By: Cody Yarbrough
Since the early 20th century, Detroit has been a mecca for African American art. From music to television and movies, virtually every facet of modern Black creativity has been touched by the city. Yet for one reason or another, the art form of stage theater never had its moment here in Detroit like it did in other Black communities. And now with the knowledge and the recourses needed to break into the theater industry scarcer than ever before, the idea of a new Black theater movement in the Motor City seems almost like a dream. However, there are some in the theater community that wish to turn that dream into reality.
“When we talk about resources, I think people often just think about money. But I’m also thinking about time, education, and the ability of an organization to grow from a small venue to a midsize venue and from a midsize venue to a large venue. Having infrastructural support from the city and from their government. Those things don’t always exist for local theater communities.”
Those are the words of John Sloan III, a founding executive director for the Ghostlight Arts Initiative non-profit and the producing artistic director for the Obsidian Theater Festival. Sloan was raised in Oak Park. A community that was well-funded enough to stoke his ambitions of being a theater actor yet close enough to Detroit for him to understand that most Black people don’t get the opportunity to dream as big as him. After spending some years out of state in the biggest theater markets in the country, he returned to Michigan to look after his aging family members and to help cultivate the theater scene in his home state. Sloan and his collaborator’s mission is simple. To nurture Detroit’s theater culture and uplift marginalized voices through the avenue of the arts. Their latest endeavor, the Detroit IMPACT Arts Conference, is one of their biggest efforts yet.
From June 24th through the 26th industry veterans will be joining the conference to help teach attendees both young and old about the world of theater. The conference will include things like beginner classes for high schoolers curious about storytelling and panels about project funding and the rights of creators for playwrights unfamiliar with the business side of theater. Workshops like these might seem elementary to outsiders from cities with strong theater cultures like New York or Chicago. But according to Sloan, this kind of information and training are exactly the tools that were taken from Detroit creatives through school divestment and gentrification.
“Southeastern Michigan, Detroit specifically, used to churn out musicians and artists. Detroit School of the Arts, Cass King, Renaissance, and Northwestern all had amazing arts programs. What happened was there was divestment from the public education system and the arts were the first thing to go. The other side of that is, how do you get better when you’re not in school? You get better by auditioning for gigs, you get better by playing in front of audiences. When you saw that economic divestment from the city, you saw performing arts venues shutter, you saw neighborhoods getting razed, and you saw clubs and lounges, close.
So as a hypothetical, let’s say you assume that every artist gets 5 percent better every time they audition. 10 percent better every time they’re up on a stage. If you don’t have those opportunities in your city, if you don’t have the theaters, if you don’t have the [theater] companies, you’re not going to be able to do two to three auditions a day. You’ll be doing two to three auditions in a month. Instead of one to two gigs a week, you’ve only got one to two gigs every six months. Then you just don’t have as much opportunity to get better.
Then the bigger slap in the face is when institutions go outside of the community and bring folks in from out of town. Because now you’ve grown up without access to the education that you needed to really be able to maximize your talent. You’ve grown up without the opportunity to train and to perform to hone those talents and skills. Then somebody in your hometown starts telling you, ‘Yeah, you’re not good enough. So I’m gonna fly this person in from New York or LA or wherever else to take this job that you could have had.’”
The disparities and disadvantages in the Detroit theater scene are certainly not lost on Sloan. But with the IMPACT Arts Conference quickly approaching he and his collaborators are hoping that their event can be a major step in changing the landscape. With the help of guests such as Alexis Sims, Gary Anderson, Emmanuel Wilson, and Sarah Winkler, they hope that the conference can be a space for not just learning, but for encouragement and inspiration. To Sloan, it’s almost as important as the information they’re bringing to the city. Because according to him, Detroit deserves a theater culture founded on positivity and community.
“I went to the Blackstar Film Festival a few years ago and I just loved the energy and the atmosphere of a bunch of Black folks sitting around having conversation about art, in a non-pretentious way. In a way that allowed access to everybody regardless of where they came from. I feel like we deserve that. And so with our inaugural year, we see it as an opportunity for us to build that culture in theater.
“[The conference] is an opportunity for somebody who is looking to grow and audition. For somebody that’s looking for an opportunity to understand how to be a better playwright. For somebody that’s just looking to hang out, mix, mingle, and listen. And for those artists that are trying to figure out, ‘How do I take my idea and get money for it?’ That’s what’s really cool about this conference. We’re bringing together artistic directors and artistic leaders from across the city to be able to have those conversations with each other.”
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