28 | OCTOBER 5 • 2023 J
N

OUR
OUR COMMUNITY
 COMMUNITY

G

esher Human Services and 
Detroit’s Matrix Theatre 
Company are proud to have 
collaborated on a new three-act 
theatrical experience called The Open 
Door, which will be held at the Matrix 
Theater (2730 Bagley Street, Detroit) on 
Saturday, Oct. 14, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, 
Oct. 15, at 3 p.m., with tickets costing 
$18. 
The readings and poetry are written by 
Gregory Kiewiet, a talented author, who 
has experienced barriers to opportunities 
because of having an illness. He 
attends Gesher’s Lois and Milton Y. 
Zussman Activity Center (known as 
Clubhouse) in Southfield. Clubhouse 
provides enrichment, educational and 
employment opportunities for people 
living with mental illnesses. Part of 
that enrichment program is Creative 
Expressions, which gives participants 
opportunities in the arts, everything 
from photography, painting and 
sculpture to music, singing classes and, 
in this case, theater writing. 
An ongoing collaboration between 
Kiewiet and Matrix Theater Director 
Amy Johnson has led to a premiere 

of this staged reading, which features 
professional actors. Kiewiet describes the 
event as a “dream and major goal,” and 
Gesher Human Services will be printing 
a book of his writing to accompany the 
event. 
Kiewiet first began working with 
Johnson during a theater writing and 
performance course offered by the 
Creative Expressions program, meeting 
weekly for four months from 2021-22. 
During that course, The Open Door was 
first conceived and then developed, with 
some of the writing being used in an 
immersive multimedia arts event in 2022 
called Frame of Mind.
“This work was inspired by various 
cultural readings in modernistic 
literature, art, music and cultural theory, 
daily observations and overheard 
conversations,” Kiewiet said. “My 
influences include urban environmental 
living, various textual absorption, 
including Cubism, jazz, and vanguard 
movements and approaches.” 
The Open Door features three works 
by Kiewiet: poetry from Plastered 
Heroics, a one-act play called A Beautiful 
Day and an excerpt from the play She’s a 

Beauty. 
“Writing for performance expounds 
imaginative boundaries, in dialogue, 
conflict and character.” Kiewiet said. 
“It allows me to witness firsthand my 
imaginative process.” 
Both performances will also include 
an interview with Kevin Killian, a poet, 
author, playwright (of primarily LGBT 
literature) and the co-founder of the 
Poet’s Theater and the New Narrative 
movement in San Francisco. 
“Being able to watch Greg develop 
his skills as a writer through this 
collaboration with Matrix Theatre 
has been inspiring,” said Creative 
Expressions Program Manager Craig 
Nowak. “Participating in our arts 
programs and developing a personal 
project has allowed Greg to open up and 
embrace his creativity in a whole new 
way.” 
The book featuring Kiewiet’s writing 
will be on sale after the event and at 
shopcreativeexpressions.com. 

To purchase tickets, go to matrixtheatre.org. For 

more information on Gesher Human Services, go to 

geshermi.org. 

A staged three-act reading of poetry and writing from Gesher’s 
Creative Expressions participant and author Gregory Kiewiet.
‘The Open Door’

Writer Greg 
Kiewiet and 
theater director 
Amy Johnson

