Playwright Dominique Morriseau kicks off upcoming production with an open conversation at The Wright

nternational playwright and native Detroiter Dominique Morriseau is returning home for Capturing Detroit: Owning the Narrative of Our City. The free, open-to-the-public conversation focuses on Morriseau’s plays, the issues surrounding their storylines and the importance of art in the city.

The conversation will take place at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History at 4 p.m. on April 17. Panelists include actor Blair Underwood, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Andre Holland and Marlowe Stoudamire. The conversation will be moderated by Detroit artist jessica Care moore.

The discussion serves as a kickoff conversation to the hometown production of Morriseau’s play Detroit ’67 with the Detroit Public Theatre.

“Detroit is the city that made me,” Morriseau tells BLAC. “My plays have been done literally all around the country; in Chicago, in Cleveland, in Baltimore, in Atlanta, in New York, and I feel like it can’t be all these other places and not come home, and not come home correctly.”

The Wright Museum is an important institution for Morriseau. The museum’s General Motors Theatre was the first place she produced her own play in Detroit, and she got married on the same stage in 2013, where a video of her intricate and theatrical first dance received over half a million views on YouTube.

Despite having lived in New York for 15 years, Morriseau says Detroit has always remained her home and in her heart.

“It doesn’t seem like most people in Detroit are well aware of her, because she spent most of her time in other places. She’s always wanted to get her work back home to Detroit,” says Ruben-Santiago, who studied theatre at Wayne State University.

With this event, Morriseau hopes that Detroiters become more familiar with her work, but she also hopes to inspire Detroiters to invest in Detroit’s other homegrown artists.

“Art can help to bridge gaps between people,” Morriseau says. “As our city is changing, with or without our permission, art can help us find a way to empower ourselves through that change.”

The conversation is free and open to the public. For more information visit, TheWright.org.