Arts & Entertainment
Diminishing
Diversity
The cast of Palmer Park
includes, left to right,
Top: Inga Wilson (Kate
Townsend), Patrick Moltane
(Martin Townsend) Casaundra
Freeman (Linda Hazelton);
Bottom: Jason Echols
Play coming to two local stages tells story
of a Detroit community where dreams of
racial integration fell by the wayside.
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
oanna McClelland Glass moved
into the Palmer Park area of
Detroit in 1968. A young wife
and mother of three, she was impressed
by the lush homes and open to the ethnic
diversity of the neighborhood.
New to the Motor City as
her husband settled into
a position at Wayne State
University, Glass established
friendships and became active
with other parents whose
children attended Emma
Stark Hampton Elementary
and Junior High School, serv-
ing the area bordered by W.
Playwright
McNichols, Livernois, Eight
McClelland
Mile Road and Woodward.
Gradually, Glass' enthusiasm for her
Palmer Park area surroundings dimin-
ished as she experienced diminishing
diversity in her community and diminish-
ing educational financing at her neighbor-
hood school. During the summer of 1974,
when her husband was offered a job in
California, the family decided to relocate.
Despite geographical distances, Glass
j
Special Events
P
almer Park audiences will get to
express their views regarding
issues raised in the play during
a number of talkback sessions follow-
ing performances.
Arthur Horwitz, Detroit Jewish
News publisher, and Bankole
Thompson, Michigan Chronicle senior
editor, will be the first talkback lead-
ers April 15.
"When I was approached about
serving as a host, I immediately
suggested Bankole," says Horwitz,
"Bankole and I have been working
closely to better connect the Jewish
community with the city, and he is
very knowledgeable about the historic
(Fletcher Hazelton), Greg
Trzaskoma (Sol Rifkin) and
Milica Govich (Harriet Rifkin).
never lost touch. Enthusiasm for Detroit
friends remained as she, after a divorce,
built a playwriting career spotlighted by a
Tony nomination.
Over the years, Glass returned to the
area through visits; this theater season,
she returns through the docudrama that
recalls her Detroit history: Palmer Park.
The play, which premiered
two years ago at the Stratford
Shakespeare Festival in
Ontario, will be staged April 13-
May 9 at the Jewish Ensemble
Theatre in West Bloomfield
and May 21-29 at the Hilberry
Theatre in Detroit.
Palmer Park was presented
this past fall by Michigan State
University as part of a Big Ten
Joanna
Theatre Consortium project, a
Glass
group initiative of 11 universi-
ties introducing the play and examining the
dramatized issues, which have surfaced in
so many communities around the country.
"Palmer Park addresses a subject that
I think has fallen by the wayside,' says
Glass, 73, who also has worked on novels
and screenplays.
"There's a great deal of progress that
has taken place as far as integration goes
in the workplaces across the country, but
residentially, not that much progress has
happened.
"Hopefully, the play illuminates the
plight of middle-class blacks. Their history
shows them moving from school to school
and then finding the schools becoming all
black again."
Palmer Park consolidates community
experiences of the late 1960s and early
1970s into 10 characters, who give the
sense of the various ethnic groups living in
the area. Conflict erupts after nearby Bagley
Elementary becomes overcrowded, prompt-
ing Bagley parents to seek some student
transfers to Hampton and then confronting
objections from Hampton parents.
The characters of Kate (Inga Wilson)
and Martin (Patrick Moltane) Townsend
grew out of the experiences and feelings of
Glass and her former husband. The char-
acters of Linda (Casaundra Freeman) and
Fletcher (Jason Echols) Hazelton devel-
oped from close friends of the playwright.
"All of Joanna's work is people-oriented,
and she has a personal connection to all
her work',' says director Yolanda Fleischer,
who teaches theater at the University of
Detroit Mercy and has directed other
Glass plays for professional venues.
contribution the Jewish community
has made to Detroit.
"Through the talkback, we will have
a chance to continue on the path
we're already on, and we're hoping for
a thoughtful and spirited session with
members of the audience."
April 29: Oakland University
Professor Emeritus Karl Gregory and
Marygrove College President Emeritus
Glenda Price
May 6: University of Michigan-
Dearborn Chancellor Daniel Little and
Detroit's Charles H. Wright Museum
President & CEO Juanita Moore
May 21: Arts League of Michigan
Chairman Emeritus Donald Vest and
Hannan House Executive Director Pam
Halliday
May 23: Anti-Defamation League
Regional Director Betsy Kellman
May 27: Plowshares Theatre
Company Producing Artistic Director
Gary Anderson and Michigan
Roundtable for Diversity & Inclusion
President Tom Costello
Schedule Of Talkbacks:
April 15: Detroit Jewish News
Publisher Arthur Horwitz and Michigan
Chronicle Senior Editor Bankole
Thompson
April 17: Wayne State University
History Chair Marc Kruman and WSU
Psychology Professor Ira Firestone
April 22: Rabbi Norman Roman of
Temple Kol Ami in West Bloomfield and
Broadcast Journalist Amyre Makupson
"The visuals and music in Palmer Park
will put audiences in the time and place,
but the individual voices will make the
issues potent. The small scenes, some with
the characters talking to one another and
some with the characters talking to the
audience, provide two styles of acting, pre-
sentational and representational.
"I'm excited that this production is gen-
erating a lot of interest and I look forward
to audience participation in the talkbacks
and symposium." (See accompanying
article on this page.)
Glass, whose former husband's heritage
was Jewish, introduces the Jewish charac-
ters of Sol Rifkin (Greg Trzaskoma) and
Harriet Rifkin (Milica Govich) without
focusing on their religious outlook.
"I was born in 1965 and find it com-
pelling to visit the time of the play:' says
Trzaskoma, who has appeared in JET and
Hilberry productions. "As a lifelong subur-
banite, I've heard stories about what hap-
pened during and shortly after the 1967
riots in Detroit."
Govich, returning to JET and debuting
at the Hilberry, moved to Michigan after
the incidents depicted in the play and is
Diminishing Diversity on page 41
Special Events:
April 13: The playwright will attend
a reception at 6 p.m. in a private home
in Palmer Woods.
May 22: A symposium ($10 per
person) at the Hilberry includes Shirley
Stancato, New Detroit president;
Cliff Schrupp, Fair Housing Center of
Metropolitan Detroit executive director;
Doug Ross, University Preparatory
Academy CEO; Kurt Metzger,
demographer; and Paula Tutman, WDIV
reporter.
For reception tickets or more information
about any of these events, call (248) 788-
2900 or go to www.jettheatre.org.
- Suzanne Chessler
April 1 • 2010
39