Michigan Arts & Culture

Traverse City’s professional theater company stages “familiar stories for adventurous minds"

Michigan Public | By Stateside Staff

Published September 13, 2016 at 4:54 PM EDT

Whiting told us Parallel 45 likes to put on plays that most people have probably at least heard of, so there's a sense of familiarity, then "turn things on their heads and give a new perspective to some of these stories."

Our conversation with Erin Anderson Whiting and Kit McKay. Whiting is the executive director of Parallel 45, and McKay is the artistic director.

Can the northwest lower peninsula of Michigan support a professional theater group that dares to really challenge its audience? Delivering theater "for the adventurous mind," not comfortable,touristyand familiar?

Turns out, the answer is yes.

The Parallel 45 Theatre Companymounted its very first production in Elk Rapids in 2010: Our Town, the three-act play by Thornton Wilder.

Pretty potent stuff for a small Michigan town.

But Parallel 45 made it work, and now it's preparing to open its seventh season.

The group's executive director Erin Anderson Whiting and artistic director Kit McKay joined us today to talk about their mission at Parallel 45 and what made them think the Traverse City area would be the perfect place to set up a professional theater company. (Subscribe to the Stateside podcast oniTunes,Google Play, or with thisRSS link)