38 | JULY 8 • 2021

to the 20 productions in resi-
dence and six productions and
festivals in Detroit communities.
To find the new location,
DPT convened a committee led
by attorney-businessman David
Jaffe and community arts leader
Debbie Erb. The committee
included board and community
members as well as real estate
and building experts.
The team looked at more
than 35 spaces before deciding
on what had been a muffin fac-
tory and garage. Members liked
its wooden ceilings, complicat-
ed metal trussing system and
high-ceiling construction. Valet
and free parking close to the
theater will be offered.
An important consideration
was the building’s potential
for availability to other arts
organizations. An example of
DPT outreach has been the
Shakespeare in Prison program,
directed by Frannie Shepherd-
Bates and started in 2012 before
joining with DPT in 2015.

DSO BOOST
“The DSO opened up their
home to us, and we want to pay
that forward and provide sub-
sidized performance space for
other performing arts organiza-
tions in Detroit,
” Winkler said.
Looking back on DPT pro-
ductions, Winkler appeared
in two: The Harassment of Iris
Malloy by Zak Berkman and
Cry It Out by Molly Smith
Metzler. Her earlier New
York roles have placed her in
Einstein’s Gift by Vern Thiessen
and The Last Seder by Jennifer
Maisel. She also was produc-
ing artistic director of the
Off-Broadway Epic Theatre
Ensemble.
Winkler played strong women
in both Detroit plays and antic-
ipates widening attention to
Eric Gutman’s From Broadway

to Obscurity. It was filmed for
showing on Detroit Public
Television and its Buffalo affili-
ate while efforts are in the works
to offer that show through other
public television stations.
Winkler is married to Simon
Leopold, chief financial officer
at Agree Realty, and they have
three sons. During the pandem-
ic shutdown, the family missed
activities at Congregation Shir
Tikvah in Troy and other syna-
gogues with friends.

MUFFIN MILIEU
Winkler enjoys a laugh about
the history of the new space,
constructed in 1919.
The building in renovation
had been a factory making Bays
English Muffins, a favorite of
her mom. Elaine Stritch, the
late and acclaimed Detroit-bred
actress, was married to the late
John Bay, whose family owned
Bays Muffins. Stritch, the legend
goes, gave out muffins to cast
members on the opening nights
of productions in which she
starred.
“We’re not going to have a lot
of food in the theater snack bar,
but we are going to have Bays
English Muffins,
” Winkler said.
“I’m obsessed with that.
”
Returning to the serious side
of her work, Winkler’s team is in
the process of raising $3 million
for DPT, which has raised $2
million. She explained, “There’s
been a strengthening, particu-
larly in this year, of my beliefs
that theater has the power to
unite and create empathy and
activate communities’ under-
standing and caring for each
other.
”

The Detroit Public Theatre’s free

Summer Block Party will be held 2-10

p.m. Saturday, July 10, in the Selden

Courtyard, 656 Selden, Detroit.

Information: detroitpublictheatre.org/

festivals-partnerships.

DASH MARSHALL

ARTS&LIFE
THEATER

continued from page 37

Renderings of the completed theater