Theatre & dance / Literature
Ron Milner
1938–2004 · playwright, theatre director
Detroit playwright of the Black Arts Movement, raised on Hastings Street in Black Bottom, co-founder of Concept East Theatre and author of What the Wine-Sellers Buy and Checkmates.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 66- Birth name
- Ronald Milner
- Detroit years
- 1938–2004
- Field
- Theatre & dance, Literature
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Ron Milner was born in Detroit on May 29, 1938, and grew up on Hastings Street, the commercial spine of Black Bottom, the Black neighborhood and entertainment district later erased by urban renewal and the Chrysler Freeway. He attended Northeastern High School and studied briefly at Highland Park Junior College and the Detroit Institute of Technology. In 1960 he and Woodie King Jr. founded Concept East Theatre, one of the first Black theater companies in Detroit and an early home of the Black Arts Movement. His drama Who's Got His Own toured before reaching Harlem's Lafayette Theatre in 1967, What the Wine-Sellers Buy (1973) played at Lincoln Center, and Checkmates reached Broadway in 1988. Milner never left: he wrote about Detroit families, founded and directed the Spirit of Shango theater company, and died in his hometown in 2004.
Highlights
- Co-founded Concept East Theatre in Detroit with Woodie King Jr. (1960)
- Who's Got His Own (1966)
- What the Wine-Sellers Buy (1973)
- Checkmates (1987), staged on Broadway in 1988
- Founder and director of the Spirit of Shango theater company
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
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.
Lived here · 1940s–1950s
Hastings Street, Black Bottom
Demolished
Milner grew up on Hastings Street, heart of the Black Bottom neighborhood; the street was cleared in the 1950s and 1960s for the Chrysler Freeway and urban renewal.
Studied here · 1950s
Northeastern High School
Status being checked
Milner's Detroit high school.
Founded · 1960s
Concept East Theatre
Closed
Pioneering Black theater company Milner co-founded with Woodie King Jr. in 1960.