- [Narrator] Coming up on our theater themed episode of "One Detroit."

We'll look at how some local independent movie theaters are managing to survive when many others have closed.

Plus, Detroit Public Theater opens its 10th season with the Play "Fat Ham," a modern take on Shakespeare's "Hamlet."

Also ahead, actor Jeff Daniels talks about the holiday comedy he wrote and directed for his Purple Rose Theater Company.

And we'll tell you about some of the theater and arts activities taking place around town this weekend.

It's all coming up next on "One Detroit."

- [Announcer] From Delta faucets to Behr paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Announcer] DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan-focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Announcer] Nissan Foundation, and viewers like you.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Just ahead on "One Detroit," it's all about the theater.

We'll talk with the actor playing the lead character in the award-winning play "Fat Ham" at Detroit Public Theater.

Plus, we'll hear from actor Jeff Daniels about his new play, and the Michigan theater company he founded more than 30 years ago.

And we'll have some suggestions on arts and culture events you can check out this weekend and beyond.

But first up, we're taking a look at the plight of independent theaters in Michigan.

Tonight at 9:00, Detroit PBS is airing the documentary "Marquee Town," which tells the story of one man's efforts to save an old movie house in the Upper Peninsula.

There are similar theaters throughout Southeast Michigan.

While some have managed to stay open, many others have closed their doors.

"One Detroit's" Bill Kubota and Chris Jordan teamed up to take a look at some of these historic theaters and what it takes for them to survive.

(upbeat music) - [Chris] On Detroit's East Side, the nonprofit Friends of the Alger Theater has worked to save their idle movie house for decades, which serves as a community billboard.

- We put on our marque messages weekly.

And we make enough money from that to pay our water bill and our electric bill.

- [Chris] Alger friend Jackie Grant says this movie house formally showed its last feature film nearly 40 years ago.

She found proof up in the projection booth.

- "Friday the 13th, Part 5" in 1985.

It's right there.

- [Chris] They didn't comeback to get the reel, huh?

- Apparently not.

- [Chris] The Alger opened in 1935.

In more recent years, the plan, create a community center and maybe show some movies again, but not likely with these projectors.

- We are in my favorite place.

This is the lobby of the Alger Theater.

I know you're thinking it's just a mess, but that's changing as we speak.

- Overhead, the lobby's getting a new roof, but there's so much more work to do.

Meanwhile, on Detroit's northwest side, the Redford, one of the few independent movie theaters in southeast Michigan, is also owned by a nonprofit, and has been since the late 1970s.

Here I'm meeting film writer and theater volunteer John Monaghan.

The fight always seems to be like, how do you get people to come to a theater instead of staying at home and watching Netflix?

- That's been a challenge about what to show.

And certainly our content has changed quite a bit in the last 20 years as our audiences kind of aged out.

- Thank you.

- Nobody is paid at the Redford Theater.

We're all volunteers.

It is a good business model.

The nonprofit business model is very good for a theater like ours because it's hard to make money in the theater business.

So it takes a lot of pressure off certainly when you don't have a big payroll.

We really do try to create an experience here as much as as we can going to the movies like you would've in the 1940s or '50s.

And part of that for a lot of us is the ability to show actual film on film, which we do quite regularly on our old late 1950s Norelco projectors that project both 70 millimeter and 35 millimeter with carbon rods that make a spark between them like they would've used back in the day.

- Is finding the carbon rods and sourcing those like a problem itself?

- That's a whole nother element, yeah.

There's only a finite amount of those around, and we're always trying to find somebody who's got a stash of them.

And sometimes when we do find the carbon rods, they're not exactly the right size.

So I've been stockpiling some of those for trades.

Maybe we'll find somebody who needs those and has the ones we need.

- [Announcer] Radio KSIK, you've been listening to music for old invalids.

- We of course, we don't just show 35 millimeter, we have real state-of-the-art digital projection, which looks quite good as much of a purist as I am on film, we have really, really nice digital projection here too.

- [Chris] When you enter the Redford, you'll encounter some ways it raises money to keep running.

- [John] Often people will come over here to the counter where Larry the T-shirt guy designed shirts for the different programs.

We have a 50/50 raffle counter over here where folks walk away with maybe a hundred dollars in cash prizes.

Over here is the wall where kind of paying tribute to the famous folks that have been through the theater.

Probably most famously, Bruce Campbell from "The Evil Dead," he was here.

- And one of the reasons why this theater is iconic to a lot of horror fans is this is of course where "The Evil Dead" premiered.

- Yeah.

We're really proud of that.

The fact that both the first two "Evil Deads" and the short film that they got seed money to make the feature with also premiered here.

- Right there.

- And we're also really proud that the more recent horror classic "It Follows" has its opening sequence that was filmed right here in the theater too.

