© 2024 MICHIGAN PUBLIC
91.7 Ann Arbor/Detroit 104.1 Grand Rapids 91.3 Port Huron 89.7 Lansing 91.1 Flint
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Traverse City’s professional theater company stages “familiar stories for adventurous minds"

Michigan Public | By Stateside Staff
Published September 13, 2016 at 4:54 PM EDT
Whiting told us Parallel 45 likes to put on plays that most people have probably at least heard of, so there's a sense of familiarity, then "turn things on their heads and give a new perspective to some of these stories."
Parallel 45 Theatre and Melisa McKolay Photography
/
http://j.mp/1SPGCl0
Whiting told us Parallel 45 likes to put on plays that most people have probably at least heard of, so there's a sense of familiarity, then "turn things on their heads and give a new perspective to some of these stories."

Can the northwest lower peninsula of Michigan support a professional theater group that dares to really challenge its audience? Delivering theater "for the adventurous mind," not comfortable, touristy and familiar?

Turns out, the answer is yes.

The Parallel 45 Theatre Companymounted its very first production in Elk Rapids in 2010: Our Town, the three-act play by Thornton Wilder.

Pretty potent stuff for a small Michigan town. 

But Parallel 45 made it work, and now it's preparing to open its seventh season. 

The group's executive director Erin Anderson Whiting and artistic director Kit McKay joined us today to talk about their mission at Parallel 45 and what made them think the Traverse City area would be the perfect place to set up a professional theater company. 

(Subscribe to the Stateside podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or with this RSS link)

 
Tags
Arts & Life theatrenorthern michigan
Stateside Staff
Stateside is produced daily by a dedicated group of producers and production assistants. Listen daily, on-air, at 3 and 8 p.m., or subscribe to the daily podcast wherever you like to listen.
See stories by Stateside Staff
Related Content