Theater News

New Jeff Daniels Comedy Part of Purple Rose 2007-2008 Season

Jeff Daniels
(© Joseph Marzullo/Retna)
Jeff Daniels
(© Joseph Marzullo/Retna)

A new comedy by Jeff Daniels will be part of the 2007-2008 season of Purple Rose Theatre Company in Chelsea, Michigan, which will also include three other world premieres.

The season will kick of with Deborah Brevoort’sThe Poetry of Pizza (October 4-December 22). In the play, a visiting poetry scholar at the University of Copenhagen finds her life irrevocably altered when she falls in love with a Kurdish refugee at a local pizzeria. PRTC Artistic Director Guy Sanville will direct a cast that will include Sarah Benoit, Sandra Birch, Ruth Crawford, Grant R. Krause, Hugh Macguire, Qarie Marshall, and Michelle Mountain. Brevoort’s previous plays include the award-winning Women of Lockerbie.


Next up will be David MacGregor’s Vino Veritas (January 17-March 8). The title literally translates as “in wine, the truth,” which is a Latin proverb that suggests that people reveal their true feelings under the influence of alcohol. In the play, two couples spend Halloween with a bottle of South American ceremonial wine, leading to a night of unbridled honesty. Sanville will a direct a cast that will include Quetta Carpenter, Phil Powers, and Suzi Regan. MacGregor is also the creator of The Late Great Henry Boyle.

The season will continue with Carey Crim’s Growing Pretty (March 27-May 31), a coming-of-age story in which 12-year-old Lucy Keen decides to become a supermodel in order to be seen, even though she is not exactly a supermodel type. Michelle Mountain will direct a cast that will include Matthew Gwynn, Aphrodite Nikolovski, Michael Brian Ogden, and Becca McCoy.

The season will conclude with Daniel’s as-yet-unnamed comedy (June 19-August 30). In the piece, two actors throw caution to the wind and their characters aside as they embark on a comic quest in search of the one thing that matters to everyone: the meaning of life. Sanville will direct. Daniels is the founder and Executive Director of Purple Rose, and has written numerous plays for the company, including Shoe Man, Across the Way, and Escanaba in da Moonlight. He is well known as an actor, most recently appearing on the New York stage in Blackbird at the Manhattan Theatre Club. His many film credits include Dumb and Dumber, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Something Wild, and Terms of Endearment.

For more information, visit www.purplerosetheatre.org.