Outside of Michigan, most people have only heard the bad news out of Flint. It’s the city whose drinking water was poisoned by a state administration that took over the city’s governance and wanted to save money.

But Flint is also home to the Flint Repertory Theatre, an organization led by Michael Lluberes that has been doing amazing work and this summer is offering pandemic-safe work that marries playwrights and visual artists and takes audiences all over the city.

The “Flint Mural Plays” runs from June 5 to August 31. It’s a partnership between the theatre and the Flint Public Art Project in which the Rep has commissioned 25 new micro audio plays that each correspond to a different mural around Flint.

You’ve probably heard of some of the playwrights—Hunter Bell (“Title of Show”), Lauren Gunderson (“Silent Sky”) Greg Kotis (“Urinetown”), and Craig Lucas (“Prelude to a Kiss” and “Light in the Piazza”).

“I wanted it to reflect the murals,” said Lluberes after explaining that the murals were created by artists from all around the world. “I wanted to have a lot of artists of color involved because the murals depict people of color. I wanted a mix of old people and young people, people we have never worked with before and those we have relationships with.”

Another of the playwrights is Josh Wilder, an African American playwright who graduated from Yale and has been working with Flint Rep on a full-length play called “Wrong River.” It is about the Flint water crisis and will be premiered next season. They’ve been developing it for a few years.

Playwright Douglas Lyons (Photo: Flint Repertory Theatre)

“Craig Lucas was a long shot, but I’ve always been a big fan of his, so I just went for it,” Lluberes said. “People are really excited about contributing to Flint and the theatre.”

Other playwrights include Mando Alvarado (Post No Bills), Ebony Vines, Kyle Clark, singer-songwriter “Danielle Ate The Sandwich,” Destiny Dunn, Rebecca Gilman (Spinning Into Butter), Derek Gregor & Selda Sahin (GRIND), Harvey, Kenn Hopkins Jr., Jenni Lamb, Douglas Lyons (Chicken and Biscuits), Leah Maddrie, Alex Moggridge (The Boatman), Eliana Pipes, Emilio Rodriguez, Nandita Shenoy (Washer/Dryer), Harrison David Rivers (Broadbend, Arkansas), as well as University of Michigan Flint student playwrights Taylor Boes, David Guster, Olivia Maxwell-Cook, Andrea Orpinel, and Enrique Vargas.

The 25 audio plays will be available for free on the PixelStix mobile app so that people can listen to them as they visit the murals around Flint. It will also be available online at FlintRep.org.

During June, Flint Rep will have free outdoor community events that include guided walking and trolley tours, and live performances.

The most challenging part, said Lluberes, was narrowing the murals that would be included to only 25.

“The Flint Art Project commissioned artists all over the world to be put up all around Flint,” Lluberes said. “There are surprises. You walk into an alley somewhere and there will be this amazing, beautiful mural by a Mexican artist that knocks your socks off.”

It correlates with what Lluberes has been trying to do as artistic director at the Rep since he started there in 2018, which is bring in people from all over the country and mix them with local talent to create something exciting. He also said he was inspired by the idea of high art on an abandoned building.

They did eventually pick 25 that were in clusters in different neighborhoods. He said in Flint, some people stay in their bubble and never get out to other neighborhoods, so they chose ones in downtown, Carriage, Northside, and Eastside.

“We picked the murals that really turned us on, that were evocative, that had something in them,” Lluberes said. “We picked a breadth of different styles. A lot of the murals have people in them and those people are characters in the play.”

They then gave each playwright a handful of murals to choose from. Some playwrights asked to connect with the artists while others wanted to keep the creation process independent.

Art by Freddy Diaz (Photo: Flint Repertory Theatre)

Lucas connected with Flint-based street artist Isiah Lattimore over Zoom. Lucas had, Lluberes said, a hundred questions about who the three people were in the mural.

As of the end of April, Lluberes had all 25 plays in hand, including two musicals. He was busy casting the shows so that they could be recorded in May.

“We had hoped to cast a smaller company of actors to do all the voices, but we’re finding we need a lot more actors than we thought,” Lluberes said. “Two plays are bilingual—in Spanish and English—so we’re reaching out to bilingual actors. There is a lot of variety in what we need, old people and children.”

They will rehearse over Zoom and then record in a Flint recording studio following strict COVID safety procedures. The plays range from three to five minutes and Lluberes hopes that people will get outside and go on their own adventure in the City of Flint, following the four different neighborhood maps provided in the app.

“It’s very user-friendly,” Lluberes said. “You can go downtown and do the whole downtown trek in an hour. The Downtown and Carriage Town are walking tours. For the Northside and Eastside, you’ll have to be driving.”

For those that can’t get out or for whom Flint is simply too far away, the plays can be listened to online at the website while looking at pictures of the murals.

“I hope that people really see Flint in a different way,” Lluberes said. “I hope they are surprised by what they see. I hope they think about seeing and experiencing theatre in a different way. Is this theater? It is an experience. You’re there, seeing the mural, feeling the wind on your face.”

(Title Photo: Art by Emily Ding Photo: Flint Repertory Theatre)

Matching Murals with Theatre

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