Joanna McClelland Glass' Palmer Park, a look at post-riots Detroit, when "white flight" was rampant, opens tonight at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival here in Ontario.
The play, set in the titular Detroit neighborhood, continues at the intimate Studio Theatre to Sept. 21. Canadian-born Glass, author of Trying and the Tony Award-nominated Play Memory, lived in Detroit following the race riots in 1967.
Palmer Park follows two professional couples — one black, the other white — as they strive to maintain the racial integration of their community. According to Stratford notes, "In the six months after the Detroit race riots of 1967, nearly 300,000 names left the Detroit phone book. This exodus to the suburbs was called 'white flight.' In the aftermath, the large, beautiful houses of Palmer Park sold at bargain-basement prices, and the city's schools, funded by property taxes, became peripheral victims. Detroit's tax base was so eroded that the Board of Education found itself with a deficit of $7 million dollars."
Glass was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Her plays have been produced in many North American regional theatres over the past 30 plus years; as well as in England, Ireland, Australia and Germany. Her first one-act plays, Canadian Gothic and American Modern, were first produced at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York City in 1972.
The production team of Palmer Park includes set designer Jessica Poirier-Chang, costume designer Katherine Lubienski, lighting designer Alan Brodie, sound designer Todd Charlton, video designer Mick McDonald, production dramaturge Keira Loughran, choreographer Dayna Tekatch, stage manager Bruno Gonsalves, assistant stage manager Angela Marshall and production stage manager Marylu Moyer.
Tickets are available through the box office at (800) 567-1600 or online at www.stratfordshakespearefestival.com.
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