The Park Players of Detroit were very pleased to present the community theater premiere of Palmer Park, by Joanna McClelland Glass. We were delighted to have Mary Davis direct this important event in our history. The play recreated a Detroit neighborhood’s challenges and triumphs in post-riot Detroit, circa 1968.
From the Stratford Festival Playbill, 2008 – the play’s debut performance:
In 1967 there were riots in 59 US cities, the worst of which was “The Rebellion” in Detroit, Michigan. Over 100,000 fled the city in an exodus dubbed “white flight,” resulting in plummeting property values and students suffering in over-crowded, under-funded public schools.
In the play Palmer Park, by Joanna McClelland Glass, the upper-middle-class Palmer Park neighborhood and its highly rated Hampton School seemed to have racially integrated successfully. Two couples, one black and one white, rally the neighbors, desperately hoping to maintain the profile of their community and school. With shared camaraderie and pathos, Palmer Park explores what these neighbors had in common and reveals their differences.
This production was one of the most successful performances in Park Players’ modern history, delivering a thought-provoking and powerful performance to the very city in which the story is based.
Hanging the screen for the set!
Getting pretty for the first performance!
Cast photo - Palmer Park
The pictures look great. Thanks to everyone who made this production such a success. This was a wonderful show.
Thank YOU, Marcia, for all your do. You are the glue that holds it all together!
Had a wonderful time meeting and working with the cast of “Palmer Park.” (can I get a copy of that picture?) Now that you got me, you won’t be able to get rid of me. I will be auditioning for “Hairspray” in January.
Awesome!! Can’t wait to have you back! Personally, I loved working with you!
Park Players is a great theatrical group with great performances in a great venue (NRPCA Community House). It offers affordable entertaining performances in a secure setting. Wine and Cheese night is the best!
I concur! Long live wine and cheese night!
For the sake of argument, I will disagree with part of the last sentence above. I’m not sure when the “modern” era started, but I’ll throw out “The Wiz” in 2005 as the most successful Players show. Due to the “Fire Marshal be damned” attitude of the producers, it had more people attend overall and more people per show than Palmer Park. As for thought provoking, Palmer Park does rank up there with 2002′s “The Laramie Project”. I did enjoy Palmer Park and my only regret is the present day cast and the 1968 cast weren’t able to interact more in rehearsal (on stage, I can understand).
In the interest of keeping the fire marshal from checking up on us, I am not going to comment about that detail! However, I did not formally confirm the stats on ‘the most successful show in modern history’ (by modern history I was assuming last decade or so)…I heard that from a few pivotal people who I assumed were in the know, but let’s look at the books and get to the bottom of this! Would hate to have a false claim mar our credibility! Thanks for your comment!
I agree I wish there had been more all-cast interaction! The upside is that it accommodated a lot of people’s schedules to rehearse separately… Went by too fast!
Miss my Palmer Park family and wish all joy and peace!
I assume all parts for Hairspray are singing parts, so I will not hurt anybody’s ears with my screeching, but I hope it is just as successful as Palmer Park!