And we're showing that this year for its 10th anniversary.

- What do you hear from other people who run independent theaters in the state?

Do you talk much with other theater owners?

- That's a good question.

I have great interest in the other theaters that are doing similar to what we're doing.

Certainly the Detroit Film Theater, which is still just so wonderful, and the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, and the Penn Theater and what they're doing, which is also on that volunteer model, that's a huge success story the way they were able to save that neighborhood theater and keep that going.

- Then there's the Senate Theater operating in Southwest Detroit, complete with an original organ that accompanied silent films just like the Redford.

When you're hearing those stories of other theaters and what they're doing, how many are continuing to make a go of it as a for-profit and how many are kind of embracing the nonprofit model that you guys are?

- The nonprofit model seems to be pretty predominant.

I mean, look at the profit model certainly didn't work for the Main Art Theater or the Maple Theater.

Both of those are gone, which is really sad.

So hopefully there'll be something that'll take, something's gotta take the place of those venues.

- The Howell Theater in Livingston County, another old movie house.

A couple of decades ago, it was split into two screens.

It became the Historic Howell Theater when Toledo native Tyler DePerro bought it 10 years ago.

Tell me a bit about the history of the theater.

You said it's 96 years old?

- Yeah, we turn 96 December 11th of this year.

So it was built in 1927.

It opened December 11th, 1928.

It was the first talkie theater of Livingston County.

The first one that played to was called "Show People" directed by King Vidor.

- "Show People," not a talkie, remains a cinema classic.

Were you scared or apprehensive buying like a small town independent movie theater in 2014?

- Yeah, I mean it was totally a big risk.

I moved to Howell, moved to Michigan for the theater.

I mean, I had done this research like making a list of like what makes a good downtown, if that's local shops, walkable downtown, different activities throughout the year, having people in the community wanting this movie theater space to reopen.

There isn't like a how to operate a movie theater guidebook and like there isn't a website where you can go and find that out.

This is Theater Two.

- [Chris] DePerro's finding ways to better engage the community, find revenue streams by hosting weddings, and other things.

- We've had concerts, improv comedy, we have church here every Sunday this theater.

The stage I put in in 2014, but the original stage that was here like in 1928, that's actually behind the screen here.

Those vaudeville acts had performed on when the theater first opened.

You can tap dance a little bit or do a little dance or something.

- I don't think I'll do either of those things.

DePerro is getting by in this for-profit enterprise by building a following.

Howell has become a destination for independent moviegoers from places like Lansing, Ann Arbor, and Detroit.

Yeah, well, I mean that's definitely how I discovered you guys when you were the only theater in Michigan showing "The Babadook" at first.

- Three sharp knocks.

- Babadook.

- [Tyler] Yeah, yeah, like that, "The Babadook."

- [Speaker] You'll see him if you look.

- After the movie was done, like when audiences kind of come out and they just talk to like other people in the theater about the movie, like that's kind of the other rewarding thing about it is like when I see a movie at like a chain theater, it's like you just like go in and see the movie and you like leave and there's not really any connection or appreciation or discussion after.

- [Chris] While the Historic Howell Theater has its community of film enthusiasts, Detroit's historic Alger Theater engages its community, but that has little to do with the movies.

- Right now, we are doing HOPE applications with the city for property tax exemption.

So we're doing that good work and we've been doing it for a number of years here.

We've probably put right now into this building, which the public doesn't really know, close to 500, half a million dollars.

It doesn't show because you don't see plumbing outside, you don't see electrical.

Those are not the sexy items in any of this.

- [Chris] More money needed, a few million dollars, Grant said, to keep restoring a place to serve the Morningside, East English Village, and Cornerstone Village Neighborhoods.

Volunteers here, like the Redford on the other side of town, just trying to hold onto their historic structures by bringing people together.

- Film especially is a real like a social art.

I think it's sad that people are watching "Casablanca" on their phones.

I think to see it in an auditorium, there's nothing like it.

- Oh, you must be kidding.

- So the event kind of is its own reward.

(tense music) - [Narrator] Detroit Public Theater's 10th anniversary season has opened with the Pulitzer Prize winning play "Fat Ham."

The play by James Ijames is a modern take on Shakespeare's "Hamlet."

The lead character Juicy is a young Black queer man visited by his father's ghost who demands that Juicy avenge his murder.

"One Detroit" contributor and "American Black Journal" host Stephen Henderson spoke with the actor in the lead role, Duane Shabazz, and Detroit Public Theater Marketing Manager, Garlia Jones.

(upbeat music) - Duane, I'm gonna start with you.

You are playing Hamlet in this play, in a way, right?

A little bit of a twist on it, but talk about, it's one of my favorite plays, "Hamlet" is, and it's one of my favorite roles.

