Center Stage Adds DETROIT '67 to 2015-16 Season

Center Stage will present Dominique Morisseau's Detroit '67 in place of The Night Watcher as the final show of its 2015-16 Season.

Detroit '67, which had its world premiere at the Public Theater in New York under the direction of Center Stage Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah, will have the same run as previously scheduled The Night Watcher, from April 8 to May 8 at Center Stage's temporary residency at Towson University.

"One always regrets swapping out a work, but the play Detroit '67 is so relevant to our time and city that I felt this change to be urgent," Kwei-Armah says. "Since directing the world premiere, I've been head over heels in love with Dominque's work. It gives me great pleasure to present this play in our season."

Detroit '67 was awarded the 2014 Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, and tells the story of black siblings in Detroit as the incendiary tension between police and the black community erupts into the 1967 city-wide riots.

After the death of their parents, siblings Chelle and Lank (named for poet Langston Hughes) make ends meet by hosting late-night parties in the basement of their childhood home. In 1967 Detroit the latest sounds of Motown echo from the record player, but the risk of their unofficial nightclub is high, given the intensifying police presence in the all-black neighborhood. The danger intensifies when Lank rescues a battered white woman, and relationships between black and white, brother and sister, friend and stranger begin to shift. The music and politics of the Motown era sizzle in the background of this sharp-eyed drama that explores our shared humanity, across family and across race.

Kwei-Armah will not direct Center Stage's production.

Detroit '67 closes a season that includes Pride and Prejudice, The Secret Garden, X's and O's (A Football Love Story) and As You Like It.

Morisseau's playwriting credits include Sunset Baby and Follow Me To Nellie's. She has received several awards for her work, as well as two NAACP Image Awards.

For more information, visit www.centerstage.org.