HILBERRY
THEATRE
2011 SEASON
vvww.hilberry.corn
9149741 #0a01000
TIGHT In THE UKIMIHE
September 23 - October 15
Book and lyrics by
Dick Vosburgh with music by
Frank Lazarus
When one of the Grauman's
Chinese Theatre ushers in A Day
in Hollywood enthuses "a smile-
a-minute, songsational, musical
mirthquake!," he sums up this
inspiring, red carpet musical
tribute to the screen stars and
productions of the 1930s nicely.
The second act, A Night in the
Ukraine, is the funniest musical
the Marx Brothers never wrote,
featuring all the usual
zany suspects.
The congenita
optimist
Detroit's economic
forecast is sunny,
says labor
economist
Harley Shaiken
Ask Harley Shaiken, CLAS '77,
to speculate on the future of
Detroit, and the renowned
labor economist's answer may
surprise you. Shaiken predicts
that the city's "best days may
still be ahead of it."
According to Shaiken, a Motor
City native and University of
California economics professor,
Detroit is "quite capable" of
recovering its former prosperity.
How? It's simple: Detroit should
"go back to the future," says
Shaiken, by "tapping into the
same engineering skills and
innovative energy" that made
it one of the world's great
manufacturing centers.
"In many ways, the city of
Detroit helped shape the 20th
century," says Shaiken. "I don't
think there's any doubt that the
creation of the auto assembly
line played a major role in
building the industrial base of
the United States.
"Detroit established itself as a
world center of engineering
innovation and creativity.
And my question now is: Can
we recover that pioneering
spirit and rebuild the kind of
industrial leadership that made
this city so great for so long?"
October 28 - November 19
By William Shakespeare
Benedick and Beatrice are
engaged in a "merry war"
of mile-a-minute talk about
their scorn for love, marriage
and each other. Claudio and
Hero are rendered practically
speechless by their transcendent
love for one another in a
race to the altar. Don John
nearly triumphs in ruining
the wedding, but not before
Beatrice and Benedick finally tell
each other how they really feel.
He answers his own question:
"You bet we can. Detroit still
has plenty of engineering skill
and innovation to draw on,
and we're already seeing the
emergence of technologies
there that will depend on new
forms of energy to fuel the
industries of the next century."
Although he admits to being
a "congenital optimist" on
the subject of Detroit, Shaiken
doesn't deny that the city faces
daunting challenges.
"I'm well aware
of how grim
things are for
many people in
Detroit right now,"
concedes Shaiken,
who put himself
through Wayne
State at night while
working full time
as an auto plant
machinist. "But
the story isn't over
yet, and I definitely
do not agree that
Detroit's days
are numbered.
It's true that GM
and Chrysler have
Harley Shaiken:
gotten smaller since
"Detroit still has plenty of engineering
skill and innovation to draw on."
their bankruptcies
and many jobs were
An outstanding student who
lost. But their core businesses
soon began to publish articles
remain strong, and they're now
on engineering and economics
positioned to begin growing
in peer-reviewed journals,
again. At the same time, Ford
Shaiken was selected for an
has weathered the storm in
experimental engineering
much better shape — partly
program offered by MIT's
because of its emphasis on
Department of Science,
developing new hybrid vehicles
Technology and Society after
with climate change in mind."
leaving Wayne State. That
six-year adventure led to his
Shaiken was born and raised on
appointment as a tenured
the west side of Detroit as the
economics professor at the
descendant of Russian-Jewish
University of California San
immigrants. "My grandfather,
Diego, and eventually to a
Philip Chapman, came to Detroit
professorship at Berkeley, where
as a young man," he recalls,
he's spent the past 19 years.
"and his first shift was the same
day Henry Ford announced his
'$5 day' for workers who built
the Model Ts."
A graduate of Cass Technical
High School, Shaiken signed
on as a machinist at Ford at
age 18, then worked on a
shop floor for a decade before
deciding to study economics at
Wayne State at night.
"By the time I hit Wayne, I'd
already been working in the auto
industry, so I knew what it meant
to be laid off, and to work in an
industry when it starts to decline.
Because of my background,
learning about the economics
behind the auto industry was
utterly fascinating, and I'm
grateful to Wayne State for giving
me the chance to do that.
Married for 35 years to Chilean-
born cultural anthropologist
Beatriz Manz, Shaiken also is
director of Berkeley's Center for
Latin American Studies.
"I enjoy living in California,"
he continues, "and it's a
privilege to be able to teach
labor economics at a place like
Berkeley. But in many ways, my
heart's still in Detroit. What we
need now in our leadership is
a powerful sense of urgency ...
along with the vision that will
help us build the new world
our children and grandchildren
will inhabit."
A longer version of this story
originally appeared in Wayne
State magazine.