Firehouse Theatre Presents DETROIT '67

The Firehouse Theatre will present the Richmond Premiere of Detroit ‘67. The winner of the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, this play by Dominique Morisseau opens on Friday, March 12th, 2025, on the Carol Piersol Stage at the Firehouse Theatre, 1609 West Broad Street.

Detroit ‘67 will have two Pay-What-You-Will preview performances on Wednesday, March 10th and Thursday, March 11th, and will run through Sunday, March 30th, 2025.

It's 1967 in Detroit. Motown music is getting the party started, and Chelle and her brother Lank are making ends meet by turning their basement into an after-hours joint. But when a mysterious woman finds her way into their lives, the siblings clash over much more than the family business. As their pent-up feelings erupt, so does their city, and they find themselves caught in the middle of the '67 riots.

Dominique Morisseau is the author of The Detroit Project (A 3-Play Cycle), which includes the following plays: Skeleton Crew (Atlantic Theater Company), Paradise Blue (Signature Theatre), and Detroit '67 (Public Theater, Classical Theatre of Harlem and NBT). Additional plays include: Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theatre), Sunset Baby (LAByrinth Theatre); Blood at the Root (National Black Theatre) and Follow Me To Nellie's (Premiere Stages). She is also the Tony-nominated book writer on theBroadway musical Ain't Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations (Imperial Theatre). Dominique is an alumna of The Public Theater Emerging Writer's Group, Women's Project Lab and Lark Playwrights Workshop, and has developed work at Sundance Lab, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference. She most recently served as Co-Producer on the Showtime series Shameless (3 seasons). Additional awards include: Spirit of Detroit Award, PoNY Fellowship, Sky-Cooper Prize, TEER Trailblazer Award, Steinberg Playwright Award, Audelco Awards, NBFT August Wilson Playwriting Award, Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama, Obie Award (2), Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellowship, Variety's Women of Impact for 2017-18, and a recent MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow.

Tawnya Pettiford-Wates Ph.D. will direct. She is Professor of Acting and Directing Pedagogy at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Artistic Director and Founder of The Conciliation Project, a non-profit social justice theatre company (www.theconciliationproject.org).

Dr. T is a playwright, director, actor, poet, and writer. She has appeared in the New York Shakespeare Festival's Broadway production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the rainbow is enuf, performing in both the first national and international touring companies. Her television, film, industrial, voice over, and commercial credits are extensive. Favorite directing projects include uncle tom:deconstructed for The Conciliation Project, Passing Strange and Berta, Berta for Firehouse Theatre, The Niceties for The Conciliation LAB, and Fences for Virginia Rep, all to critical acclaim. A new work titled WHITESPLAINING, a collaboration with TheatreVCU and The Conciliation Project partially and funded by the Carpenter Foundation, is the most recent addition to the repertoire of TCP. The work of The Conciliation Project has been recognized both nationally and internationally for intentionally engaging communities
around issues of race, racism, and historic and systemic oppression for over two decades.

Fun fact: She's a featured voice talent for the video game HALO. Her scholarship and methodology is featured in Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches, a bestseller on Amazon. Her chapter “The Conciliation Project as a Social Experiment: Behind the Mask of Uncle Tom-ism and the Performance of Blackness” was featured in an anthology titled African American Arts, Activism, Aesthetics and Futurity, edited by Dr. Sharrell D. Luckett. A sampling of Dr.T's articles, presentations, and workshops can be found at www.coveringtheground.com.

The design team includes Costume Designer Margarette Joyner and sound designer Kyle Epps, with scenic design by Mercedes Schaum and lighting design by Michael Crevoisier. Solomon Marley joins the creative team as directing observer and Emily Vial will stage manage. The cast features Katrinah Carol Lewis as Chelle, David Watkins as Lank, Nicole Cowan as Bunny, Jeremy Morris as Sly, and Marie Lucas as Caroline.

Tickets can be purchased by calling the Box Office at (804) 355-2001 and are available online at www.firehousetheatre.org. Tickets cost $35. A 15% discount is available to active duty military and veterans. $15 tickets available for college and high school students. Pay-What-You-Will performances will be offered for both preview performances, as well as all matinees (excluding closing, March 30th).

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