I'm Chris Jordan, editor and producer for One Detroit.

One of my favorite recent stories was my behind the scenes piece about the purple Rose Theater Company's play, The Classic King, which ran earlier this year.

The play was developed at the theater and directed by purple Rose Theater Company founder and artistic director Jeff Daniels.

We filmed a rehearsal for the play, getting a unique look at Daniels creative process and how the theater company workshops and develops an original production.

Check it out.

I know it's got a hug.

Just landed in the truck.

I, I badge.

Beard down to his navel box.

Not in two.

Good a shape, neither.

It's a biker.

Don't all jump at once.

The purple Rose theater companies rehearsal space in Chelsea.

Early January.

A rehearsal for the Classic King, a new play by Richard Johnson, directed by Jeff Daniels.

The play follows the staff of a struggling car dealership in Detroit.

You're just trying to stay afloat.

You've got 30 days to do it.

The banks put some pressure on on the dealership, and it's four guys trying to get through the month.

You know, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

You're going to pay danger money.

Good.

Do it again.

Really good.

Playwright Richard Johnson had a long career in automotive journalism as the print editor of Automotive News.

After he retired, he decided to write a play set within the industry.

He'd spent his career covering.

I thought the industry was was fascinating.

I mean, not just, you know, designing and selling cars, but just the way people talked.

I used to be at dinners, at industry events, and here guys talk and wanting to throw a tape recorder on the table just so I could.

I could capture it because they have their own way of speaking.

And when I retired a few years ago, I thought it would be fun to try to work this into some kind of drama setting.

I had thought that the history of the Ford Motor Company would make a good play, and I was dumb enough to actually attempt to do that.

He had great characters Lee Iacocca and Henry Ford the second and Robert McNamara, and in great cars like the Mustang.

And I thought, this is a story here.

My ex-boss at Automotive News.

Great job.

The name of Peter Brown, who's on the board of the purple Rose, said.

That was pretty good.

He liked it.

Showed it to Jeff.

Jeff immediately said, there's no way in the heck that this is going to work on a stage, because it has.

It's so long.

It has maybe 30 characters and 100 scene changes in the whole thing.

But he said, come on in, let's talk about some other ideas.

And it was in those meetings with Jeff.

Together we came up with the idea of a used car car dealership and very focused one stage, four characters, much easier to do.

And so so this play was very much developed at the purple Rose.

Oh, absolutely.

I had a buddy at the Harley shop down the street called him.

They bid on it.

Boom.

Neil.

Only motorcycle after up.

Nice work.

Braden.

Thanks, Mike.

Us luck.

I'll take any kind of luck I can get.

I play Mike, who is the owner of the dealership.

He's at his wits in trying to keep the place afloat.

He is beating back the the competition, the large, pervasive competition and doing all that he can to rally the troops.

I play Jerry Flanagan.

He's been working with Mike for Mike at Starlight Classic Cars since he was a kid selling cars runs in his family.

It's in his blood.

His dad did it.

His grandfather did it.

So this is the world Jerry is comfortable in.

See that?

Got a light one.

So do we.

At what stage do you guys, as actors, come into the process of workshopping and developing these original plays here?

It's pretty early on.

Yeah, we've done readings of Rick's play probably a little over a year ago.

He would rewrite.

We would do other.

I don't know, we did a handful of readings so that Rick and Jeff could hear it out loud.

Do a bunch of rewrites and that.

So we were involved pretty early on.

Rick's constantly working stuff.

We're we're working stuff.

Seeing seeing what, what lands, what doesn't and making adjustments every minute of the day.

Listening and collaboration is so important.

And it's it.

You see the work grow as we put it up, go through iterations, have the feedback.

I had an idea who Mike was and then showed up in the room and threw it all away.

One of the important things is that allowing yourself, you listen to your scene partner and allowing that to inform some of your choices.

He did it.

He did it.

He did it.

Is this the high five?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

Great.

Nice work.

Great.

Thanks, Mike.

Boom!

High five.

Like that.

Like that.

And go.

Because you can go.

You can do whatever you want.

Then hit it with.

I'll take any kind of luck I can get.

Oh, don't take that for that.

Incalculable.

That's it.

No.

You're wrong.

I need a law luck I can get.

It's alive.

The material is is alive.

Yes.

It's that on on the business and.

Yeah, yeah.

And walk right into that.

Thing.

So I hit him with that and get your office.

That's the amazing thing about Jeff.

Who will the vision he has when he watches these guys rehearse.

Well, here's 15 ideas of how you could do this better.

And he just rattles them off.

He's so good at that.

And again, one of the many things I'm amazed about is I watched this process.

He'll watch us throw, you know, a dozen behavioral ideas in one moment and and gives us the freedom to do that and then says, yeah, just pair it down, make it about this set.

And the other thing, he's so good at simplifying the complexities that that at least I tend to bring in when I'm, when I'm working, just the wealth of experience and knowledge.

Having that in the room is so helpful.

It's a love letter to the car enthusiasts, really.

At the end of the day, it's a celebration of that world in that community.

Even if you don't know a lot about cars, if you're from Michigan, you're going to understand just because our car culture here in Michigan is runs deep.

You know, first and foremost, it's really funny.

These guys, how they interact is hilarious.

The world that when you walk into the theater, you're stepping into this very vivid world.

It's one act, it's a bullet train.

There's a lot going on.

It's a great story and wonderfully executed.

Good.

One more time.

Really good.