Jomama Jones Brings RADIATE to Chicago's Victory Gardens, 4/19-21

The Institute and Victory Gardens announce a special three-night only performance featuring Jomama Jones in an intimate concert version of her sold out, smash hit Radiate straight from New York. Jomama Jones: RADIATE will be at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Park on April 19, 20 & 21, 2012 at 7:30 p.m.

Legendary expatriate performer Jomama Jones brings an intimate concert version of her sold-out smash show, RADIATE to Chicago. Accompanied by her collaborator and musical director, Bobby Halvorson, Jones will perform songs from her CDs Lone Star, Radiate and the upcoming EP Six Ways Home while sharing tales from her life's journey and her surprising observations of the America to which she has returned. Jomama Jones speaks to the comeback in us all.

Jomama Jones: RADIATE, created by Daniel Alexander Jones in collaboration with Bobby Halvorson, with musical direction by Bobby Halvorson, featuring Laura Anderson, Ted Cruz and Eric Johnson, with lighting design by Mike Wangen, costume design by Oana Botez Ban and Jomama Jones, runs Thursday, April 19: 7:30 p.m., Friday, April 20: 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 21: 7:30 pm at the Victory Gardens, located at 2433 N Lincoln Avenue, in the heart of Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Tickets are $35. $15 Student Tickets are available for every performance. Twenty $20 tickets are available for every performance, and group sales are available. The Box Office is located at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago. Call 773.871.3000 or visit victorygardens.org.

Institute Fellow Daniel Alexander Jones (Fall 2011) makes live art and brings the effervescent Jomama Jones to Chicago as part of his Fellowship. An award-winning performer, writer and director, Jones was named by American Theatre Magazine as “one of fifteen artists whose work will be transforming American stages for decades to come.” His unconventional body of work includes plays (Bel Canto, Earthbirths, Phoenix Fabrik), performance pieces (Blood:Shock:Boogie, The Book of Daniel, Cab and Lena) and devised collaborative work (Qualities of Light, Clayangels). He has directed world premieres of plays by celebrated writers Erik Ehn, Institute Fellow E. Patrick Johnson, Shay Youngblood and Renita Martin among others. Jones’ “alter-ego” Jomama Jones, called “a true theatrical original” by Backstage Magazine, is at the center of his current multi-platform project - in collaboration with composer Bobby Halvorson, Jomama Jones has released the CDs Lone Star and Radiate on the Aries Records imprint; has performed in concert at Joe’s Pub and Symphony Space; and sold out a theatrical run of her critically acclaimed show Radiate at Soho Rep, directed by Kym Moore, which was a New York Times and Backstage Critics’ Pick.

Since 2006, the Fellowship Program at the Institute has created opportunities and spaces for new voices and research, and continues to offer a platform for cutting-edge work and ideas. The Fellowship Program supports the research, development, and dissemination/production of new creative and scholarly work. Recipients contribute to the College’s goal in engaging in and creating academic and scholarly work in addition to artistic production by expanding learning opportunities for students and faculty through complimentary lectures, workshops, and roundtable discussions. Fellows include: Lynsey Addario (Spring 2008); Cheryl Lynn Bruce (Spring 2006); E. Patrick Johnson (Summer 2008) and Lynn Nottage (Fall 2008). Fellows have garnered awards and recognition including Pulitzer Prizes, MacArthur Genius Awards, Guggenheim Fellowships, the Obie Award, the Kresge Fellowship, the Joseph Jefferson Award and the Steinberg Prize.

Under the leadership of Executive Director, Jane M. Saks, the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women & Gender in the Arts & Media is recognized as a national and international creator of original works, and presenter and collaborator of multidisciplinary programming and initiatives on the discourse of gender, culture, creativity and community. The Institute offers a dynamic and innovative approach that merges applied arts and cultural production with critical theory and academic research. Within this framework, the Institute addresses human rights, access, representation, equity, and participation, as well as race and class, using the arts and media as a central means of research, engagement, public education, and advocacy. The Institute offers a wide range of public programs, including exhibitions, performances and panel discussions, and supports new research and original creative work through its Fellowship program. Central to the Institute’s purpose are its goals to enhance student learning and contribute to new bodies of knowledge through curricular intersections and far-reaching collaborations locally, nationally and internationally. www.colum.edu/institutewomengender.

Columbia College Chicago is an urban institution that offers innovative degree programs in the visual, performing, media and communication arts to more than 12,000 students in over 120 undergraduate and graduate programs. An arts and media college committed to a rigorous liberal arts curriculum, Columbia is dedicated to opportunity and excellence in higher education. For further information, visit www.colum.edu.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Chay Yew and Executive Director Jan Kallish, Victory Gardens Theater is home to the bold voices of world premiere theater. The company features the work of its own 14-member Playwrights Ensemble, as well as that of exciting playwrights who are changing theater in the U.S. and abroad. Since its founding in 1974, the company has produced more world premieres than any other Chicago theater, a commitment recognized nationally when Victory Gardens received the 2001 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. The company’s dedication to developing, supporting and producing new work makes Victory Gardens an American Center for New Plays.

In 2006, Victory Gardens successfully completed an $11.8 million renovation of Chicago’s famed Biograph Theater, and moved two blocks north from its longtime venue at 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue, to its beautiful new home in one of Chicago’s most celebrated historic landmarks. Renamed Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, the new venue is a state-of-the-art 299-seat mainstage which has greatly expanded the company’s artistic flexibility.

In 2009, Victory Gardens completed the second phase of renovation at the Biograph, building an intimate, new, 109-seat studio theater on the second floor. On March 1, 2010, at a special launch event for Victory Gardens $1 million Campaign for Growth, the theater’s new studio was officially named the Richard Christiansen Theater, in honor of the Chicago Tribune chief critic emeritus and longtime champion of Chicago’s live theater scene. Visit www.victorygardens.org/campaignforgrowth for more details.

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