MTC 2017-18 Season to Include Dominique Morisseau's SKELETON CREW

Marin Theatre Company's artistic director Jasson Minadakis and managing director Keri Kellerman are thrilled to announce that Dominique Morisseau's Skeleton Crew-winner of MTC's 2014 Sky Cooper New American Play Prize and the third installment in Morisseau's 3-play cycle, The Detroit Projects-will be co-produced with TheatreWorks Silicon Valley as a part of MTC's 51st mainstage season. MTC will send out a press release with the full lineup for the 2017-18 season once all remaining plays are confirmed.

In Dominique Morisseau's Skeleton Crew, it's 2008 in Detroit, and the employees at the last small auto plant still in operation sense change on the horizon. Faye, a tough old-timer looking to hit 30 years and a full benefits package; Shanita, a pregnant young woman on her own; and Dez, a smooth-talking soon-to-be entrepreneur are some of the last workers at a once-thriving factory that's now staffed barely enough to run the assembly lines. Pride in their work, dreams for the future, and lack of other options keep them on the line, despite news drifting in of other plants closing and their fears that theirs may be next. Caught between his loyalties and his career, plant manager Reggie is pressured to keep discipline, as across the city, abandoned plants are stripped by thieves. Skeleton Crew examines the casualties of commerce and the everyday people whose lives hang in the balance.

More About Playwright Dominique Morisseau

Dominique Morisseau, Playwright and Actress, got her BFA in Acting from the University of Michigan and her start as a performance poet in the Detroit community of Harmonie Park. She has since become a noted award-winning playwright in NYC and is currently developing a 3-play cycle about her hometown, entitled "The Detroit Projects". The inaugural play Detroit '67, about the riots/rebellion in 1967, originated at The Public Theater and extended at Classical Theatre of Harlem with the National Black Theatre. The production was nominated for 8 Audelco Theatre Awards including Best Playwright. The second play Paradise Blue, about Detroit's 1949 jazz community uprooted by urban renewal, was the winner of the L. Arnold Weissberger Award and received development at Williamstown Theatre Festival, McCarter Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, and The Public Theater. The third and final play Skeleton Crew, about a makeshift family of workers at the last exporting auto plant in the city, recently received a Barebones production at the Lark Play Development Center. Ms. Morisseau, a recent PoNY (Playwright of New York) fellow, is also generating a substantial body of work independent of the Detroit cycle: Sunset Baby, Follow Me To Nellie's, and Blood At The Root. Her work has also been published in NY Times bestseller- "Chicken Soup for the African American Soul" and in the Harlem-based literary journal "Signifyin' Harlem". She is a Jane Chambers Playwriting Award honoree, a two-time NAACP Image Award recipient, honoree for the Primus Prize by the American Theatre Critics Association, and winner of the Stavis Playwriting Award. U of M has also awarded her with their Emerging Leader Award, and the city of Detroit has honored her with a Spirit of Detroit award. Most substantially, Dominique has recently been awarded the esteemed Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama. She is an artist that believes wholeheartedly in the power and strength of community.

All productions performed in MTC's Boyer Theatre, located at Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley. Programming and scheduling are subject to change.

Marin Theatre Company is the Bay Area's premier mid-sized theater and the leading professional theater in the North Bay. We produce a six-show season focused on new American plays, and a four-show Family Series. We are committed to the development and production of new plays, with a comprehensive New Play Program that includes productions of world premieres, two nationally recognized annual playwriting awards and readings and workshops by the nation's best emerging and established playwrights. Our numerous education programs serve more than 8,500 students from over 40 Bay Area schools each year. MTC strives to create intimate, powerful and emotional experiences that engage audiences to discuss new ideas and adopt a broader point of view. We believe in taking risks and inspiring people to participate in live theater, regardless of personal means. MTC celebrates the intellectual curiosity of our community, and we believe that theater is an important tool to help build empathy. MTC was founded in 1966 and is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

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