I think it's such a tortured and complicated role, talk about bringing that to Detroit in the wraparound of "Fat Ham," which is a little different than the Shakespeare version.

- Yeah.

It's exciting, it's exciting.

Like the fact that it is Shakespeare, I actually like when people bring that up because it's very much still in the vein of Shakespeare, still "Hamlet" in the essence of it.

Like the language isn't Shakespearean, but it's Shakespearean-esque given the fact that the history of Shakespeare is that this language was mostly used.

The language that Shakespeare wrote in was mainly language that was used amongst the commoners or the poor folk.

I feel like James Ijames does the same thing with his take on this version.

It's a mirror of the past in how we speak today.

And I feel like from an actor perspective and very much him, you have to keep that in mind, the fact that it is the Shakespearean piece.

So although it is a comedy, the needs and the wants of these characters are very desperate.

And every character in this play have something that they're hiding, that they're desperately fighting to not reveal.

And it's exciting to bring this piece to Detroit especially because I feel like this story that's being told by James Ijames, this story that he created is, it's not common that you see this kind of Black story told.

This isn't the stereotypical story that you normally see that's about a guy who's just different than his environment.

The people that he was raised around, he's more of an intellectual versus being a brute.

And I feel like he's a weirdo, he likes different things, and I feel like it's very important to tell these kind of stories to show that Black people are not a monolith.

We can be wearing diversity.

And also as a actor, I just like the challenge of playing someone that's outside of myself, but also connected to me in a lot of ways in my childhood.

- Well, I mean it's so important for Black people in particular to see ourselves on stage.

And so most of the the plays that we see with Detroit Public Theater are from Black playwrights.

And so this story, just to have a character like Juicy on stage and really be exploring things within himself, is just a really incredible thing to be able to show to audiences.

And we don't know who we touch, right?

Yeah.

You don't know who is seeing that story and seeing them themselves on stage.

- [Narrator] And you can see "Fat Ham" at Detroit Public Theater through November 3rd.

Let's turn now to actor and playwright Jeff Daniels' new production at his Purple Rose Theater Company in Chelsea.

He wrote and directed the play, which is titled "Office Christmas Party: Grinch in Fight with Rudolph, Police called."

It's a workplace comedy set in a Michigan fudge company.

"One Detroit's" Chris Jordan spoke with Daniels about the play, writing for Michigan audiences, and the theater he founded more than 30 years ago.

(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.

- [Narrator] And "Office Christmas Party" runs through December 22nd at the Purple Rose Theater Company.

There are several other theater productions taking place in Metro Detroit this weekend and beyond.

"One Detroit's" Sarah Zintarsky has a rundown of plays and other events in today's One Detroit Weekend.

(upbeat music) - [Sarah] This weekend is the final chance to see the play "Grand Horizons" at Tipping Point Theater.

The story follows a couple whose lives shift when after their 50 year anniversary, the wife announces she wants a divorce.

Humor and honesty unfold as the play explores love and aging.

"Fat Ham" is at the Detroit Public Theater now through November 3rd.

The comedy explores themes of love, loss, pain, and joy as the main character encounters his father's ghost demanding vengeance during a family cookout.

Another play is "The Woman in Black" at Stagecrafters' Second Stage about ghostly encounters and hidden secrets, perfect for the Halloween season, it runs through October 27th.

On Saturday, 97.9 WJLB presents the All Star Comedy Festival at the Fox Theater.

It stars comedians Michael Blackson, Lavell Crawford, Earthquake, Jess Hilarious, Arnez J, and Kevin Tate.

At the Detroit Opera House Saturday, October 19th, Friday, October 25th, and Sunday, October 27th is a modernized take on Verde's classic, "La Traviata."

Also Saturday, October 19th is the Detroit Artists Market's Gala Art Auction.

The evening will consist of inspiring art, discussions, and the chance to support Detroit Artists Market's mission of connecting artists, collectors, and communities.

The Detroit Institute of Arts is always a great place to go on the weekend, and right now, the exhibition, "The Art of Dining, Food Culture, and the Islamic World" is open through January 5th.

It showcases 230 works from the Middle East, Egypt, Central and South Asia, and more.

The exhibit looks deeper into the relation between art and food from long ago to present day.

Then Tuesday, October 22nd, the great Stevie Wonder is performing his concert, "Sing Your Song!

As We Fix Our Nation's Broken Heart" at Little Caesar's Arena.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] That'll do it for this week's "One Detroit."

Thanks for watching.

Head to the "One Detroit" website for all the stories we're working on, follow us on social media, and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

- [Announcer] From Delta faucets to Behr paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Announcer] DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan-focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Announcer] Nissan Foundation, and viewers like you.

(upbeat music) (bright music)