See photos from our production of DETROIT ‘67!

Interested in dramaturgy and criticism? Read this essay by Dr. Page Laws, Professor of English and Dean of the R C Nusbaum Honors College, Norfolk State University (Ret.). Dr. Laws also serves on the VSC Board of Trustees.

For five days in 1967, Detroit was embroiled in dissension. Rebellion was in the air and city streets resembled war zones. Considered part of the national riots known as the “long, hot summer of 1967,” unrest in Detroit began when the police department raided an unlicensed, after-hours bar on the city’s West Side. This week, the Virginia Stage Company begins to bring that chaos and conflict to the stage in its production of “Detroit ′67.”

There’s been just a few days for the Atlanta-based director and playwright, Thomas W. Jones II, to get his bearings here in Norfolk, as rehearsals for the play that he’s here to direct, Detroit ’67, begin in earnest. The Dominique Morisseau penned drama is being produced by Virginia Stage Company at the Wells Theatre, and follows the company’s excellent production of Guys and Dolls, which just launched VSC’s 41st season last month. 

“There were new manufacturing jobs in Detroit, and with that came people moving out of apartment-like and project-like homes into two-story and one-story homes. With a home came a space called “a basement”, which for Black middle-class life (and for my life growing up) was a repository of dreams. It was a place where you went to imagine …”

We’re collecting items for our troops through Troopster during Detroit ‘67. Read more to find out what you can bring!

“Detroit ‘67 is written by one of the most emerging, phenomenal artists of our generation, Dominique Morisseau, who is a part of a handful of African American women who are redefining and creating a Renaissance in the theatre…”

Learn more about the set design of DETROIT ‘67 with scenographer, Matthew Allar.

Learn more about the cast and creative team for Detroit ‘67.