My play, "Strawberry, What Party?"
Donation protected
My play, "Strawberry - What Party?" is back by popular demand at Dearborn's Henry Ford College, Adray Auditorium and your support will bring positive attention to the play that now includes information about the Detroit Police Task Force investigation that has recently re-opened Tamara "Strawberry" Greene's homicide case. l have continued my research into this case throughout the years it has lingered in political limbo.
$1766.00 of this goal was raised and used for the premier of "Strawberry - What Party?" at the Boll/YMCA Theatre in Detroit last January, 2017. We are looking to raise money for the current production. Your support will be greatly appreciated!
My research into Detroit's most infamous unsolved mystery is a continuing endeavor focusing on the facts that were never brought to court. Keeping this story in the public eye is crucial to help bring this case to justice.
There have been unforseen costs in producing this play which runs until the end of September, 2017 including actor's wages totalling $7,000, plus another $5, 000 in theatre rental and technical support including stage lighting, props, wardrobe, graphic design, printing (that was $1,500 alone) and sound among a million other things.
I suffer from polycystic kidney and liver disease and had a kidney transplant in 2013. The play has been so stress-producing I've landed in the hospital twice over the past year. Why do it? Why write and produce a play twice about an exotic dancer who was killed? Well, I related to her. I too was a single mother with kids on Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) and was lucky to pull myself up and out by getting an education and becoming a reporter at the Free Press. Tamara Greene didn't get to realize her dreams. She died too soon.
Here's the Tamara Greene story: On a rainy April night in Detroit, a dancer nicknamed "Strawberry" died amid gunfire on a lonely Detroit street . Rumors soon surfaced that she was linked to the now-jailed Hip Hop Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick ; that she had danced at a supposed Mansion bachelor bash he hosted and his wife beat her up. Strawberry filed a police report that was destroyed; hundreds of people claim it was to stop a scandal that went viral anyway! My play, running in Dearborn currently explores these circumstances! I am using the monies raised on GoFundMe to pay for lighting the stage, $300, building a set $200-to-$300, getting props $250, plus I'll be paying actors, costumers, the set-designer, stage hands, a stage manager and award-winning director Mary F. Bremer-Beer who has focused her keen eye on a myriad of Detroit productions; a show ain't cheap! We're estimating $10,000 total cost at the very least. The first production of the play ran for two weekends at the Boll Theatre in Detroit in January 2017.
So why is the story important?
Strawberry's life ended too soon and the Hip Hop mayor's administration, now delayed for 27 years in a Federal prison, may have covered it up. In the end two young people lost what appeared to be glittering futures . What we know is Strawberry died a few months after dancing at the mayor's bachelor party. She went there to earn money to open a dancer's costume store. She died a few days before the store was supposed to open. Did she get killed by someone she knew who chased her down or was it someone else? That's what we don't know.
$1766.00 of this goal was raised and used for the premier of "Strawberry - What Party?" at the Boll/YMCA Theatre in Detroit last January, 2017. We are looking to raise money for the current production. Your support will be greatly appreciated!
My research into Detroit's most infamous unsolved mystery is a continuing endeavor focusing on the facts that were never brought to court. Keeping this story in the public eye is crucial to help bring this case to justice.
There have been unforseen costs in producing this play which runs until the end of September, 2017 including actor's wages totalling $7,000, plus another $5, 000 in theatre rental and technical support including stage lighting, props, wardrobe, graphic design, printing (that was $1,500 alone) and sound among a million other things.
I suffer from polycystic kidney and liver disease and had a kidney transplant in 2013. The play has been so stress-producing I've landed in the hospital twice over the past year. Why do it? Why write and produce a play twice about an exotic dancer who was killed? Well, I related to her. I too was a single mother with kids on Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) and was lucky to pull myself up and out by getting an education and becoming a reporter at the Free Press. Tamara Greene didn't get to realize her dreams. She died too soon.
Here's the Tamara Greene story: On a rainy April night in Detroit, a dancer nicknamed "Strawberry" died amid gunfire on a lonely Detroit street . Rumors soon surfaced that she was linked to the now-jailed Hip Hop Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick ; that she had danced at a supposed Mansion bachelor bash he hosted and his wife beat her up. Strawberry filed a police report that was destroyed; hundreds of people claim it was to stop a scandal that went viral anyway! My play, running in Dearborn currently explores these circumstances! I am using the monies raised on GoFundMe to pay for lighting the stage, $300, building a set $200-to-$300, getting props $250, plus I'll be paying actors, costumers, the set-designer, stage hands, a stage manager and award-winning director Mary F. Bremer-Beer who has focused her keen eye on a myriad of Detroit productions; a show ain't cheap! We're estimating $10,000 total cost at the very least. The first production of the play ran for two weekends at the Boll Theatre in Detroit in January 2017.
So why is the story important?
Strawberry's life ended too soon and the Hip Hop mayor's administration, now delayed for 27 years in a Federal prison, may have covered it up. In the end two young people lost what appeared to be glittering futures . What we know is Strawberry died a few months after dancing at the mayor's bachelor party. She went there to earn money to open a dancer's costume store. She died a few days before the store was supposed to open. Did she get killed by someone she knew who chased her down or was it someone else? That's what we don't know.
Organizer
Carol Teegardin
Organizer
Ferndale, MI
