How To Win Jeff Daniels Unplugged House Concert, Support Purple Rose Theatre

CHELSEA, MI — Millions of Americans have invited Jeff Daniels into their living rooms during the two-year run of his highly acclaimed HBO series “The Newsroom,” but now they have a chance to have the actor, playwright and musician perform a concert in their home. The 75-minute Jeff Daniels Unplugged concert is the grand prize in a silent auction to be held at an annual barbecue to benefit the Purple Rose Theatre Company he founded in Chelsea.

The prize will be awarded during Purple Rose’s 5th Annual Backyard BBQ to be held from 4-9 p.m. Sunday, July 23, at the Chelsea Fairgrounds, 20501 W. Old U.S. Highway 12. Daniels, a Chelsea native, founded The Purple Rose in 1991 as a creative home for original American plays. Th 168-seat venue offers patrons an intimate encounter with live theater.

The Unplugged House Concert will also include a question-and-answer session with Daniels, who will offer insight into his 40-year career as an actor. The concert can take place “right in their living room, or backyard or driveway,” Daniels said in a news release. “Good for The Purple Rose, plus I get to play. And I love doing both.”

If you can’t attend, don’t worry: Mobile online bidding for the once-in-a-lifetime concert and other auction items will begin at 10 a.m. July 15 at PurpleRose.Gesture.com for those who pre-register. Winners need not be present at the Backyard BBQ to win the live concert item.

Some of the other auction items are:

• A one-week stay in a Paris apartment
• Custom diamond and amethyst earrings by Austin & Warburton
• “Dumb & Dumber” film props used by Jeff Daniels
• A trip for two to the 69th Annual Emmy Awards hosted by Stephen Colbert
• An exclusive NFL-VIP experience for four with sideline passes and brunch for Lions v. Falcons
• Tickets to the 2018 Masters Golf Championship
• Broadway packages
• Dinner for four on the set of The Purple Rose’s production of “Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Elusive Ear”
• South African photo safari for two at Zulu Nyala Game Reserve (location for “I Dreamed of Africa” starring Kim Basinger).

Tickets to the 5th Annual Backyard BBQ are $135 per person. With a 1940s flair, the evening will include dinner, strolling social with games, live music, a display of classic cars from the ‘30s and ‘40s, a performance and preview of the next season at The Purple Rose, and silent and live auctions.

Tickets can be purchased by calling The Purple Rose at (734) 433-7782, ext. 29 or online at purplerosetheatre.org. The tax-deductible portion of each ticket is $63. Additional information can be found here.

Proceeds from the event will support the theatre’s 26th season, its apprentice program and educational/outreach programs serving diverse communities in the region.

Photo courtesy of Purple Rose Theatre Company