Since 2014, Detroit-based A Host of People has produced ensemble theater in venues across the Motor City and beyond. And soon, the theater company hopes to have a home of its own.
On Saturday, AHOP announced it has acquired a 14,000-square-foot vacant church located at 6000 30th St. on the city’s west side. The company held a reveal party in a heated tent where they hosted performances and offered attendees flashlight-led tours of the building, which it hopes to rehab by late 2026 or early 2027.
The plan is to transform the building into not just a performance space for its own productions but a community resource with a rehearsal studio, shared workspace, and a shop. The project is anticipated to cost more than $1 million.
The company was founded by co-directors Sherrine Azab and Jake Hooker, who partnered with ensemble member Dorothy Melander-Dayton to acquire and develop the venue.
Azab and Hooker moved to Detroit in 2012 and held the first AHOP production at the Play House near Hamtramck in 2014. Since then, the group has produced nearly 10 full-length performances and toured them to cities across the country, including Chicago, New Orleans, and San Francisco.
The group describes itself as creating “multimedia theater for social change,” utilizing digital projections for its productions including subtitles for non-English performances.
“Our general kind of vibe is that we’re really into ‘multi,’” says Hooker. “Multimedia, multicultural, multiracial, multi… gender! It’s not just about inclusivity, but it’s also about reflecting the world that we live in.”
The group says having a dedicated space will help it focus on their art.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Azab says. “We’ve been making work in Detroit for over a decade without a place to produce that work. We have a rehearsal studio in our home … but we’ve been producing and showing our work all across the city, a lot of the time turning DIY spaces into theaters. And I think it’s great that we’ve been able to connect with a lot of communities, but I think it’s also been a hindrance to us for growing our organization without having roots in one place — where people can identify that as where A Host of People is. After 10 years of making art, there are folks who have never heard of us because we don’t have a home or roots.”
Melander-Dayton, who moved to Detroit in 2015 and began working with AHOP shortly after as a designer, says she approached the group to partner on the venue.
“We’ve spent a lot of time and effort turning spaces that aren’t theaters into theaters for a show, so that’s a lot of our time and budget,” she says, adding, “I think it’s going to be really transformative for the art of the company.”
With a dedicated space, AHOP says it will be able to hold multi-week theatrical runs for its own productions as well as its youth group, the La Carpa Teen Ensemble.
AHOP says it hopes the new venue will solve problems not only for the group but others in the city as well.
“It’ll be our home,” Azab says. “But because we make works from scratch, we only do about two shows a year. So there’s plenty of time for other folks to be able to use the space as well.”
“Our problem is not unique,” Melander-Dayton says. “There are lots of groups in this city who are doing really cool work, but they’re working in less than ideal circumstances a lot of the time … I think this will hopefully impact not just us but a lot of other folks to be able to make more new work and to be able to more fully explore their ideas and create potential.”
The group has partnered with local firm 1+1+ Architects to develop the space. Architect Laura Marie Peterson, who has previously worked on the Dreamtroit artist community in the city, says the building has an interesting history.
Its cornerstone was laid in 1949, and it was once home to the New Light Baptist Church and Burnette Baptist Church. In 1970, Stevie Wonder married singer Syreeta Wright here, and most recently the building’s previous owner had been trying to redevelop it for a Mexican dance hall.
She says much of the redevelopment will be in bringing the building up to code.
“The building doesn’t have any heating, cooling, plumbing, or electric,” she says. “A lot of the design is just getting all that stuff up to speed. … It’s really, humble project. We’re just trying to get it operational.”
Still, there will be some fun design flourishes. Peterson plans to create windows made from glass blocks with motifs that will reflect different groups of people that call Detroit home, including symbols from the Underground Railroad as well as from Mexican and Arab cultures.
“It’s meant to represent that everyone is welcome in the space,” she says.
A Host of People board member Brooke Harris says the group is seeking funding and has already secured some support from the Gilbert Family Foundation.
“I love the stories that they tell, and the fact that they’re unique and they center folks who may not see themselves in theater,” she says of A Host of People, “and really ask important and controversial questions, and address them in a creative, accessible way.”
The team says once the project is complete, it will usher in a new era for it.
“We are a small organization,” Azab says. “We have the knowledge and the expertise to do this, but we haven’t had the means.”
“We really are thinking about it as a community arts venue for professional, high-quality rigorous work that’s also open, accessible, usable, friendly, and warm,” Hooker says. “I mean, we are called A Host of People, and we really believe in hosting people. And now we will have a spot to host people.”