COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio is opening the powerful play, "Skeleton Crew," at the Riffe Center in downtown Columbus this March.
Written by Dominique Morisseau, the play follows four Detroit factory workers as they learn about the impending closure of their automotive plant.
“We watch as these four navigate their dreams, their hopes, their desires for both their future and the present moment,” explained the play’s director Raymond O. Caldwell. “It is a story about Black people, but it’s a story that is so universal and I think that’s what’s so brilliant about what Dominique Morisseau does in ‘Skeleton Crew.’ She tells the story of Black, working-class people, and that experience is [also] the experience of white, working-class folks throughout America.”
Caldwell praised the play’s focus on the working class, a group he believed is often underrepresented in popular entertainment.
“Stories that are about people who work with their hands,” he said. “People who maybe didn’t have the opportunity to go to college and have college degrees but made choices to build their communities and their lives based on an automotive plant and then what happens when that automotive plant decides [to leave]. What happens to the people who have vested their dreams, their families and their lives in these places and spaces?”
Caldwell anticipates that the play will inevitably inspire the audience to reflect on the country’s most recent recession and see how the story parallels the reality of many towns throughout Ohio affected by closures in the manufacturing industry.
“What happens in Detroit and communities all throughout Ohio is that these communities were utterly destroyed - were gutted - when these major corporations decided to leave,” Caldwell said. “So, what happens to communities and how do communities heal after these major events?”
A graduate of The Ohio State University, Caldwell is very familiar with the theater community in central Ohio.
“Seeing the ways in which this art community has moved forward, has advanced, and is really creating cutting-edge space and telling cutting-edge stories is just so exciting.”
The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio's production of "Skeleton Crew" runs through March 17 at the Riffe Center in downtown Columbus. For links to showtimes and ticket information, visit: https://www.thecontemporaryohio.org/.