Address: 137 Park St.
Pricing: $20-$38
Phone: (734) 433-ROSE (7673)
Parking:free parking on Park St.or municipal lot next door
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The Purple Rose Theatre Company: An American beauty of a playhouse
Jul 9, 2010
What if you could magically recreate intimate, cutting-edge theaters like New York’s late, lamented Circle Repertory in the Midwest? Then you would have the Purple Rose Theatre Company, a gem of a theater in Chelsea, Mich. The theater is just 15 minutes from Ann Arbor and an hour from either Detroit or Battle Creek.
The 168-seat Equity theater — founded in 1991 by Tony Award-nominated actor Jeff Daniels, who grew up in and lives in Chelsea — takes its name from Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo, in which Daniels starred. The Purple Rose’s size belies its importance. For example, Escabana in Love, scripted by Daniels and a mainstay of regional theater, had its world premiere at the Purple Rose in 2006.
The Purple Rose takes as its mission promoting new American plays and providing challenging as well as entertaining fare at affordable prices. The theater has had at least one world premiere each year among the three to four plays it stages every season. (In the 2007–08 season, all four plays were world premieres.) The Purple Rose in particular promotes Michigan playwrights like Daniels, Mitch Albom and David MacGregor.
You can check out the schedule for any performance at Purple Rose’s Google Calendar.
Regular tickets cost $25 for the Thursday, Wednesday and Sunday performances (both matinee and evening); $38 for Friday and Saturday evening performances and $33 for Saturday and Sunday matinees. Senior citizens 62 or older get $3 off per ticket. Preview prices range from $20 to $25. With a valid ID, students get 50 percent off on weekday evening performances. This 17 and younger get half-off any performance for each adult ticket bought. With advance reservations and payment at least three weeks in advance, groups of 12 or more can get $4 off per ticket.
You can buy tickets online, by calling (734) 433-ROSE (7673) or by visiting the Box Office Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (until 10 p.m. on show nights). On show nights, you can also buy tickets on Saturday, noon to 10 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. Once tickets are bought, there are no exchanges or refunds.
The Purple Rose Theatre Company isn’t just dedicated to the current state of theater in America; the theater also works to create the actors, actresses, playwrights, directors and stage crew of the future. You can find out details on the Purple Rose classes here. You can download a registration form here. (You must have Adobe Acrobat to download the registration form.)
The theater company’s apprentice program is intensive — some might say grueling — and widely well regarded. Apprentices spend 12 months working alongside professional directors, actors, designers, stage managers and administrators. Click here to learn more.
Groups of 15 to 50 can get the chance for a backstage tour of the Purple Rose on Tuesday or Thursday. Make arrangements by calling Heidi Bennett at (734) 433-PRTC (7782) or e-mailing her at info@purplerosetheatre.org.
- by Ivonne Rovira, Ann Arbor Reporter for HelloMetro
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Ivonne RoviraA graduate of the prestigious Columbia University School of Journalism in New York City, Ivonne Rovira worked as a reporter for the Miami News, The Miami Herald and The Associated Press. She has written articles for The National Catholic Reporter and The Courier-Journal. For more than 15 years, Ivonne wrote and edited articles aimed at middle-school children.
