Jeff Daniels leans back in his chair. And it's exactly the type of chair you would expect Daniels to be sitting in. With his every turn or shift comes another crackling from the antique chair. Like old bones, the chair winces when Daniels wiggles.
It's a fitting piece of furniture for a room that would better fit another time. And Daniels has surrounded himself with antiques and relics and throwbacks for areason. They are reminders of where we all come from and also reminders of how far we've traveled.
But it's the past that seems to take center stage in Daniels' office, neatly tucked in the back, lower level of the Purple Rose Theatre.
The lights are dimmed. The door is left ajar to allow some of the hectic pace associated with a new play seep into the room.
Yes, a new play. A world premiere from Chelsea's world-renowned actor and playwright.
But to appreciate the new is to understand the old. And that chair just keeps creaking and crackling loud enough to remind us that what brought Daniels into the spotlight in the first place happened just on the other side of these walls. Down the street. Around the corner. And over the hill.
When Daniels talks there is a confidence. A trust. A belief.
These traits have always hung on the walls around him. Whether at home or at work, there are reminders of family. And confidence. And trust. And belief.
It all started with Jeff's grandfather, Warren Ruel Daniels, who owned a car dealership in Chelsea. Above the desk in Jeff's office is an advertisement for deals on Buicks from those days when cars drove the family's way of life. In a way, Warren Ruel still does.
Like Warren and Jeff's father, Bob, before him, confidence, trust and belief have been the staples of what the family has stood for - along with community.
Chelsea has benefited from the Daniels' vision of what Chelsea could become.
First, a successful car dealership, followed by a still-thriving lumber company which recently celebrated 100 years of doing business in town.
And now a theater. Not Jeff's theater, but Chelsea's theater. The same way it's the Chelsea Lumber Company and not the Bob Daniels Lumber Company. It's a distinction worth noting - and appreciating.
Was it Jeff's great vision that Chelsea would get on board and support a theater? Hardly.
But he believed enough to put $300,000 of his own money into the idea and turned an abandoned garage into a regional theater featuring local talent.
While he didn't have any great vision, he opened the doors with confidence, trust and belief on his side. The rest was outside his control.
"There were a couple things I could remember hoping we could build toward," says Jeff, leaning back in that old chair. "One was an audience. When we opened this place, the only theater people really went to see was the annual community theater or they went down to the Fisher Theater (in Detroit) to see whatever was coming through. That was it.
"So I didn't even know if there was an audience out there that could fill 120 seats six times a week. I didn't have an answer for that. There was no marketing plan. There was no research done. I bought the building, threw in 120 seats, opened the doors and crossed my fingers."
Growing pains
The Purple Rose Theatre wasn't exactly a smash hit the moment the curtain opened.
"There was a lot of inconsistency early on," Daniels says. "Some of it was my doing with trying to do new work, whether it was ready or not. Some of the plays we shouldn't have done. We should have waited and developed them more - if we knew what that even meant at the time. And I'm thinking in Year Five we knew what it meant, but not nearly as much as we know now."
Everything started to change when Guy Sanville became the Purple Rose artistic director.
"It took Guy a few years to get his legs, and then all of a sudden there was a consistency," Daniels says. "The way that we do things now and the result is the professional productions that land on our stage, show after show after show. In the theater world that's quite something.
"The American theatre is notorious for inconsistency. To do new work and have the professional and consistent quality be that high show after show is wonderful. I could have never anticipated that."
The Purple Rose performed Lanford Wilson's "Hot L Baltimore" in the 1996-97 season and "Book of Days," which won the American Theatre Critics Award for Best New Play, in the 1997-98 season.
Having someone of Wilson's caliber to write two plays for the Purple Rose was a big turning point for the theater.
"The other hugely artistic thing was that I hoped we would get good enough to be able to bring people like Lanford Wilson out here," Daniels said. "I've known him for years, but will we ever be in a place where we are good enough to bring him out here and have him write a play for our people the same way he did when I was in New York?
"We wanted to get good enough to get the guy who wrote "Fifth of July" for us in New York to write a play for us here because we're at that level. And he did that for us twice."
In 2001, the Purple Rose outgrew its success and the building was expanded and renovated. In 2008, the Purple Rose has "gone way beyond" what its creator first envisioned.
"Now 40,000 people a year come through our doors," Daniels says. "As I happily tell local businesspeople, they all have wallets and they all have purses. The B&Bs, the hotels, the restaurants and the coffee shops ... it's been a wonderful thing. I couldn't have sat here 17 years ago and said this will happen."
Giddy up
With the Purple Rose buzzing with the euphoria of Daniels' new play, "Panhandle Slim and The Oklahoma Kid," the playwright leans back on his qualities of trust, belief and confidence.
Like he did 17 years ago, Daniels will open the doors and hope that there is an audience. The difference this time is the play is backed with the confidence that only consistency brings.
And it starts with the playwright.
"The new play was an idea I got 10 years ago, and I have been trying to write that idea into a play, beyond the five or 10 pages," he says. "Sometimes the idea gets to 80 or 90 pages, but looks like an 80-minute SNL sketch, which is not a play. I took a half-dozen runs at this play over the years.
"There is a file of plays or ideas, from two lines to 20 pages, that get pushed back while you go off and write 'Escanaba in Love' or whatever is the one you want to do. So the others just sit in the file. I kept going back to it in between plays before I had to lock into what I was going to write for this season."
