Theatre & dance
Gary Anderson
· theater director, producer
Wayne State-trained director who co-founded Plowshares Theatre Company in 1989 and built it into Michigan's professional African American theater company.
- Detroit years
- 1980s–present
- Field
- Theatre & dance
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Anderson earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees in theater at Wayne State University, specializing in directing, and in March 1989 co-founded Plowshares Theatre Company in Detroit, which he has led as producing artistic director. Under him Plowshares became the only professional African American theater company in Michigan, staging works such as Woza Albert!, Zooman and the Sign, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running and Pill Hill, and developing new plays. He has worked with playwrights Ron Milner, August Wilson and OyamO, choreographer George Faison, producer Woodie King Jr. and actresses Denise Nicholas and Ella Joyce, and has directed premieres and established plays in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Denver and Houston. He received a Kresge Artist Fellowship in 2016 and served on the Kresge Arts in Detroit advisory council.
Highlights
- Wayne State University BFA and MFA in theater directing
- Co-founded Plowshares Theatre Company in March 1989
- Selected productions include The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running and Pill Hill
- Kresge Artist Fellow (2016)
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 · 1980s
Wayne State University
Where Anderson earned his BFA and MFA in theater directing.