The Neighborhood Theatre Group’s small, minimalist theater is an intimate space for what it calls an anthology play in four parts.

The seating is limited. The stage area is small. The audience is practically part of the scene.

All these limitations are a plus for a theater that emphasizes a tight story, engaged actors, and a very different theater experience, especially for a production like The Hotel Del Gado.

The anthology drama will conclude its two-weekend schedule March 14-16 at The Back Office Studio in Ypsilanti. 

Its four plays are set in a cheap, rundown hotel room. The time is the 1970s. The Neighborhood Theatre Group (NTG) co-founder and literary manager A.M. Dean created a conceit that many of the NTG plays will be set in a place called the Huron Valley Universe, drawing on the college towns of Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, and East Lansing.

Three plays hit on heavy themes, and although the plays are set in the 1970s, the problems portrayed are as relevant now as they were then.

Playwright Maegan Murphy’s Sister’s Motel concerns three sisters who have been victims of domestic abuse. The abused sister Faith is pregnant. Another sister, Joy, is dealing with some heavy issues of her own. The most stable sister, Patience, is losing hers. And then there’s the abusive husband. The sisters have plans for him. Danielle Kropveld as Patience has the most demanding role and delivers a strong performance in the middle of too many bad things happening at once. The rest of the cast does a fine job with Sasha Brosius as Faith, Barbara Jean Nagel-Raphoon as Joy, and Patrick Grimes as Mick.

The emotional release comes in the second play, Room Sixteen, written by Aeron C. Wade. A motel room has been taken over by a fast-talking promoter and a German movie director to make a porno film. The setup is funny, and the action is discretely performed in another room. Taking center stage is Mitchell Walker as Johnny “The Pockets” Fontini as the promoter who takes a positive attitude to everything. Walker gives a flamboyant, loud performance. All of the actors give good performances. Especially good are Sasha J. Johnson as Fontini’s level-headed and sharp-tongued aide and Sean Sabo as the “all-Hollywood” director Gunter Jurgen. 

Playwright Greg Pizzino’s Saturday Night at The Hotel Del Gado is grimmer material. A mother has hired an ex-Army man who has become a deprogrammer for those caught up in religious cults. The soldier served in Vietnam and was the subject of government experiments with drugs to make soldiers respond better. Patrick Grimes plays the deprogrammer who has trouble convincing the young man he’s been hired to help. Grimes and DelShawn Akpan play their parts well, but the subject is too broad and complicated for the short and inconclusive play.

The last play by A.M. Dean The Dark Room is a moody take on the brief ups and horrible downs of heroin addiction. A rock singer is trying to kick the habit, his girlfriend says she needs it to live, and a pusher needs a steady customer. Josh Stewart gives an emotionally strong performance as the singer Brutal Berlin. Dinah R. Tutein plays the well-named Emptiness, a woman who doesn’t want to kick the habit. Mitchell Walker moves from jovial porno promoter to the much darker role of the pusher but brings with it that same swagger. The play runs long and gets tedious toward the end but has strong material.

Marisa Dluge directed all four plays and concentrates on the basics—the stories, the actors, and the limitations of the setting—so that audiences can focus more on the stories.

Before each play, the band Levona plays an original song that sets the stage for the play.

Hugh Gallagher has written theater and film reviews over a 40-year newspaper career and was most recently the managing editor of the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers in suburban Detroit.

The Neighborhood Theatre Group performs “The Hotel Del Gado” at the Back of the Office Studio, 13 North Washington Street, Ypsilanti, at 8 pm on March 14-15 and at 2 pm on March 16. For ticket information, visit ntgypsi.org.