DETROIT ARTS LIVE AND WORTH SUPPORTING: UDM Theatre Homeless Monologues

2010/02/23 at 2:22 pm · Filed under DETROIT ARTS: Theater, Jewish Connections, Lifestyles Column, UDM past reviews

“Lonnie” Fleischer

Theatre for a cause: UD Mercy presents ‘Unheard Voices, Homeless Monologues’

By Vivian DeGain

Oakland Press Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010

There has always been a tender and vibrant relationship between theater and social justice, said Lonnie (Yolanda)  Fleischer, theater professor, director and actor.  

She should know. Fleischer, with over 30 years to her credit on stage and at the head of the classroom, also teaches about social action at the International Institute for Secular and Humanistic Judaism.

Though she will retire as Associate Professor of Theatre from the University of Detroit Mercy this May, it’s not likely that her artistic collaborations with the UDM Theatre, and the theaters at Wayne State, Oakland University, Actors Alliance Conservatory, the Jewish Ensemble Theatre and the Detroit Repertory will ever let her escape completely.

She is passionate about her students, her work and how art brings awareness to worthy causes, like, “A play that will address the issues and problems of the overwhelming epidemic of homelessness in Southeast Michigan,” she said.

Directed and conceived by Fleischer, “Unheard Voices; Homeless Monologues” aims to present the lives, hopes, pains and spirits of the homeless community and will be presented at the UDM campus (next weekend Feb. 26-28).

All proceeds from the play will go to Homeless Action Network of Detroit an organization crucial to the survival of many homeless people. A special Gala benefits the Homeless Action Network of Detroit Friday.

“Unheard Voices” originated when Fleischer directed her UDM students to get involved. “These dedicated students have spent nearly a year in the streets and shelters in Detroit talking with the homeless and creating monologues of their stories,” she said.

From these personal interviews and observations, as well as personal interviews that students conducted with their own family and neighbors, the play offers stunning surprises.

“Unheard Voices; Homeless Monologues” was written in the style similar to the fabulous Broadway writers Anna Deavere Smith and Eve Ensler, she said.

Smith, a familiar actress on television’s “West Wing,” earned a Drama Desk Award for  Outstanding One-Person Show in both 1991 for her “Fires in the Mirror” about the 1991 Crown Heights Riot and in 1992 for “Twilight: Los Angeles” about the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Ensler also earned international acclaim as the writer and performer of The Vagina Monologues.

“UDM students and theatre students used a similar technique in ‘Unheard Voices; Homeless Monologues’” Fleischer said.

“This provoking and progressive work takes the stories of homelessness out of the shadows and into the light through the use of original monologues. The writers and actors who have taken on this project have incorporated true stories that encompass the hardships and problems faced by the homeless. Through the sensitive empathic portrayal of those living on the fringes, it is hoped that negative prejudices surrounding the homeless are abolished.”

The result?

“I was blown away. My eyes were really opened.”

The entire transcript, once 27 pages long, has been whittled and perfected to a 75-minute show without intermissions. The UDM cast of 17 performs the monologues, ranging from 2 -10 minutes each and one quartet.

The cast for Unheard Voices includes UDM undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, faculty Ann Eskridge and Dr. Laurie Britt-Smith, and guest professional artists Nancy Kammer, Peter Sapienza and Sandra Love Aldridge.

Fleischer said John Daniels, from the UDM Leadership Institute, helped her envision the project in a summer course, and named the production.

“He is a very religious Catholic and I am a secular Humanistic Jew and yet we agree on everything about this work.”

All Unheard Voices proceeds will benefit H.A.N.D. which serves as the Continuum of Care for Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park. Comprised of nonprofit organizations, businesses, government entities and committed individuals, H.A.N.D. aims to reduce and eliminate homelessness through planning and implementing housing and service programs.

Performances of Unheard Voices on Feb. 27 and 28 request a ticket donation of $16, but admission will be on a Pay-What-You-Can basis, even accepting a donation of gently used clothes on a hanger.

Unheard Voices; Homeless Monologues the show is now closed.

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