Hey hey! Last day, baby! We decided to see as much as possible: three shows in one day! This Chicago pizza held us over for over 10 hours while driving/seeing plays At first we tried to get into Bad Jews at Theater Wit. We wanted to compare this production to the one we saw at […]

Read more "Day 28: The Show Must Go On"

Hey y’all, On Friday we left the D for the Windy City to do a bit more recon before the homeward journey. “I’ma pray before you go” In the morning/early afternoon we got ourselves together and said our final farewells to Kirk. One might call it a long goodbye; we exchanged the normal pleasantries then […]

Read more "Day 27: Taking to the Wind"

Hello love, We spent Thursday moving from one thing to the next.  “Nothing brings a city back like art” We met with Lisa Mohler on the main strip of Pontiac, MI, about a 30 minutes’ drive North of Detroit. She took us on a tour of an intimate performance/venue space that she will manage after renovations.  She was […]

Read more "Day 26: Who Runs Detroit?"

Dear friends, Wednesday was a huge day. Huge. “I’m still trying to figure out what this conversation is about” At 11:30am we met with Oliver Ragsdale of the Carr Center in downtown Detroit. This is the venue that hosted the NPR event we covered Day 12. We asked for another meeting to discuss further the […]

Read more "Day 25: Who Owns Detroit?"

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 […]

Read more "Day 24: Tight Knit"

Greetings, Sunday we took a trip out to Williamston Theatre, a Small Professional Theatre Equity house about an hour outside the city, where we saw John Patrick Shanley’s Outside Mullingar. As I typed the name of the play I was reminded of how absolutely enthralled and affected I was. This was hands down the most […]

Read more "Day 22: “I think I’m a honey bee”"

Hey babe, Hope that’s not moving too fast; I know three weeks isn’t long, but I thought we really had something. Anyway. “Puppets are like movie stars: they like to be seen, not touched” We stopped in for a matinee performance of PuppetART Detroit’s rendition of Sleeping Beauty in ballet form. Yes, that means dancing […]

Read more "Day 21: Some for the honey, some for the money"

Evening, On Friday we had our first chance to sit down with people making a living in the film industry. First we got lunch with Maya Gangadharan who we met at Slipstream when she played Palonia in their gender-bended version of Hamlet. She’s also their Marketing Director, as well as a budding nutritionist. Maya travels […]

Read more "Day 20: Left for Dead"

Good friends, What a day! Packed with meetings, info and revelation. Before we get to that, though, we have an update. We have 10 days left in Detroit. We no longer have time to take you point by point through our days; that phase of the blog has ended. Now is the time to get […]

Read more "Day 18: They ride dirty in Detroit"

Good friends, We owe Meredith Deighton a huge thank you. Since we’ve been here she’s gotten us into two performances, introduced us to loads of people and blasted Facebook with our blog — she’s been our unofficial publicist. Thanks, Meredith! Most recently, she got us in to see Romeo and Juliet at Clarkston Junior High […]

Read more "Day 17: The dream, getting paid to create"

Hey y’all, Sunday was a day of artful rest: we mostly hung out and enjoyed some great work by great people. Would you like some noise with your meal? …gas leak?  We started the day with Noise Brunch, an underground music event taking place in a repurposed soundstage called Jam Handy. This event was perfect […]

Read more "Day 15: “Detroit, a model for the new world”"

Saturday we played catch-up — on work and sleep. We spent most of the day blogging, decidedly taking it easy. It’s not hard to get totally caught up in this work. We could run ourselves into the ground and still not cover all there is to see. To stay on our game we have to schedule […]

Read more "Day 14: “New York is OVER”"

Hey y’all, Friday was a wonderful day of exploration. Coneys, cars and killer techno — A day of firsts. But let’s start at the very beginning. “Never let a good story get in the way of the truth…or is it the other way around?” We met up with Aj O’neil, the amazing coffee man we […]

