In 1967, one of the deadliest and most destructive race riots in modern history took place in Detroit. Soon after this rioting, a group of upwardly mobile, like-minded families, including playwright Joanna McClelland Glass, attempted to maintain a fully racially integrated neighborhood within that devastated city. Her play based on the experience, eponymously named "Palmer Park," premiered last year in Canada and until now has not been performed in the United States.

But thanks to an initiative of Dan Carter, director of Penn State's School of Theatre, Glass' experience will be shared across much of the country when schools in the Big Ten produce the play throughout the 2009–10 academic year.

Carter pitched the idea at an annual meeting of all the theatre chairs in the Big Ten, and it stuck. "The play is an example of the best kind of drama due to its mutually destructive forces, yet lack of villains," he explained, noting the neighborhood's attempt at integration ended up failing. "The playwright gives everyone their day in court. The people who bring it down are ultimately just looking out for their kids."

The play focuses on the families whose children attend Hampton Elementary, a school that briefly maintained a ratio of 65 percent white students to 35 percent black students. The parents successfully raise money for programs in art and music at the school, which leads to unrest among neighboring schools that are racially segregated—and struggling.

"For a 'brief, shining moment' in that community of 1,100 houses, we were able to maintain racial diversity both resident

ially and at the neighborhood school," Glass has said. "My Palmer Park experience is all the more haunting because we clung to our ideas and our ideals so tenaciously … . And finally, we failed." That experience, although heartbreaking, is part of the reason why Chaya Gordon-Bland is excited about directing the first of the Big Ten productions at Michigan State University, Oct. 27–Nov. 1.

"Ms. Glass has a really important story to tell, and she tells it movingly, sensitively and intelligently. It is both a privilege and an important responsibility to direct this significant play."

The other Big Ten universities are presenting both staged readings and full productions. Carter, who is directing Penn State's production in April 2010, is leading the development of a repository of resources related to the play, such as photos and scenic elements, to be shared among the schools.

He said a collaboration among theatre departments in the Big Ten would not have happened 15 years ago. "Our relationship has evolved from a friendly rivalry to genuine collegiality," he noted. "This initiative will help us to develop best practices for reaching the largest audience."