With almost 30 productions under his belt, playwright Joseph Zettelmaier has proven himself a master storyteller. So it’s not surprising that discussion of his new project, the Roustabout Theatre Troupe, would have its own origin story, complete with setting, characters and even gastronomic details.

“It was two summers ago, and (director) Joey Albright and I had a meeting at Sidetracks in Ypsilanti, eating hamburgers which are really amazing there,” he remembered. “This was shortly after Ann Arbor’s Performance Network had closed — for the first time — and we were talking about our future work together and the state of local theater.”

Read more…