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OBAMA-OLOGY, THE LIGHT & More Set for Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre 2023 Season
The season will include three plays by African-American playwrights who have emerged as leading voices of their generation.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Apr. 07, 2023
Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre has announced the company's 2023 season of four productions. The season will include three plays by African-American Playwrights who have emerged as leading voices of their generation and an original multi-disciplinary theatrical experience built around a 1971 conversation between literary giants James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni.
The season will open June 10 with the Chicago premiere of OBAMA-OLOGY by Aurin Squire (pictured), whose plays have been produced off-Broadway in New York and in London's West End. Squire, a graduate of Northwestern University and the Julliard School, was a reporter for the CHICAGO TRIBUNE and MIAMI HERALD. He is the book writer for the Broadway-bound musical A WONDERFUL WORLD, a biography of Louis Armstrong that will have a pre-Broadway engagement in Chicago in October 2023. OBAMA-OLOGY, a comedy about a volunteer for Barack Obama's first Presidential campaign, was developed in 2014 at The Juilliard School's New Play Festival, before opening to critical acclaim in London's West End at the Finborough Theatre and then the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre Associate Artistic Director Bria Walker will direct the production, which will play June 10-25, 2023.
Following in August will be a play by another playwright with deep local roots, the Chicago-born Loy A. Webb (pictured). Artistic Director Tim Rhoze will stage Webb's play THE LIGHT, which premiered in Chicago in 2018 and was subsequently produced by the MCC Theatre in New York, where it earned an Outer Critics Circle nomination for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play. THE LIGHT is a 70-minute drama that concerns a young couple who must contend with the revelation of a secret from the past. It will play August 5-20, 2023.
The third production of Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre's 2023 season will be a special limited-run of THE BALDWIN | GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE, a devised piece inspired by a broadcast 1971 conversation between literary giants James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni devised by Tim Rhoze and Bria Walker. The inspired words of these two giants of literature will be complemented with an original musical score, choreography, and mural artwork. It will be performed twice-only, on September 1 and 2, 2023.
Completing the 2023 season will be THIS BITTER EARTH, by Harrison David Rivers, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based playwright whose plays have been produced by such leading companies as New York's Roundabout Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Center, Seattle Public, TheatreWorks Hartford, and Penumbra. THIS BITTER EARTH is a drama about a gay male couple who clash over their differing attitudes toward activism. It will play October 28- November 12, 2023.
Performances will be Saturdays at 7:00 pm and Sundays at 3:00 pm, at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes St., Evanston. Tickets for all productions are $30.00 and are on sale now at www.fjtheatre.com. Additionally, 2023 Premium Gold Member Cards, good for all three 2023 summer and fall play productions and THE BALDWIN | GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE, are now on sale for a very limited time for only $85 - a nearly 30 percent discount off of the regular season ticket prices.
OBAMA-OLOGY
by Aurin Squire
Directed by Bria Walker
June 10-25, 2023
Saturdays at 7 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Press opening Sunday, June 11 at 3 pm
Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center
927 Noyes Ave., Evanston
Tickets $30.00
Tickets on sale now at www.fjtheatre.com
Phone 847-866-5914
When African-American college graduate Warren takes a job with the 2008 Obama campaign, he's fired up and ready to go - until he lands in the troubled streets of East Cleveland. But somewhere between knocking on doors, fending off cops, and questioning his own racial and sexual identity, he learns that changing society isn't as easy as he imagined. All that, and it's a comedy too!
THE LIGHT
By Loy A. Webb
Directed by Tim Rhoze
August 5-20, 2023
Saturdays at 7 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Press opening Sunday, August 6 at 3 pm
Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center
927 Noyes Ave., Evanston
Tickets $30.00 - For a limited time use the code: FJT2023 when purchasing tickets online for a $10.00 discount per ticket.
Tickets on sale now at www.fjtheatre.com
Phone 847-866-5914
Not every marriage proposal goes as planned. Loy A. Webb's THE LIGHT introduces us to Rashad and Genesis on what should be one of the happiest days of their lives, but their joy quickly unravels when ground-shifting accusations from the past resurface in this gripping two-character drama.
THE BALDWIN | GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE
Written by Tim Rhoze and Bria Walker
Directed by Tim Rhoze
Limited run - September 2-3, 2023
Saturday, September 1 at 7 pm, Sunday, September 2 at 3 pm
Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center
927 Noyes Ave., Evanston
Tickets $30.00 - For a limited time use the code: FJT2023 when purchasing tickets online for a $10.00 discount per ticket.
Tickets on sale now at www.fjtheatre.com
Phone 847-866-5914
The dynamic poeticism of Spoken Word and the piercing directness of Prose is at the forefront of this momentous theatrical experience inspired by the 1971 broadcast conversation between authors James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni. Infused with originally composed music, choreography, and mural artwork, this will be an intellectual, spiritual, and artistic journey of a lifetime.
THIS BITTER EARTH
by Harrison David Rivers
Directed by Tim Rhoze
October 28 - November 12, 2023
Saturdays at 7 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Press opening Sunday, October 29 at 3 pm
Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center
927 Noyes Ave., Evanston
Tickets $30.00 - For a limited time use the code: FJT2023 when purchasing tickets online for a $10.00 discount per ticket.
Tickets on sale now at www.fjtheatre.com
Phone 847-866-5914
A deep love is challenged by divisive political realities. Jesse, an introspective Black playwright, finds his choices called into question when his boyfriend, Neil, a white Black Lives Matter activist, calls him out for his political apathy. As passions and priorities collide, this couple is forced to reckon with issues of race, class, and the bravery it takes to love out loud.
