Theatre & dance / Literature / Film & TV
Dominique Morisseau
born 1978 · playwright, actress, television writer
Detroit-born playwright whose Detroit Project trilogy (Detroit '67, Paradise Blue, Skeleton Crew) puts the city's history on stage; MacArthur Fellow and Tony nominee.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 48- Detroit years
- 1978–1996
- Field
- Theatre & dance, Literature, Film & TV
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Dominique Morisseau was born in Detroit on March 13, 1978, to a family with roots in Mississippi on her mother's side and Haiti on her father's. She grew up in the city, graduated from Cass Technical High School and earned a BFA in acting at the University of Michigan in 2000, where the lack of roles for Black actresses pushed her to write her own. Detroit became her great subject. Her three-play Detroit Project follows the city across the 20th century: Detroit '67 takes place in a basement after-hours joint as the 1967 uprising erupts; Paradise Blue is set in a Black Bottom jazz club in 1949 as urban renewal closes in; and Skeleton Crew follows workers at the last small auto-stamping plant during the 2008 crisis. She also wrote the book for the Temptations musical Ain't Too Proud and worked as a writer and producer on Shameless, and in 2018 she received a MacArthur Fellowship.
Highlights
- The Detroit Project trilogy: Detroit '67, Paradise Blue, Skeleton Crew
- Book for the Temptations musical Ain't Too Proud (Broadway, 2019), Tony nomination
- MacArthur Fellowship (2018)
- Obie special citation for Skeleton Crew (2016)
- Story editor and co-producer on Showtime's Shameless
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1992–1996
Cass Technical High School
Morisseau graduated from Detroit's selective public high school before studying acting at the University of Michigan.