They're just trying to make a little money the way they know how.
That's according to Chelle, who along with her brother, Lank, have inherited their family home in Detroit. It's 1967, and the siblings are giving "basement parties,"where the latest Motown recordsare spinning after hours. It's both exciting and dangerous.
It's the setting for Dominique Morisseau's "Detroit '67,"which opens today and runs through May 17 at the Penumbra Theatrein St. Paul.
Lank posits that Detroit could be "some kind of Mecca." But racial tensions put the pair in unexpected danger, which is a central theme of the award-winning play, the first in a trilogy of works by Morisseau.
Originating at the Public Theater in New York, which gives voice to many new authors and important contemporary works in the modern theatrical canon, "Detroit '67" is an ideal fit for Penumbra.
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With a mission to "increase public awareness of the significant contributions of African Americans in creating a diversified American theatrical tradition," Penumbra is also successful at bringing an audience in for the works it features, surely a sign of a thriving artistic community.
Morisseau, a L. Arnold Weissberger Award and two-time NAACP Image Award winner, is a prolific playwright, whose spellbinding works offer a lens through which her hometown, Detroit, and by extension larger issues of race and identity, can be explored and discussed. There are also post-play discussions offered, allowing audience to, as they say at Penumbra, "dig deeper."
There are even options for a dinner and show package,where two neighborhood "favorites" — Cheeky Monkey or Fabulous Fern's — are on offer. Price points vary, and reservations are required.
