Rehearsals for The Crucible are underway! The entire team gathered for the first time on September 30 to start this important and exciting journey together.

Take a listen to PlayMakers’ playlist as you get ready to see the show, and enjoy the soundtrack of Detroit in 1967.

Despite a history of prosperity, technological innovations, a powerful and lasting Union Movement, and a rich influence on the arts and music scene, Detroit was not immune to the racial tensions, economic disparity and civil unrest of the late 60s. On Sunday, July 23 in 1967, when the 12th Street riot erupted in the early hours after a raid on an unlicensed after-hours bar, the fate of this once booming blue collar town took a turn for the worse.

“I’m a native Detroiter, so this is a way to explain my history and my city. It’s an important landscape to me. It helped to shape the landscape we have now. I wanted to offer a human face to it for all of us – those of us who have lived there and those who have not.” -Dominique Morriseau

We have been receiving so many heartfelt responses from our audience letting us know how deeply moved they have been by Deen’s Draw the Circle. One sent us a note to say, “Though I consider myself very open to life lived in any configuration, I experienced angles I had not understood before. This was a gift.” Another responded by writing us, “Draw the Circle was one of the most profound and life-changing performances I have ever seen.”

We always encourage our audiences to go deeper and be part of the conversation. If Draw the Circle leaves you wanting to learn more or do more, please visit the links listed here.

“You don’t have to know anything about “trans issues” to see this play. And at the same time, there is a lot happening in the state of North Carolina and elsewhere that will directly affect the lives of transgender people, and you will leave this play understanding a little more about what the experience of being transgender is like.”-Mashuq Mushtaq Deen

“Sometimes Draw the Circle gets labeled a ‘trans play,’ but I don’t think it is. It’s fundamentally a story about family. A story about parents and children. Most of all, there are no bad guys in this play. There are people struggling to love in a world that is changing around them, and sometimes the struggle is the love. I will do my best to bring all of that struggle to the stage … and you are welcome to bring it to the theatre.”