(upbeat music) - The Purple Rose Theatre Company in Chelsea, Michigan has opened their season with a brand-new original play.

The playwright, a very familiar name for Detroiters, but not in this context.

Devin, Detroiters, of course, know you as a journalist and also a lot of people know you as a musician and an author of many children's books.

But now, we are seeing a different side of you as a storyteller with your first play titled "Bastard".

What led you to this new kind of storytelling?

- Clearly, I lack focus is my problem.

(everyone laughing) I can't seem to dial in on what to do.

All those things that you just mentioned, I know it sounds to a lot of people, like I'm just all over the place, but they're all about storytelling.

And I love telling stories.

And obviously, when I was a journalist, I focused on nonfiction, true stories.

And this is very much getting back to my roots.

Because before I ever got into journalism, I started out in college as a theater major.

- Hmm.

- And even after I switched to the journalism school, I stayed very involved with theater and it's my first love.

And so, to be back at it this many years later, is just so gratifying and wonderful.

(Devin laughs) One funny thing that I realized, so, at Channel 4, I followed Mort Crim, who was of course my predecessor, legend, for years.

At the Purple Rose, I am following Carey Crim, his daughter, whose play just closed.

- Oh wow!

- So, I keep following Crims.

(everyone laughing) - [Rhiannon] Go, four, five, six, seven, hold.

(upbeat music) - So, I got to go back in time and ask you, what led you from being a theater major to then pivoting into journalism?

Like that does seem like quite a switch.

- Well, I think that there's, I'm sure going back and looking at it now, it had a lot to do with there was live performance involved in both.

- Hmm.

- No safety net, really.

- Yeah.

- And I really fell in love with the idea of writing the first draft of history.

Really, I love the craft of journalism.

I think it's a deeply honorable and important profession and a really important part of a functioning democracy.

And I always loved being a part of that.

The theme that underlies this play is this phrase, "Everyone is entitled to know their own story."

And that was something that Corey, my wife, said many years ago.

And that just stayed with me.

The play is these two brothers, who have never gotten along very well, are thrown back together.

Because their mother has passed away.

And I think this has been echoed in so many families.

Everybody knows what that's like.

But as they get back together, old wounds resurface, some new wounds develop and some surprises emerge.

But they're all trying to navigate what life is throwing at them.

And that's really, that obstacle course is really basically what the play is about.

- The sparrow taking care of the wounded bird.

- Yeah.

- And you think Jake is one.

- Don't you?

- A wounded bird, Jake?

No, I guess I've never seen it that way.

He hasn't exactly been deprived.

He's the luckiest guy on the planet.

Prom king who gets a full ride to play football at Alabama.

Blows out his knee in practice before his first game.

You think, "Oh, the luck finally dried up."

Nope, he quit school and moved to Nashville.

He's there three weeks and gets a record deal, still wearing a cast in the recording studio.

- Elmore Leonard gave me some great writing advice once.

Because I was talking to him about how intimidating writing can be.

If you can't, you don't always know where your story's headed and do you have to stop and wait, until you can see the whole thing before you can start to write it?

And Elmore said, "You can drive from New York to Los Angeles.

You can't see Los Angeles from New York.

But you can drive the entire way at night just getting there by the hundred yards that's provided by your headlights.

You can get there a hundred yards at a time."

That was great advice.

The idea, what he was basically saying, is just start driving.

- Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- And your instincts as a storyteller will get you to Los Angeles.

And that's kind of what happened with "Bastard".

- Yeah.

- Love that story.

- Which is kind of reflected in how we approach the work in the room too.

It's one day at a time and to let it build itself.

- Yeah, you can't see Los Angeles either.

- Yeah, yeah, you don't have to, it's not a result yet.

- Yeah.

- We're still finding it too.

- Yeah and also too, the process here at the Purple Rose is completely different than any process that I've ever worked with, or maybe any other process in the country.

I mean, a lot of the work is about, I would say, number one, it's getting in touch with your body.

It's number one about getting in touch with your fellow actors, right?

- [Rhiannon] Yeah.

- It's also about getting us out of our heads and into our hearts, which is sort of a catchphrase around here as well, "Out of your head and into your hearts."

- And also, what I've come to appreciate, is how much it changes the task for you.

If you were doing "Death of a Salesman", the script is going to stay the same through the entire rehearsal process at least.

- Right.

- And Rhiannon is sending me constantly, "Can we edit and change this?"

And you guys are having to adjust to our changes on the fly.

- Well, and especially with plays like that too, to set an example, you're also going to be looking at history as well as far as possibly other people that have played those roles depending on what the roles are- - Yeah.

- And how iconic they are.

But the really beautiful thing about this too with the new work, is that we get to put our stamp on this role.

