The season opens with HONEYPOT: BLACK SOUTHERN WOMEN WHO LOVE WOMEN in May.
Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre has revealed its 2025 season. The season will open with the World Premiere of a stage adaptation of the creative nonfiction book HONEYPOT: BLACK SOUTHERN WOMEN WHO LOVE WOMEN, by E. Patrick Johnson, Dean of the School of Communication at Northwestern University. In addition to its 2025 season, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre will present the second annual GLORIA BOND CLUNIE PLAYWRIGHT’S FESTIVAL. See the full lineup here.1
From the book by Dr. E. Patrick Johnson
Adapted for the stage by Dr. D. Soyini Madison PhD
Co-Directed by Tim Rhoze and Dr. D. Soyini Madison PhD
Original music and sound design by Ethan Korvne
Lighting Design by Josiah Croegaert
Set Design by Tim Rhoze and Kotryna L. Hilko
Choreography by Marsae Lynn Mitchell
Co-production with Northwestern University Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts
May 17 – June 1, 2025
Immersive interviews of some 25 women-loving women are recounted within a fantasy framework in which this community of women, who range from late teens to elders, is depicted allegorically as a hive of bees. Original music, choreography, prose, and poetry will be employed along with powerful, deeply moving oral histories of brutality, love, joy, activism, art, and personal growth.
One-act play readings Saturday, June 28 at 5 pm and 7 pm
Full length play reading Sunday, June 29 at 3 pm
Plays to be announced
by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu
Directed by Tim Rhoze
July 26 – August 17, 2025
A provocative riff on WAITING FOR GODOT and THE BOOK of EXODUS. PASS OVER is a rare piece of emotionally charged theater by a bold American voice. Twenty-something Moses and Kitch stand around on an urban street corner – talking smack, passing the time, and hoping that maybe today will be different. As they dream of their "promised land," a stranger wanders in with their own agenda and threatens their plans. Emotional and lyrical, PASS OVER crafts everyday profanities into poetic, poignant, and humorous riffs, exposing the unquestionable human spirit of young men stuck in a cycle just looking for a way out.
Devised by Tim Rhoze and Bria Walker-Rhoze
Directed by Tim Rhoze
November 1 – 16, 2025
Saturdays at 7 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
The dynamic poeticism of Spoken Word and the piercing directness of Prose are 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.
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