Though the idea was 10 years old, the writing came in 24 days. Daniels admits that not everything in his file is worthy of becoming a play. And the reason "Panhandle" sat in the file for so long was because it wasn't very good - yet.
"As a writer you come to learn that there is something there, but you just don't have it yet," said Daniels, who was inspired to turn "Panhandle" into a western during a recent concert tour he took with his son to places such as Norman, Okla.
When that moment comes, a writer just sits back and listens to the characters tell their own story.
"It's the 'zone,' it's what athletes talk about," Daniels says. "There is re-writing and polishing and cutting, but you know you're locked in and you're waiting because you get up to a certain point and you don't know what's next, and instead of writing anything for five pages trying to find it, you just wait. And it just comes and it's flowing. A lot of it has to do with the outline and structure work you're doing in your head the months leading up to that."
Bringing in such a polished play wasn't always the case for Daniels. Already an accomplished actor when he started the Purple Rose, Daniels hadn't yet blossomed as a playwright.
"This is my 12th or 13th play, and as a writer you instinctively know when you're veering off," he said. "You know when you're saving three pages for one joke. So while you're at home, you cut the three pages when before, you would bring it in and someone would tell you that you have written three pages for one joke. And you would say, 'No, I didn't.' And you would fight for two days before realizing it. Then you have lost two days."
So now, by the time Sanville gets a look at the play, it's in pretty good shape.
"I probably wrote 'Escanaba In Da Moonlight' five times," Daniels says. "There are early drafts of that play that just go on and on and on and don't go anywhere.
"And you have 800 pages and you start chucking 50 pages at a time and eliminating characters. And you just end up starting over a lot. It's a lot of heavy lifting that you learn how to do by structuring it and outlining it better in your head."
And once "Panhandle" reached the gate, it was ready to ride.
"'Panhandle' was a play where you just get to a point where you have to write it," Daniels says. "I have 24 days to write this, but I am just bursting because of the structure and outline. They call it 'filling the bucket,' and that's where you want to get to as a writer."
The relationship between Daniels and Sanville has helped create plenty of magic over the years inside the Purple Rose. Daniels says he is "ruthless" with his own material, but leans on Sanville for the truth - even the cold, hard kind.
"Guy is no use to me as a yes man," Daniels says. "He is very honest. And he will suggest cuts and things like that, but since I've gotten smarter, by the time he gets it, it's in good shape.
"This allows Guy to focus more on directing than helping the playwright find his way. He enjoys that, but I don't as a playwright."
"Panhandle" will play through the end of August - and maybe even beyond that, depending on the response from the audience.
Those associated with the Purple Rose are beaming over the work, which includes a group of songs written by Daniels specifically for the show.
The future
That old chair has been around for a while. And so has Daniels, who now at 53 years of age, will lean back on that experience and let his talented cast and crew take it from here.
"I think we all kind of learned what it is we do," he says. "I call it film acting on stage, and we got more and more people who are part of our unofficial company learn how to do that. So our acting company became deeper and better. You could put different people out there, but they're all acting from the same textbook.
"That wasn't always the case the first 10 years."
Along with the acting, everything else at the Purple Rose became "deeper and better."
"The protocols, the procedures, the rehearsal process and just the way we went about things became consistent; and that's Guy," Daniels says.
"The presentation people see when they walk through the door is (due to) Alan Ribant. He handles the administration side of it. So there is a consistency every time people come to the Purple Rose.
"There is a professional feeling when people come through the doors and into the lobby and into the theater. It's more than what's on stage at 8 o'clock.
"The quality of the apprentice program improved. So I think all of that got good."
The Purple Rose Theatre Company is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit professional theatre operating under a SPT (small professional theatre) agreement with the Actor's Equity Association, a professional actor's union.
Daniels says the Purple Rose wouldn't survive any other way. It certainly wouldn't be able to provide the quality of work it does at the price it is now able to offer.
So while the chair keeps creaking and crackling, Daniels keeps writing and acting. And the Purple Rose keeps improving and growing, in quality if not in size.
"We are still where we are and that's not in a major city so I don't see us adding seats," Daniels says. "I don't think in my lifetime I could build another building. I see this empty lot next to us, which is great. But I don't see us expanding.
"From a nonprofit theater standpoint in the middle of the country, raising the money we need to operate to maintain the level, we are at now is a battle. The theater has always had to fight to get whatever crumbs they can.
"We are a tough thing to raise money for, because unlike a symphony or an opera or a museum, we may offend you. The other things are safe. If you give money to us, we may disturb you or offend you.
"That you will be one of the people that gave money to this highly creative, very imaginative art form that has been around for centuries might cause you some embarrassment. A symphony or museum won't do that, so some people play it safe."
Daniels isn't about to censor the writers to please the "bank."
"We let the audience know when the play is for adults only and we won't present a play for the purpose of offending or shocking people," Daniels says. "'Escanaba' has a certain tone to it. To come off of that and make it 'Deadwood' or 'The Sopranos' is not necessary.
"But the day we have to play it safe and make Disney plays is the day I'm done. If the whole world is going to think 'American Idol' is the pinnacle of this country's culture then I'll see ya."
If people around the world want to see an example of a truly creative and imaginative art form, they can stop in Chelsea and get a ticket at the Purple Rose.
Daniels still believes. He still trusts that people will appreciate the quality his company provides and enjoy the ride for a few hours.
And he still has the confidence to know that the show will get even better as the curtain continues to rise in the future.
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