Cast and Creative Team Set for SKELETON CREW at Guthrie Theater

The Guthrie Theater has revealed the cast and creative team for the Tony-nominated play Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau, directed by Austene Van. In this critically acclaimed American drama, four co-workers at a Detroit auto factory band together as they face rumors that the plant might be going under. The show begins performances on Friday, May 4 and will play through Sunday, June 9.

Single and group tickets are now on sale through the Box Office or online at guthrietheater.org. Accessibility services (ASL-interpreted, audio-described and open-captioned performances) are also available on select dates. 

Artistic Director Joseph Haj said, “The characters in Skeleton Crew remind us so poignantly of the importance of relationships and family ties — whether those ties are to our actual family or friends and co-workers who feel like family. I’m so honored to have Austene Van back at the Guthrie to help us tell this striking story.” 

Director Austene Van noted, “Dominique Morisseau fiercely and poetically captures the necessary steel that many Detroiters don to arm themselves, perhaps to protect the beauty, sensitivity and poetry of their inner lives. She offers this duality in colorful, edgy language while painting a rich world through the rhythmic poetry of her stage directions, almost as a love song.” 

Skeleton Crew is the third installment of Morisseau’s acclaimed trilogy called The Detroit Project, which critics have praised for capturing the language and spirit of Detroit during a troubled moment in history. The show premiered at Atlantic Theater Company in New York City in January 2016 and opened on Broadway in January 2022 where it received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play. This is the Guthrie’s first production by Morisseau.

Set as the Great Recession of 2008 begins to decimate industries across America, Skeleton Crewtakes place in the once-gleaming “Motor City” that has lost its luster. At one of its still-standing auto factories, four colleagues-turned-friends hear rumors that their plant is facing foreclosure. Faye, Dez, Shanita and Reggie all have different stakes in the company should it go under, which they grapple with in the break room as the fear of losing their jobs looms. This powerful drama wrestles with questions of grief, loyalty and self-preservation while exploring the monumental impact of the Recession-era economy on middle-class life. TheaterMania.com wrote, “Like Lorraine Hansberry and August Wilson before her, Morisseau creates characters who don't merely speak, they sing with the vernacular of their community. Rarely has dialogue ever felt so much like eavesdropping on an actual conversation.” 

The cast of Skeleton Crew includes Darius Dotch (Guthrie: A Raisin in the Sun, Sweat) as Reggie, Stephanie Everett (Guthrie: debut) as Shanita, Jennifer Fouché (Guthrie: debut) as Faye and Mikell Sapp (Guthrie: Shane) as Dez.

The creative team includes Dominique Morisseau (Playwright), Austene Van (Director), Regina García (Scenic Designer), Samantha Fromm Haddow (Costume Designer), Nic Vincent (Lighting Designer), Jeff Lowe Bailey (Sound Designer/Composer), Faye M. Price (Dramaturg),Keely Wolter (Vocal Coach), Annie Enneking (Fight Director/Intimacy), Jennifer Liestman (Resident Casting Director), Laura Topham (Stage Manager), Kathryn Sam Houkom (Assistant Stage Manager), Brandon Raghu (Assistant Director) and McCorkle Casting, Ltd. (NYC Casting Consultant). 

Dominique Morisseau 

(Playwright) is the author of The Detroit Project, a three-play cycle that includes Paradise Blue (Signature Theatre), Detroit ’67 (The Public Theater/The Classical Theatre of Harlem/National Black Theatre) and Skeleton Crew (Atlantic Theater Company). Additional plays include Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theater), Sunset Baby (LAByrinth Theater Company), Blood at the Root (National Black Theatre) and Follow Me to Nellie’s (Premiere Stages). She is also the Tony-nominated book writer of the musical Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations. Morisseau is an alumna of The Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group, WP Theater Lab and The Lark’s Playwrights Workshop, and she has developed work at the Sundance Lab, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. She most recently served as Co-Producer on the Showtime series “Shameless” (three seasons). Additional awards include the Spirit of Detroit Award, PONY Fellowship, Sky Cooper New American Play Prize, Teer Trailblazer Award, Steinberg Playwright Award, AUDELCO Awards, NBFT August Wilson Playwriting Award, Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama, Obie Awards (two), Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellowship, Variety’s 2017 Women’s Impact Report and MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship.  

Austene Van 

(Director) is an acclaimed Twin Cities actor, director and choreographer as well as Co-Founder of New Dawn Theatre and Producing Artistic Director at Yellow Tree Theatre. She is a 2013–2014 McKnight Fellowship recipient, Ivey Award winner for the Guthrie’s production of Trouble in Mind and Woodie Award nominee for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for playing multiple roles in Spunk and The Colored Museum at The Black Rep in St. Louis. She has directed at Yellow Tree Theatre (The Royale), the Ordway (Annie, named Best Play in the City Pages Best of 2018 list), Skylight Music Theatre (Hot Mikado), Ten Thousand Things (Intimate Apparel), the Ordway’s McKnight Theatre (Blues in the Night), Park Square Theatre (Gee’s Bend, Hot Chocolate, Lady Day...), Penumbra Theatre (Lonely Soldiers, A Civil War Christmas), Capri Theater (Ain’t Misbehavin’) and Theatre in the Round (Six Degrees of Separation). Van’s stage credits at the Guthrie include Familiar, Disgraced, Trouble in Mind, Crowns and The Darker Face of the Earth. She most recently played Truvy in the Guthrie’s 2019 production of Steel Magnoliasand directed the 2022 production of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun.  

Related Events

BIPOC Community Night – Friday, May 17 at 5:30 p.m.
Join us for a night of networking and mingling with other BIPOC professionals and community members. The evening will include a pre-show conversation, complimentary refreshments and a ticket to the performance. For details, visit www.guthrietheater.org/skeletoncrew.

Post-Play Discussions 
Patrons are invited to stay in the theater following select performances for a 20-minute conversation about the production facilitated by Guthrie staff. Cast members may join the discussion as they are able. Post-play discussions are supported by Fredrikson & Byron.  

Tuesday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 19 at 1 p.m. 
Saturday, May 25 at 1 p.m.
Sunday, May 26 at 1 p.m.
Saturday, June 8 at 1 p.m. 
 

Accessible Performances

ASL-Interpreted Performances 
American Sign Language interpreters sign the performance as it plays out onstage. 

Friday, May 31 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 8 at 1 p.m. 

Audio-Described Performances
Audio describers provide live verbal descriptions of the action, costumes and scenery for people who are blind or have low vision. 

Friday, May 31 at 7:30 p.m. 
Saturday, June 8 at 1 p.m. 

Open-Captioned Performances 
LED screens display text simultaneously with the performance onstage. 

Wednesday, May 29 at 1 p.m.
Friday, May 31 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 1 at 1 p.m.
Sunday, June 2 at 1 p.m.
Wednesday, June 5 at 1 p.m. 

The Guthrie also offers ASL-interpreted, audio-described and open-captioned performances upon request. Requests must be received at least two weeks in advance. 

Ticket Information 

Single tickets range from $29 to $82. Single and group tickets (minimum requirement of 15 per group) may be purchased through the Box Office at 612.377.2224 (single), 1.877.447.8243 (toll-free), 612.225.6244 (group) or online at guthrietheater.org.

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