professional actors. Irma was one of the first to acknowledge the important work that the company was doing and was instrumental in helping the Theatre win some of their first Public School contracts.Irma served on the board for more than four decades.
In honor of Mrs. Irma Wertz, the Theatre honors a special person who has a history of outstanding support for the Theatre over the years annually at the Detroit Repertory Theatre's Valentine's Fundraiser.
The Board of Trustees' welcomes the public to join us at RED NIGHT for a unique evening of theatre, romance, music and a meaningful participation in Detroit Repertory Theatre's 60th Anniversary celebrations.
About the Rep
The oldest professional (Union) non-profit theatre in the State of Michigan, the Detroit Repertory Theatre's mission is guided by the belief that the sense of community is stronger than the forces that splinter and that efforts to preserve unity deserve the same attention and support as the justly cultivated efforts to retain diversity. The implicit goal in all the theatre's efforts is to produce the best possible professional theatre while fostering cultural democratization of the arts, and fighting by example, the disturbing level of racism that still exists.
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