Read more "Day 13: “Enjoy paradise until the tide rises”"

R&R: Good evening, We are here in the Motor City with a special broadcast brought to you from the living room of Kirk Goodlow, Detroit’s resident (living) saint and bodybuilding extraordinaire. Tonight we will be discussing the perspectives of many well-known Detroiters, both native and transplant, regarding the influx of businesspeople and artists moving to […]

Read more "Day 12: “Detroit is on fire”"

HEY YOU! Sorry, Kirk took us to the gym today so testosterone is running a bit high. We spent the morning making calls and setting up meetings. Have to say, we’re pretty booked — best thing that could happen. While we did that, Kirk prepped himself for the hardest workout of the week: leg day. […]

Read more "Day 11: “Please put clothes on in the sauna or get PUNCHED!!”"

You guys! Big news today: Megan Breukelman, one of Ryan’s comrades during his time at Ringling College of Art and Design is hanging out with us in the D! Sharp as a tack and quick with a joke, she’s a photography student at School of Visual Arts in NYC with an emphasis in curation. She […]

Read more "Day 9: “We’ve got a taker…maybe”"

Dear friends, Saturday these little thespians went to market; Eastern Market, that is. You could not walk two feet without running into someone in this open-air gathering that spans 43 acres, making it the largest historic public market district in the US. About 40,000 people stopped in on Saturday, even more on Sunday (we’ll get there). […]

Read more "Day 7: “The Lost Town of Humility”"

Hello beautiful people, Hope you weren’t worried we forgot about you. We stayed up late mingling with the lovely actors in the company of Ten Naked Men last night playing at the Ringwald Theatre in Ferndale, MI. Great times, great people, and GREAT insight into the theatre scene. But totally unexpected! We thought we’d see a show, […]

Read more "Day 6: “I turned down Disney to stay in Detroit”"

Hello Israel; Hi France; Hey Netherlands; Howdy Canada; Hey there Romania; Sup Nicaragua! Thanks for tuning in. Quick update: We have revised our thesis question. We now ask “Should a young artist move to Detroit as opposed to other major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago?” Today we ventured to midtown Detroit […]

Read more "Day 5: “I just sold my house for $100,000!”"

Hello world! We’d like to take a moment to thank the people who have read and commented on our blog. We really appreciate your time and attention; it means a lot. We only hope that you gain a new perspective on a city with a heart of gold whose name has been dragged through the […]

Read more "Day 4: “Hey! Your dad gave us a parking ticket. Wanna hang out?”"

Today was a catch up day — on work; hopefully tonight we’ll catch up on sleep (HA! Not when we’re revising this at 3:57 am). We got up at 10 am and checked out of Hostel Detroit by 11. We called Kirk Goodlow to say as long as the upstairs is as beautiful as the rest of […]

Read more "Day 3: “You mean you don’t have abandoned buildings in North Carolina?”"

After some much needed r and r, R&R are ready to give you the full monty. It’s pretty full, so read what you want/can. There are many things we could tell you about yesterday…like a billion. But let’s start with the gist: it was pretty awesome. We talked to a LOT of people (Ryan estimates 50-100; it […]

Read more "Day 2 (Continued): Stood up and Standup"

HELLO EVERYONE!!! After a long day of debauchery, it is 4AM and Ryan and I have no energy to tell a complete tale of today’s progress. So, for now, here are some bullet-points: + We’re moving into a great house tomorrow which we’ll share with the coolest and sweetest landlord we could ask for. + […]

Read more "Day 2: Tooling Around Downtown and Rolling Slow"

We’re heeeere! After 10 hours on the road (which flew by) we’re chillin’ in the Motor City! So we were supposed to leave the Twin City at 10 am. Well, that didn’t happen. First of all, Ryan was 30 minutes late getting to my place to make the sandwiches (and I was obviously showered, packed and […]

Read more "DAY 1!!!"