In March 1989, Michael Garza and I founded Plowshares Theatre Company. Established on the ideal of diversity in artistic expression, we formed the company to provide challenging opportunities to local artists. The name of the theatre company is synonymous with its goal of "breaking new ground" by nurturing emerging talent and presenting newer works.
Through a city arts grant and the good graces of friends and family who donated funds, Plowshares began with a production of the South African satire, Woza Albert! in a small storefront theatre in downtown Detroit. Well received, Lawrence DeVine of the Detroit Free Press called it "a quick hit of fantasy, with two extraordinary actor"; and Kenneth Jones of the Detroit News said that Woza Albert! "marks the striking debut of a new independent troupe in Detroit called Plowshares Theatre."
Three years later, when Garza left the company, I focused the cultural mission on African American theatre. Since then, Plowshares has served thousands of theatre lovers. Its productions have been met with critical and public acclaim for providing its patrons with a memorable experiences dealing with the joys, strengths, and character that is the African American experience.
Providing an entertaining, yet, thought-provoking patron experience is important. Taking risks by exploring plays addressing topical subjects, or providing our audience with opportunities for greater awareness of different lifestyles and cultures is of equal importance to the outreach mission of Plowshares Theatre Company. As a culturally affirming arts organization, one of our traditions has been to produce Michigan state and world premieres of plays for an evergrowing and enthusiastic audience. Such important work enhances the quality of life in Detroit by building a community of tolerance as well as one of high creativity.
A landmark moment came in 1994 with the founding of the New Voices Play Development Program. The program was designed to nurture and promote new plays by emerging and established African American writers. Now in its ninth year, New Voices has cultivated four plays for our stage: Harriet Tubman Loved Somebody, Full Circle, Passages, and …Continued Warm. A part of the 2000–2001 season productions, …Continued Warm — a fictional retelling of a significant racial uprising in 1943 — was developed as part of the Detroit 300th anniversary celebrations recognizing the founding of Detroit. The script was written by local writer Jeffry Chastang. Full Circle, an earlier script by Chastang was honored by receiving the prestigious Roger L. Stevens Playwriting Award from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. Other plays have gone on to be produced by still other theatres.
Evidence of our artistic quality is seen in our reviews, award recognition, and the caliber of our artists. In the last fourteen years we have consistently received the highest acclaim, as evidenced by a glimpse at our last six years.
- 1997 — Received a staggering thirteen nominations from Detroit Free Press Theatre Excellence Awards. Won Best Play (East Texas Hot Links), Best Actress (Sandra Aldridge as Miss Leah in Flyin' West), and Best Supporting Actor (Roosevelt Johnson as Adolph in East Texas Hot Links).
- 1998 — Best Actor went to Luray Cooper for his performance as Herald Loomis in Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Oakland Press bestowed its first Opie award for Best Overall Season on Plowshares. Anthony Lucas also won Best Supporting Actor for his role as Bynum in Joe Turner's Come and Gone.
- 1999 — Plowshares received four nominations, including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Play for its production of Jitney. The theatre also received nominations from Oakland Press for Best Season and Best Play and won awards for Best Supporting Actor for Anthony Lucas' Turnbo in Jitney and Best Choreographer for Kimberly Jones' work on In Living Color.
- 2000 — Detroit Free Press honored Producing Artistic Director Gary Anderson with the Lawrence DeVine Award for his Outstanding Contributions to the Theatre.
- 2001 — Plowshares was honored by The Oakland Press with awards for Best Musical for Ain't Misbehavin' and Best New Play for Full Circle by Jeffrey Chastang.
- 2002 — Plowshares was again honored by The Oakland Press with awards for Best Musical Performance for Sheila Alyce in It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues and nominated for Best New Play for …Continued Warm by Jeffrey Chastang.
- 2003 — Plowshares Theater Company was elected as one of twelve culturally specific organizations from across the nation to participate in the John F. Kennedy Center's Capacity Building Program, led by its president Michael Kaiser. Also, Plowshares Producing Artistic Director Gary Anderson was elected Vice President of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for U.S. professional theatres.
- 2004 — Detroit Free Press honored former director Janet Cleveland with the Best Director Award for her work on Blues for an Alabama Sky; Producing Artistic Director Anderson was re-elected Vice President of TCG and Plowshares was honored with the Publisher's Award for Excellence for our production of Blues for an Alabama Sky at the Oscar Wilde Awards of the weekly newspaper, Between the Lines.
Since its inception, Plowshares Theater Company has served the people of Southeastern Michigan by providing an artistic forum for the discussion of tolerance and creating awareness between communities. Through establishing supportive relationships within the civic, religious and business communities, we have built new audiences while bridging gaps of understanding.
Over the life of the Company, Plowshares has also developed partnerships with other cultural organizations as a way to expand our audience. For the 1996–97 and 1997–98 theatre seasons, Plowshares co-produced two mainstage shows with Meadow Brook Theatre in Rochester, Michigan. For the last six seasons, we have also worked with BoarsHead Theatre in Lansing to increase our profile to residents outside of the Metropolitan Detroit area, co-producing six shows: A Soldier's Play, The Old Settler, Ain't Misbehavin', The Piano Lesson, Sarah, Ella & Pops, and the 2004–05 season's production, The Story.
Over the years, Plowshares has had a strong commitment to young people's development of artistic appreciation. In addition, we see the need for the arts to play a role in the educational life of our children. Through our outreach programs, we have conducted lectures/seminars at schools and workshops at Southfield-Lathrup High School, Kimball High School in Royal Oak and Oak Park High School. When appropriate we hold school matinees, developing corresponding age-appropriate study guides. Finally, in 1998, we piloted a special three-year summer drama camp for young people with support from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the Black United Fund. Under the rubric, "Young Voices," camp participants created three one-act plays based on African American history in Detroit. Most recently, we developed the StarMakers Summer Camp, a theatre immersion program designed to expose young people to the theatre. The summer of 2004, in its inaugural six-week session, Plowshares served forty-two children between the ages of seven and seventeen with a program that introduced them to acting styles, movement and dance, creative writing for the spoken word, costuming and production design. This programming culminated in their performance in a production of The Wiz.
Today, Plowshares Theater Company is recognized as the sixth largest professional African American theatre company in the country. In the last fourteen years Plowshares has introduced Detroit audiences to the works of Pearl Cleage, August Wilson, Richard Wesley, Shay Youngblood, Al Letson, Jr., Eugene Lee, OyamO, and many others. Now, nearing the end of our second decade, Plowshares has received unprecedented regional and national recognition. We have built a reputation upon a commitment to the richness of the African American experience, while not losing sight of our original mission: providing challenging opportunities to local artists and producing new works. This is our mission and our mandate.