BIOS
(Playwright, OBAMA-OLOGY) is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and reporter. He is a recipient of the 2014 Lecomte du Nouy Prize from Lincoln Center and the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwright Fellowship at The Juilliard School. In 2013 his drama FREEFALLING was produced at Barrington Stage Company and won the 2013 Fiat Lux Award from the Catholic Church's Theatre Conference. In 2014 Squire won the grand prize in the InspiraTO Theatre's International Play Festival in Toronto for FREEFALLING. From 2014-2015, he had fellowships at The Dramatists Guild of America, National Black Theatre, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Squire is the winner of the Act One Writing Contest at Lincoln Center Theatre. His dark comedy TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN won New York LGBT theatre awards for best play, best playwright, and best actor before being optioned and remounted off-Broadway to critical acclaim at the ArcLight Theatre. Squire also wrote DREAMS OF FREEDOM, the multimedia installation video about Jewish immigrants in the 20th century for the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. DREAMS won 3 national museum awards and is in the permanent exhibit at NMAJH. His most recent play, FIRE SEASON, premiered at the Seattle Public Theater in January 2019.
(Playwright, THE LIGHT) is a Chicago-born playwright, attorney and theatre journalist. Her plays include THE LIGHT (MCC Theater 2018/2019, Outer Critics Circle nomination for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play; The New Colony, 2017/2018, Joseph Jefferson Award), and HIS SHADOW (16th Street Theater 2019/2020). She was an inaugural Tutterow Fellow at Chicago Dramatists, and as a theatre journalist she is a member of the Association of Women of Journalist-Chicago, a past mentor with the AWJ-Chicago/Goodman Theatre's Cindy Bandle Young Critics Program, and a contributing theater critic for Newcity. Loy holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a J.D. from The John Marshall Law School. She is currently a writer on the AMC television series NOS4A2.
(Playwright, THIS BITTER EARTH) is an award-winning playwright, librettist and television writer based in St. Paul, Minnesota. His plays include THE BANDAGED PLACE (Roundabout, New York Stage & Film), WE ARE CONTINUOUS (Geva Theatre Center, Williamstown Theatre Center), THIS BITTER EARTH (Seattle Public, TheatreWorks Hartford, InterAct, The Road, Richmond Triangle Players, Theater Alliance, About Face, Penumbra, New Conservatory Theatre Center), WHERE STORMS ARE BORN (Williamstown Theatre Festival), WHEN LAST WE FLEW (Out Front, Real Live Arts, TheatreLAB, Diversionary, NYFringe), and the musicals FIVE POINTS with Douglas Lyons and Ethan Pakchar, WE SHALL SOMEDAY with Ted Shen, and I PUT A SPELL ON YOU with Nubya Garcia.
(Director, OBAMA-OLOGY; Co-writer, THE BALDWIN-GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE), is a multi-disciplinary artist, Associate Artistic Director of Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre and an Assistant Professor of Performance: Head of Performance & MFA Performance Pedagogy Program at The University of Pittsburgh. Her directing credits include EMILIA (University of Pittsburgh), FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE/WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF (SUNY New Paltz), CROWNS (Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre), and AVENUE Q (University of Pittsburgh, SUNY New Paltz). Her acting credits include THE GARBOLOGISTS (World Premiere, City Theatre Co. Pittsburgh), THE ROYALE (Rep of St. Louis, City Theatre Co., Pittsburgh), and roles in productions by many regional theaters across the US.
TIM RHOZE
(Artistic Director, Director of THE LIGHT, THE BALDWIN-GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE, and THIS BITTER EARTH; Co-Writer of THE BALDWIN | GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE) Tim Rhoze has been the Producing Artistic Director of Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre since 2010. His directing credits include: AMERICAN SON, HOME, TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES 1992, THE MEETING, FIRES IN THE MIRROR, BLACK BALLERINA (co-writer), NUTCRACKER(ISH), CROWNS, HAVING OUR SAY, FROM THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA, FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF, WOZA ALBERT!, GOING TO ST. IVES, SINGLE BLACK FEMALE, A SONG FOR CORETTA, YELLOWMAN, SWEET, LADY DAY AT EMERSON BAR & GRILL, BEAR COUNTRY, NOBODY, FENCES, PIANO LESSON, AIN'T MISBEHAVIN, K2, THE GLASS MENAGERIE, et. al. Tim is also the writer/director of WHY NOT ME? A SAMMY DAVIS JR. STORY, and MAYA'S LAST POEM, both produced at FJT; and BLACK BALLERINA, produced at FJT and Pittsburgh Public Theatre. He was co-writer and director of A HOME ON THE LAKE, co-produced with the Piven Theatre Workshop.
ABOUT FLEETWOOD-JOURDAIN THEATRE
Founded in 1979, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre is a professional, award-winning theatre company that has been thrilling audiences with over three four decades of unique, inspirational, and invigorating African American and African Diaspora-centered storytelling. The company has been honored with Black Theatre Alliance/Ira Aldridge Awards. From original plays to the best of Broadway, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre has remained committed to supplying the very best in theatre. "Umoja!! ....Working Together in Unity" is the foundation from which FJT began and continues to thrive!
It is our mission to present powerful, thought-provoking, Theater Arts programming with a commitment to diversity and creative excellence. We are dedicated to providing a nurturing and creative environment for directors, playwrights, actors, set, light, and costume designers. In this positive environment, they can further develop their creative skills and share their artistic expressions. The Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre is funded by the City of Evanston and in part by the Illinois Arts Council, A State Agency.
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