Hey stranger,

Tuesday was unusual in that we only had one meeting for research.

6 Degrees of Separation? How about 1?

We met with Alexander Trice, a theatre artist who knows pretty much everyone we’ve met in town so far. He’s an English dude whose father moved him to Detroit, which he resisted until he fell in love with the city. He now works with idealistic zeal to “make Detroit into a theatre mecca again”.

Alexander pursued a BA in theatre studies from Wayne State because he “love[s] all of it”. While there, he opened a theatre company with several friends. Apparently Wayne State didn’t cast him much in the school productions; so he “had all this knowledge about craft but had nothing to do with it”. He now works at a hotel, he freelance acts/directs/designs around town in addition to a recurring job as a background actor at the Detroit Opera Company. “It’s basically like you’re getting paid to take a workshop in physical acting. It’s great.”

As I mentioned, Alexander is at most two degrees removed from many theatre people we’ve met; obviously he knows Emilio Rodriguez because Emilio knows everyone. He also designs for Slipstream; in fact he worked on Hamlet, the first show we saw here.

He says that he tries to get people to see new things; for example, he tells people at the Opera about Hamlet. He’s all about spreading the latest on work he cares about.

Because of his idealism he was quite positive about Detroit.

“If you want to conform to someone else’s aesthetic go to New York, Chicago or LA. Here you have to use your own creativity…[Detroit’s theatre scene] is not for everybody. It’s not established” so while no one will hand it to you, it’s possible to make something of yourself.

And like he says, it has to come from yourself, it has to have that “no bullshit” vibe to it. Many people have warned that disingenuousness gets you nowhere with Detroiters; they don’t have time for nonsense.

Ay, but here’s the rub

Even with all his optimism he gave a more complex picture of the city.

“When you’re in a show you have to quit your job and find another one after the show closes.” Enough said.

“If you burn a bridge with one person you burn at least eight: it’s a tight knit community and everyone talks.” That “tight knit” aspect has come in handy for us — we’ve met SO many people simply because everybody knows everybody.

That’s because word travels fast through the grapevine. So you could easily lose work if you do the wrong thing; or you could lose work for someone else by bad-mouthing them.

Another aspect of this: “Part of me says there’s not enough theatre companies in town, but another part says too many…the issue is that it’s so tight knit that it’s easy to get pigeon-holed” and every time a theater company deviates from their usual fair they can’t sell tickets.

“This is a jock town filled with sports fanatics.” He explained that it’s an industrial town and that’s what that crowd wants: a beer and a game. “That’s our real enemy for lack of support. We need people to buy fewer sports tickets and go to theatre instead.”

He said that one way to combat this is by having a location that’s easily accessible, where people who have time can go “there’s a play? whatever, let’s check it out.”

Or free tickets could work: “the Abreact is the perfect model for a company in this town.” Free performances are what we need to get that baseball fan group, or admission by donation.

That’s radical, but it works.

Then we asked about affecting the change needed to engage with the entire community. He talked about “ the sense of community versus the sense of divide”. When we asked about the tendency of doing plays focused on oppression he said “It’s impossible to do a play without conflict.” And for a people whose history that’s so rife with conflict, that’s not all there is but it’s easy to focus on. “If there’s a play that has a conflict outside of the historical conflict. I think that’s what Detroit needs, but I don’t know how to do it.”

He said later “Boxfest is the type of change that’s needed,” you have to be a woman to direct, the winner gets a free course at Purple Rose and gets to direct a show, the second runner up gets to direct a play at the Planet Ant. Pretty cool.

“Henna’s just showing off for the boys”

Then we had dinner with Maya, Egla and Ryan from Slipstream. Maya had us over for a very nutritious meal and lively conversation. Come to find out Egla will be directing in the upcoming BoxFest!

After dinner, they showed us around downtown Royal Oak — but the best part was meeting her rescue puppy, Henna.

Friends! 

It was a wonderful evening…until we had to say goodbye.

We’ve made strong business connections and friends in a short amount of time. It makes sense when you think of the people we’ve met: down to earth, strong, unapologetic people who have to hustle to survive. Even Maya, who’s doing very well working as an actor, travels six months out of the year working for .

These people are survivors; they are honest; they don’t let you in unless they mean it.

And the Detroiters have definitely let us in, sharing their work, their process, their thoughts and ideas. But most of all they’ve shared memories we’ll never forget.

Much love,

R&R