Detroitby Lisa D'Amour
Performances
Sep 26, 2014 -
Oct 18, 2014
“Mary, everyday really is a new day. But Mary, I open my eyes every morning and all I want is a pipe to smoke. It’s like there’s a fire burning inside of my head, Mary, and the pipe is the water that will put it out… in the middle of this burning I am supposed to envision my life. I’m supposed to set goals and maybe take night classes and expand my horizons. And I guess that works, Mary, I guess so. But to be honest I feel like the real opportunities fall into your lap. Like winning the lottery or someone’s rich Uncle needing a personal assistant. That almost happened to me once, Mary. And everything would have been different.”
Cast & Personnel
Director
Assistant Director
Cast
Scenic Design
Costume Design
Lighting Design
Sound Design
Prop Design
Stage Manager
Assistant Stage Manager
Booth Crew
Deck Crew
The Play
New neighbors, Kenny and Sharon, just moved in next door to Mary and Ben. Both couples are at a crossroads. Ben is out of work and exploring an entrepreneurial opportunity, while Sharon and Kenny are getting back on their feet after meeting each other in a rehab facility for major substance abuse. The suburban life Mary and Ben know is beginning to itch, while Kenny and Sharon are grasping for stability. Mary and Ben invite the new neighbors over for dinner to become acquainted. This sparks a bond that inflames four lives. Their backyard barbeques ignite into a delirious bacchanal which is all masked by suburban shrubbery.
Not necessarily set in Detroit, but rather any first-ring suburb of America, Detroit explores the modern definition of neighbor, the Thoreauvian impulse to return to the primal woods, the uncertainty of the middle-class, the quest for second chances.
Lisa D’Amour was initially inspired by the ice-breaker her brother uses at parties: “Alright everybody, one question: If you could have any other job than the job you have now, what would it be?” Initially responses are superficial. “I’d be a quarterback in the NFL! I’d be independently wealthy!” When forced to think of the question in realistic terms the responses open doors to meaningful conversations. D’Amour wrote: “They start talking about the major they ditched in college because the course of study wasn’t practical. Or the shelf of archaeology books they keep at home. Most often, people totally surprise you with their dream career, and their reasons for wanting it. Everyone has a secret self. A self they desperately want to be. A self they believe they will never get to be.”
Written in 2009, Detroit was first premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago in 2010. From there Detroit has been a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize award as well as the Susan Blackburn Smith award. It is this year’s winner of the Obie Award for Best New American Play. It has premiered in London, New York, and all across the country regionally.
The Playwright
LISA D'AMOUR
is a playwright and interdisciplinary artist. She received her M.F.A. in playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a core member of the Playwrights' Center and a recent alumna of New Dramatists.
Lisa is an Obie award-winning playwright and one half of PearlDamour, an interdisciplinary performance company she runs with Katie Pearl. Her work has been produced by Theaters such as Steppenwolf Theatre, Children's Theater Company, Clubbed Thumb, the Walker Arts Center, and the Kitchen. D'Amour received her MFA in playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin and currently splits her time between Brooklyn and New Orleans.. M.F.A., Playwriting, University of Texas at Austin, 1996; B.A. in Theater and English, Millsaps College, Jackson, MS, 1991. 2005/6 TCG Playwright's Residency for work with Infernal Bridegroom Productions; 2004/5 Rockfeller MaP grant for LandMaRK; 2003 Village Voice OBIe award for Nita and Zita, written and directed by Lisa D'Amour; Playlabs participant (Playwrights' Center), Summer 2003 and 1999; McKnight advancement Grant from the Playwrights' Center, 2002-03, 1998-99; A.S.K. New Play Retreat participant, March, 2002; MacDowell Colony Fellow, Peterborough, NH, September, 1999; Member, New Dramatists, New York, NY, 1999; Career Opportunity Grant, Video Documentation Grant, Minnesota State Arts Board, 1999; Jerome/Intermedia Performance art Commission, Minneapolis, MN 1998-99; Jerome Fellowship for emerging Playwrights, the Playwrights' Center, 1997-98; James Michener Playwriting Fellow, the University of Texas at Austin, '94-95, '95-96, '96-97
Her plays have been commissioned and produced by theaters across the country, including The Women's Project, Playwrights' Horizons, Children's Theater Company (Minneapolis), Steppenwolf Theater Company (Chicago) and the Royal National Theater (London). She is the recipient of the 2008 Alpert Award for the Arts in theater and the 2011 Steinberg Playwright Award. Lisa has also received fellowships from the Jerome and McKnight Foundations, an independent artist commission from NYSCA (for Stanley 2006, created with her brother Todd D'Amour) and an NEA / TCG Playwrights' Residency (to create Hide Town with Infernal Bridegroom Productions).
In 2008, Lisa wrote and directed a performance for visual artist SWOON's Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, a flotilla of six boats created from salvaged materials that navigated the Hudson River in August 2009, performing in riverfront parks from Troy, NY to New York City.
D'Amour sits on The Catastrophic Theatre's advisory board. She lives with her husband, Brendan Connelly, in New Orleans and Brooklyn.
In the Media
The A+C Top Ten: October
October 8, 2014 |
Arts + Culture Texas
| (no byline)
Droll ‘Detroit’ a worthy dark comedy
September 30, 2014 |
Houston Chronicle
| Everett Evans
Detroit: Lisa D’Amour’s Compelling Vision of the American Dream
September 29, 2014 |
Houston Press
| D.L. Groover
‘Detroit’: a play that asks tough questions, offers realistic answers
September 29, 2014 |
Examiner.com
| Brandy Hickey
Catastrophic Theatre’s Detroit
September 27, 2014 |
Houston Arts Week
| John DeMers
