Past Productions 2012-2013

SHOPPING & FUCKING

by Mark Ravenhill
September 8 - 24, 2012

Mark Ravenhill's groundbreaking play follows a crowd of drifters and sex traders in a seedy area of London. Five main characters comprise an unlikely family at whose center is an ever-changing love triangle of petty criminals. It is a gritty, grimy urban society, a microcosm of drugs, shoplifting, prostitution, and sexual adventure. The characters have shunned morality and conduct hedonistic and destructive lives in this shocking, humorous, nihilistic play that examines a completely corrupted society. Directed by Joe Bailey.

FLOWERS UP HER ATTIC

By Joe Bailey and Marke Sobolewski
October 13 - 29, 2012

This unauthorized parody of V.C. Andrews landmark novel "Flowers in the Attic" explores a tale of ultimate family betrayal and secrets! A young widow is forced to keep her four children locked in the attic of her sadistic mother's mansion while she tries to get her act together. Christopher and Cathy are the eldest siblings, poor little Cory and Carrie are the hapless twins. Little does the children's mother know the extent of what happens up in that attic!

REVIEWS
Encore Michigan   |   Oakland Press

VIDEO
Remembering Flowers   |   Reading 1   |   Reading 2

THE HOMOSEXUALS

By Philip Dawkins
November 16 - December 10, 2012

The Homosexuals is a comedic and heartwarming work for anyone who's ever fallen in love with a friend. The play follows Evan, a young gay man who moves to the Midwest with nothing but the shirt on his back. When a kind man invites him to a party his first night in town, the circle of friends he meets that night have impact on his life that he (nor we) could ever imagine. Chicago playwright Dawkins' epic play examines the fears, doubts and hopes facing the gay community in the 21st century.

MULTIMEDIA
Preview Video

REVIEWS & PREVIEWS
Free Press Review   |   Encore MI Review   |    Between the Lines Preview  |   Oakland Press Review

THE SANTALAND DIARIES & SEASON'S GREETINGS

by David Sedaris, Adapted for the Stage by Joe Mantello
December 20-23, 2012

The delightful anti-holiday treat makes its annual return to the Ringwald stage for two weekends of twisted holiday fun! 

WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING

by Andrew Bovell
January 11 - 28, 2013

It's raining. Gabriel York is awaiting the arrival of his grown son whom he hasn't seen since he was 7. "I know what he wants. He wants what all young men want from their fathers. He wants to know who he is. Where he comes from. Where he belongs. And for the life of me I don't know what to tell him." That's the beginning of this compelling family saga that takes us back and forth in time from one generation to another, from 1959 to 2039, from London to Australia. With four generations of fathers and sons, their mothers, lovers and wives, the play is epic in its scope, yet at the same time extraordinarily intimate.

MULTIMEDIA
Preview Video

REVIEWS        
EncoreMI   |   The Rogue Critic   |   Oakland Press #1   |     #2

MAKING PORN

February 22 - March 18, 2013

Making Porn is set in San Francisco in the early 1980s and focuses on the lives of six people involved in the gay pornography industry. Jack Hawk, a straight, out-of-work actor is hired by gay porn producer, Arthur Mack, to star in his newest porn movie entitled, Cops. Included in the films cast are Ray Tanner, a jaded porn star of 70 films and a bright, young new-comer named Ricky. Complications arise when Jacks wife, Linda, finds out about her husband’s new career and Arthur's partner, Jamie, falls in love with one of the actors.

MULTIMEDIA
PORN VIDEOS

REVIEWS        
EncoreMI   |   The Rogue Critic  

SONS OF THE PROPHET

by Stephen Karam
April 5 - 15, 2013

If to live is to suffer, then Joseph Douaihy is more alive than most. With unexplained chronic pain and the fate of his reeling family on his shoulders, Joseph's health, sanity, and insurance premium are on the line. With a wacky book editor seeking to exploit Joseph's distant family connection to Kahlil Gibran, author of the bestselling "The Prophet," the Douaihy’s lives will never be the same. Shortlisted for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize, Karam's wise and moving play is also the funniest play about human suffering you're likely to see.

MULTIMEDIA
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REVIEWS
Free Press  |  EncoreMI  |  Oakland Press

AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY

by Tracy Letts
May 10 - June 3, 2013

A vanished father. A pill-popping mother. Three sisters harboring shady little secrets. When the large Weston family unexpectedly reunites after Dad disappears, their Oklahoman family homestead explodes in a maelstrom of repressed truths and unsettling secrets. Mix in Violet, the drugged-up, scathingly acidic matriarch, and you've got a major new play that unflinchingly — and uproariously — exposes the dark side of the Midwestern American family. Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award, August: Osage County comes to The Ringwald in a dynamic, re-imagined production.

The phenomenal cast of August: Osage County include Melissa Beckwith as Karen, Jan Cartwright as Mattie Fay, Dan Jaroslaw as Beverly, Kelly Komlen as Barbara, Bryan Lark as Steve, Jane MacFarlane as Violet, Joel Mitchell as Little Charles, Patrick O’Lear as Charlie, Amy Probst as Johnna, Travis Reiff as Bill, Jamie Richards as Deon Gilbeau, Katie Terpstra as Jean, and Jamie Warrow as Ivy. Joe Bailey will direct.

MULTIMEDIA
Preview Video

REVIEWS       
Detroit Free Press   |   EncoreMI

GPS (Gay Play Series) 2013

June 7 - 24, 2013

The Ringwald Theatre has announced the 4th installment of its wildly popular Gay Play Series (GPS). Last year's outing was attended by hundreds of people over a two weekend period. This year the program will run three consecutive weekends and will feature a two-week run of the past three winning scripts, a serialized staged reading of a beloved classic, a new one-woman show, a brand new cabaret, and performances of 8 new, one act LGBT plays.

For complete 2013 GPS details, click here.

MOMMIE QUEEREST

by Jamie Morris
July 11 - August 5, 2013

Mommie Queerest, an all-male tribute to and teardown of Mommie Dearest, the terrible-wonderful 1981 biopic of Hollywood legend Joan Crawford, based on her daughter Christina's bestselling, mom-blasting memoir. Dearest is a stupendously awful movie, and Queerest does to it what its Crawford did to those rose bushes - whack away madly, maniacally, hilariously, not only at the glamour monster herself but at Faye Dunaway's career-quelling performance.

The cast for Mommie Queerest is Joe Bailey as Joan Crawford and Joe Plambeck as Christina Crawford. Rounding out the cast are Dan Morrison and Richard Payton as Greg Savitt and Carol Anne and everyone else. Dyan Bailey makes her directorial debut with Vince Kelley on costumes.

REVIEWS       
Rogue Critic   |   EncoreMI