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