- You are originating the role of Jake Lambert.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- I hope that means something someday.

(everyone laughing) - You know what?

You are too young to know so much.

- That could be a song title too.

- Yeah, that's right.

- But you actually have to write them.

This is your muse speaking.

A song needs more than a title.

- Well, and it does sort of touch back at least, I think there's transferable skills in the journalism world is that they're trying to find as much truth in themselves in your words, like that's it.

How much of this can we just make true, so that it just feels like a natural instinct?

- [Mark] Yeah.

- I try, I don't always succeed, to stay out of the world of a result and more of like an impetus.

Like if I push, then what happens?

- Interesting.

- I'll ask questions.

It really is just me sort of listening and watching and chasing them and finding out.

It is curiosity.

It's like, "Well, what if I go over and poke him and make him try something else, what will his scene partner's reaction be?"

- [Mark] Yeah.

- How much did the play grow and evolve from like when you first brought it to Jeff Daniels to now when we're in the rehearsal process and I'm sure it's still changing here?

- I'd say there's been, I guess, three phases of it.

When I first finished it, and I don't know how many phases there were as I worked on it, but when I first finished it and sent it to Jeff, he said, "Let's take this to a table read."

And when we did the table read, which was almost a year ago, I think now.

- Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Yeah.

- After that table read, Jeff and Rhiannon both had a long list of, "Well, let's think about it this way, including dropping two characters."

Ow!

(Rhiannon laughs) (Mark laughs) But I dropped one.

- Yeah, yeah.

- I didn't give in on both.

(Rhiannon laughs) (Mark laughs) So, then that, I went and did a bunch of rewriting, and so that was another phase.

And then once the rehearsal process started, Jeff told me, he said, "You need to appreciate the fact that once rehearsal starts, your play is only 80 to 90% written."

- Oh, interesting.

- There's going to be things that aren't going to work.

There's going to be things that need more.

There's going to be things that need to be excised.

And that's where we've been.

So, we're kind of in that third phase now, right?

- Yeah, yeah.

- Is that fair?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Well, and also too, the beauty of it as well, is that it's going to hopefully change all the way up, until opening night, right?

We treat previews like rehearsals, right?

And so, you guys are going to keep listening to this thing and okay, this is working, this is not working, this is what the audience is responding to.

And I don't know, you should talk more about that.

- Yeah, the previews here are truly a gift.

There are things that we will really test on an audience.

I joke all the time that if somebody has an idea, I'm always like, "I'll burn one.

(everyone laughing) We'll put it in, we'll try it in front of an audience and see where it takes us."

But here it's really, it's sort of egoless, which is an amazingly free way to work.

'Cause you can just say best idea in the room wins.

But yeah, I mean, it goes up until opening night.

I told Devin, I said, "Listen, opening night doesn't mean you're done, it just means you have to let go, 'cause our time has ended."

My time with this cast and with this crew and with this playwright has ended and it's the audience.

It belongs to them now.

So, yeah, you're never done.

Sorry, buddy.

(Rhiannon laughs) (Mark laughs) - And of course, one of the two brothers I know, is a country musician, so you're bringing in one of your other great passions.

How did- - It's funny.

So, it's not a musical.

(everyone laughing) But I did write three songs for the play.

- [Chris] Nice.

- It's really funny, because Jake Lambert made the kind of country music that I have never loved.

And so, I had to set about trying to write, especially his big hit, a song called "Beerwagon", (Devin chuckles) which was a number one song apparently 20 or 30 years ago.

I had to write the kind of song that I, it's about beer and trucks and the kind of song that I don't love, but I had to write it in a way that it was believably a hit.

(Devin laughs) Oh, and then she says, well, so I sent it to her and she says, "This is really good.

Can you do a version?

Can you make a version that sounds live, like a live audience?"

So, the song actually got its debut a few nights ago at JD's, which is Jeff Daniels' new music venue here in Chelsea.

And I played it in front of the crowd that night, explaining to them, "I don't respect this song.

(everyone laughing) But I want you to know that this is what's coming up in the play."

And it went over like- - Listen, you might be stuck, sir.

I think you're gonna have to play this.

- It went over because by the end, they were all yelling bearwagon, right?

- We're too, I do not.

(Devin laughs) - That's right.

- Yeah.

("Beerwagon" playing in the background) - This is your first play, or are there going to be more on the way, do you think?

- I'm working on two right now.

(everyone laughing) One's a musical, so, I'm clearly losing my marbles.

(everyone laughing) - That songwriting thing came so easy for this.

- I know, I know, I know.

- Why not make a full musical?

- A musical that takes place in a Michigan lighthouse.

- Mm-hmm (affirmative).

(Mark laughs) - Oh, interesting.

- Can't wait to read that one.

- Yeah.

(everyone laughing)