(upbeat music) - Jeff Daniels, everybody knows you for your work as an actor in theater and television and film, but Michigan theater lovers of course know you as the founder of the Purple Rose Theater in Chelsea, which has now been going for more than 30 years, and where you've premiered more than 20 of your original plays now.

- Yeah, that's true.

And here comes another one.

I just can't stop.

- And we'll get to the play in a moment, but just first of all, for people who have never been to the Purple Rose Theater and who have maybe never been to Chelsea, just tell us a little bit about what the Purple Rose is and how you came to start it in the town where you grew up.

- Well, when my wife Kathleen and I, we moved back in the middle '80s and decided to raise our family here and used Metro Detroit Airport as kind of the commuting service for me.

And it worked out all right.

The kids are in their 30s now, but while I was here, after a few years, I missed the creativity and the imagination that being an actor can bring, whether you're on a movie set or on stage somewhere.

And so I bought a building and gambled that there would be theater artists around that might be interested, and there were, and then kind of developed this theater.

And it's been almost 34 years of doing that.

And now we're kind of coming back from Covid and where people kind of learned to live without going to theater and things like that.

And we're doing a lot of comedies right now and we're kind of trying to bring the audience back.

We're trying to win them back, and making sure that what we're doing is of the highest quality once they get in the building, You'll have a great night out at The Purple Rose.

And that's what this next play delivers.

- Perfect segue into the play, "Office Christmas Party: Grinch in Fight with Rudolph, Police Called," a new comedy written and also directed by you.

It is based on a police blotter headline, and beyond that, an original invention of yours.

Tell us a bit about it.

- Well I saw this headline on that digital online paper mlive.com, it was from somewhere up north, and it was just the headline, that was the headline.

And as soon as I read that headline, I said, "That's a comedy."

I read the article, there was very little information in it and I said, "That's okay, I'll make it up."

And so I've completely made up this slam bang comedy set in the Middletown Fudge Factory in Middletown, Michigan.

And a failing business, of the six fudge companies in Michigan, it's number six.

And if they don't have a a good December, they won't see the end of January.

And then this happens, and then the fight that they had goes viral.

And once it hits the internet, then all hell breaks loose.

And that's when the comedy really kicks in.

- Now having written over 20 plays now, I'm just curious about your artistic process.

Like how do you approach writing?

- Well, the idea, any writer will tell you, a lot of ideas surface, but do they have legs?

Can you construct a story with a beginning, middle, and an end that even with a comedy says something.

And this one does, and it did, it takes a while to find it.

And that's why you go through.

I mean, "Grinch and Rudolph" has probably gone through easily nine drafts, maybe 10, we were probably eight by the time we got into rehearsals just before Labor Day.

And the actors bring ideas and you just see things that can be made better if you rewrite it a little bit or cut something.

So that's the fun of doing something absolutely original, and also setting it in this corner of the country.

I'm writing about here, and everybody who's gonna come to see this is gonna recognize this as Michigan as here as people they kind of know, might know.

That's the fun of it too, is kind of writing for this audience about this audience to this audience, and doing everything I can to make them double over with laughter.

That's my goal with this one.

I want them laughing harder than they have in a long time.

- I mean, I was looking at the rest of the 2024, 2025 season, and all four plays are either world premieres or Michigan premieres.

I know that incubating or commissioning new plays by playwrights is something that you really pride yourself on.

- It came from Circle Rep.

When I went to New York City in 1976, a Circle Repertory Company was one of the premier off-Broadway theater companies in New York.

And I'll never forget walking in there that first week and there were half a dozen playwrights, each one of them walking around rewriting a second act.

It was thrilling.

Living, breathing playwrights creating right in front of me.

I was never interested in doing what was popular in New York last year.

I think regional theaters would do well to write about where they are.

Seattle should write about Seattle.

Denver should write about Denver.

We're writing about this corner of the country, write to your audience, and that's what we're doing.

And if you write about them, they will come.

That's the hope anyway.