Frannie Shepherd-Bates of Magenta Giraffe Theatre Company. Photo: Charles Nowak Photography

A Few Minutes With: Frannie Shepherd-Bates of Magenta Giraffe Theatre Company

By Donald V. Calamia

This past fall saw the debut of a new Detroit-based theater troupe, the Magenta Giraffe Theatre Company. Co-founder and artistic director Frannie Shepherd-Bates talked recently with EncoreMichigan.com about her company's unique mission, its upcoming afternoon of stage readings and what she's planning for the 2009-10 season.

Magenta Giraffe Theatre Company is one of a handful of new theater companies that popped up this season. Who are the founders - and what was the impetus for starting a new company, especially during a major economic meltdown?

The founders of Magenta Giraffe are LoriGoe Nowak, Kevin Beltz and me. We began discussing the formation of a new theater company in 2006, when we graduated from Wayne State and saw how many of our colleagues were leaving Detroit for careers in theater elsewhere. We wanted not only to create jobs for artists to keep them here, but to expand Detroit's theater district and enhance the community at large by doing so.

We had no idea we'd be doing this in the middle of such a terrible recession! We'd been working steadily to formulate our mission statement and the tenets of our company for some time before we realized that many people in Detroit, even before the worst of the meltdown, saw themselves and the city as bring hopelessly stuck - which would directly parallel the characters' situation in No Exit (the theater's first production) - but Detroit is not Hell! So we decided to incorporate immediately and stage the production, and now we are working hard to fulfill our mission!

What IS the mission of Magenta Giraffe - and what sets it apart from the other theaters in town?

The Magenta Giraffe Theatre Company acts to eliminate apathy, violence, prejudice and barriers to education through theater productions, projects and programs; and further acts to reestablish and expand Detroit's theater district. Our vision is one of a thriving theatrical district that reaches new audiences to make the community at large one of unity and peace; that fosters empathy and enlightenment; and that provides accessibility to education. We are unique, in that the primary focus of our company is the impact that art can have on the community rather than the art itself.

Your first show, No Exit, opened last December at The Gryphon, a theater space above the popular Park Bar in downtown Detroit. Is that going to be your home base for now? And if so, what is it about The Gryphon that attracted you to it?

The other founders and I all went to college with Jerry Belanger, who owns and operates the Park Bar. We were aware of his desire to make the space above the bar available to artists for all kinds of things, and we know that his passions lie right alongside ours, so we approached him about using the space for our first production. We loved partnering with him, so we're back for our Staged Reading Festival.

We are exploring a variety of performance spaces for upcoming productions and projects, but we hope to have our own theater within 15 years. But in the meantime, you might see another show of ours at The Gryphon. Only time will tell!

Your next production is an afternoon of staged readings. How many scripts were submitted for your consideration? And what criteria did you use to whittle the submissions down to three?

We received 15 scripts in response to our call for submissions for the staged readings. Guidelines for submission were:

• Playwright must be either a native of Michigan or currently live in the state and have no plans to relocate during 2009;
• Playwright must be 18 or above; and
• Play content should fit the criteria outlined in our mission statement.

We chose the three scripts that met these guidelines and that seemed to be the most viable to produce as fully realized productions.

The schedule consists of Into the D by Jacquelyn Priskorn (2 p.m.), Speed Dating! by Audra Lord (4 p.m.) and To Dog by Ed Shaw (6 p.m.). What was it about these three scripts that stood out from the rest?

They are all so good! Beyond their basic goodness, these plays were the most polished of the submissions we received.

Into the D is completely adorable and SMART, which is more than I can say for many children's shows. It fits our mission perfectly in that its goal is to get suburban children excited about the city of Detroit.

Speed Dating! is hilarious and very well-written, and it makes a good, feminist point without being militant. All of the people involved (including me) were laughing even as we were reading it for the first time on our computers.

To Dog is literally a response to Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, which the author has clearly been honing for quite some time. It is tight, clever, funny and refreshingly down-to-earth for an absurdist play. We are thrilled to be the first to stage a reading of it.

Each of the three scripts will be staged by a different director. You're working on To Dog, which is about two clowns waiting for the circus to return. Why did you choose this script to direct - and who's in it?

I didn't so much choose this script, as it chose me!

When I initially read Speed Dating!, I knew LoriGoe had to direct it; she has its same biting, zany sense of humor and I knew that she and the script would be great friends. Into the D has 16 characters in it, and, what with planning a wedding and buying a house (not to mention working a day job!), I wasn't sure that I would have enough flexibility to work around the schedules of 16 actors. So we called Lisa Melinn, who works with children frequently and has the same attitude toward them as the play: one of respect for their intelligence and enthusiasm for silliness. And luckily she was available!

That left me with To Dog, its four characters and three distinct dialects. I am thrilled to be working on this script with Jon Ager, Jeremy Kucharek, James Kuhl and Patrick Moltane, all of whom are terrific actors with significant dialect training.

What's next from Magenta Giraffe? Can theatergoers expect a full season of shows from Magenta Giraffe this coming season? And if so, can you reveal what they are?

We haven't officially announced our next season yet because we are still hammering out dates and venues, but here's what I can tell you: We are staging Amiri Baraka's Dutchman at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History this fall as part of our mission to eliminate prejudice. This winter we will stage Dog Sees God by Bert V. Royal for its first production in Detroit! This play looks at the problems of today's teenagers through the lens of some very familiar comic strip characters. We would like to host a Second Annual Staged Reading Festival, and we are exploring the possibilities of a full production in the spring as well. Please keep checking our website for information!

ABOUT FRANNIE SHEPHERD-BATES:

Frannie Shepherd-Bates is the artistic director of the Magenta Giraffe Theatre Company. She holds a B.F.A. in Theatre (Acting) at Wayne State University and is actively directing and acting in theaters in the area. She believes in art as a way of life, as a tool with which to heal society, and as the most satisfying work she has yet found. When she is not working on making the world a better place through theater, Frannie enjoys the company of her amazing fiancée and two mischievous cats.

SHOW DETAILS:

Magenta Giraffe Theatre Company at The Gryphon Theatre, 2040 Park Ave, Detroit. May 30 at 2 p.m., 4 p.m. & 6 p.m.; one reading per time slot. Tickets: $4 each or $8 for all three. For information: www.magentagiraffe.org.

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