Working Class Warriors

When I think of creating work that speaks to the turmoil and triumph of a forgotten people, and that delves into an explosive topic in our current national conversation, I feel fortunate to have my play Skeleton Crew produced across this country and world. It is the third and final installment of a 3-play cycle that I have created on my hometown of Detroit. And in this final piece, I am exploring the world of the auto industry.

For me, Skeleton Crew was the scariest part of the trilogy to write (probably why I wrote it last), because at the time I created it, it was the closest to the present. It was also about a part of Detroit that I had no personal experience in — the factory. At its heart, the play is about a makeshift family of workers who all learn that their plant is closing within the year, and how each of them deals with the news. But it is also about the working class warriors that built my city from the ground up. It is about loyalties and finding family outside of family. It is about love and fighting and surviving and unity across class division. It is, for me, everything that my city is.

What it isn’t is everything that Detroit also isn’t: tragic. Rage without a cause. Un-thorough. This is important for me to share with you, because being a Black woman artist from Detroit, anytime I’ve told someone where I’m from, they respond to me as if I were a tragedy. Or something else that the negative rumors have helped to perpetuate and stereotype about Detroit. I wrote my play cycle in general, and Skeleton Crew in particular, to get beyond those limited ideas of who we are and explore our full humanity.

So I guess what I’d like to mostly say to you is that we are multi-layered, hilarious, tender, righteous, and passionate. The rage is with a cause. The heartbeat is the through-line. And I hope you’ll journey with me through my hometown and find your own deeper connection to the city that I know and love. I’d be honored to have you in the house!

Dominique Morisseau

Playwright, Skeleton Crew

For tickets and showtimes, please visit geffenplayhouse.org/skeletoncrew or call our Box Office at 310.208.5454 (open daily, 7:00 a.m. — 6:00 p.m.).