On Stage This Season:
Collective Rage: A Play In 5 Betties
September 14-16, 21-23 at 8pm; September 17 at 3pm
This hilarious play, which The New York Times called “a full-tilt lesbian/bi-curious/genderqueer/Shakespearean comedy for everyone," explores anger, sex, love and the “thea-tah” through the experiences of five women named Betty. Betty is rich; Betty is lonely; Betty’s busy working on her truck; Betty wants to talk about love, but Betty needs to hit something. And Betty keeps using a small hand mirror to stare into parts of herself she’s never examined.
Oil and Sugar
December 7-9, 14-16 at 8pm; December 10 at 3pm
A tight-knit, Michigan-based thriller about trust as power, art as disclosure, and how processed souls are poised for mutual destruction.
Suddenly-famous artist Inque and her lawyer husband Michael haven't been married very long, but suddenly, she's acting strangely--leaving her new house in the middle of the night, rubbing white paint into her hair, acutely aware of everything. Michael does what any husband would do--he hires a private investigator to watch from the house opposite. Inque hires a therapist to work through her own strange feelings. And while Michael waits for Inque to get "normal" again, Inque waits for a midnight visitor--and for her past to catch up with her. This time, she might actually be ready--if her carefully constructed plan actually works and doesn't kill her first.
Affinity Lunch Minutes
February 1-3, 8-10 at 8pm; February 4 at 3pm
When institutional change is needed, what voices will be heard? Can it actually change through its own mechanisms, or will it silence essential voices to sustain its ways? Ben and Jasmine are the only two Black teachers at Penn Valley, a private Quaker school. Jasmine is passionate and boundary pushing, while Ben has worked his way up the ranks at the school to be Diversity Dean thanks to his “agreeable” nature. A racially charged discipline decision ignites a divide at the school and in Jasmine and Ben’s collegial relationship.
Paradise Lost
May 2-4, 9-11 at 8pm; May 5 at 3pm
The debate over right and wrong has never been so satisfying. This ultra-contemporary new drama is fiercely engaging, irreverently funny, and deeply moving. The 17th century and present day are seamlessly intertwined as Satan vents to an audience about her frustration at being cast out of heaven and her thoughts on oppression. When she finds out that God has created delicate new creatures called "humans," she crafts a plan for revenge and betrayal on the Almighty.
National Premiere
Petty Crimes
Available to stream online anytime and from anywhere!
Watch from the comfort of your own home!
Generations and privileges collide in the world premiere of local playwright and attorney Kristin Hanratty’s new play as we’re all asked: if not all people are treated equally by the system, at what point do we need to bend the system, and at what point does it break?
While high-profile trials occupy the nation’s collective consciousness and determine the fate of billionaires, six strangers from Northern Michigan are summoned to serve on the jury for a trial surrounding a Hispanic teenager’s alleged minor misdeeds. In their confined quarters, the group must grapple not only with the case at hand but what it means to be fair and just in a society that is not just or fair to
everyone. Is it possible to do what’s “right” when the law is black-and-white, but the world is anything but?