Among Friends

Mid-Michigan theater can let out a collective breath: after nearly a year of fundraising, a flurry of staged readings, and two incarnations of its Web site, Stormfield Theatre has taken the leap of faith and come out with its first fully staged production. With founder and artistic director Kristine Thatcher as the public face of the company, it's only fitting that the inaugural play be not only directed by Thatcher, but written by her as well. Happily, the choice is much more than just apropos; her 1997 Among Friends is a tour de force, and this incarnation quite simply shines.

With this production, the theater has also found a new temporary home in downtown Lansing, a ringingly bare-walls property tastefully softened with curtains and rows of chairs on three sides of a modestly sized raised stage. Yet this unassuming setting is home to lush production values in Michelle Raymond's set of staggered walls and Tim Fox's through-the-window lights that introduce each scene. Sparsely appointed enough to stand in as three men's homes, the set is a marvel of varied hues and finishes that's a perfect fit for its surroundings. These elements are also well met by three expert performances in a story about how surprisingly tenuous friendships can be.

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The Exonerated

As part of its inaugural year, Stormfield Theatre presented two staged readings of The Exonerated. The work-in-progress nature of a staged reading isn't my usual repertoire, but I wanted to get a look at this new company "dedicated to living playwrights and their works." With the support of some heavy hitters in Michigan theater, the production of this Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen–penned script held a gravitas well suited to an exploration of wrongly convicted individuals on death row.

Stormfield artistic director Kristine Thatcher directs the piece and is also counted among the cast of ten. The script is the product of years of research and interviews, with the characters' words all taken verbatim from these sessions as well as trial transcripts and other sources. Without devolving into lamentations, the play doles out the stories of six real people — three black men, two white men, and one white woman — sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit, and imprisoned for as many as two decades before their exoneration and release.

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