Displaying items by tag: Ron OJ Parson

Under the leadership of Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director Avery Willis Hoffman and Executive Director Angel Ysaguirre, Court Theatre is proud to announce its 72nd season. As America marks 250 years of nationhood, Court Theatre, as Chicago's premier stage for classic work, responds with a season that examines our shared pursuit of Life and Liberty.

The 2026/27 season will feature the American premiere of Winsome Pinnock's Tituba, set in colonial Salem against the backdrop of the infamous witch trials, directed by Associate Artistic Director Gabrielle Randle-Bent, with dramaturgy by Avery Willis Hoffman, performed at the University of Chicago's iconic Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. Following Tituba, we move to twentieth-century Pittsburgh one last time as Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson directs August Wilson's masterwork, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, bringing his staging of the August Wilson American Century Cycle at Court Theatre to a triumphant conclusion. We then proudly feature Luis Alfaro's Mojada, a blistering reimagining of the Greek classic Medea, as a testament to twenty-first century immigrant life in Chicago, produced in partnership with Teatro Vista Productions and directed by Wendy Mateo and Denise Yvette Serna. The season concludes with safronia, an epic new opera that highlights a family's fight for justice across generations, created by inaugural Chicago Poet Laureate avery r. young and directed by Timothy Douglas.

Court Theatre's 72nd season is an exploration of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit. America is at an undeniable inflection point. We, as a set of complex communities, are reexamining our systems and very ways of being, challenging long-held beliefs, and asking urgent questions. Theatre—which we believe to be a foundational pillar of civic discourse—helps us to find new pathways through complicated times. The 2026/27 season peers deep into the heart of distinctly American stories—with all their nuance, contradictions, and beauty—and reaffirms the crucial resilience of the classics.

Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director Avery Willis Hoffman shares, "As our country passes a historic milestone, Court's 2026/27 season works towards demonstrating theatre's place at the center of civic life. Our art form has historically offered fresh perspectives, inspired spirited discourse, and created unique and shared experiences that help us better understand each other and ourselves. In this moment of intense reflection, we are re-committing to this complicated, but basic, mission, all of which feels increasingly urgent, and getting to the heart of how theatre can make a real impact. In my first full season as the new Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director, I am proud that Court is leading these conversations."

Executive Director Angel Ysaguirre adds, "The 2026/27 season affirms that American stories are varied, complex, and beautiful, and it has something for everyone. From Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson's historic completion of the August Wilson Century Cycle, to a new opera, to a national premiere, to a Chicago-specific adaptation, this season stretches our expectations and expands the boundaries of our art form. This is exciting for us, our audiences, and the artists we're working with—some of whom we're thrilled to welcome to Court's stage for the first time. We can't wait to present a season that is as varied, complex, and beautiful as the America outside our doors."

The first production in Court Theatre's 2026/27 season begins in December 2026, markedly later than years past, and will take place offsite at the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. Court's Abelson Auditorium will be dark for the summer and fall of 2026 as we modernize our lighting equipment and implement a new fall protection system. These changes will create a safer working environment for theatre technicians, and provide necessary and exciting updates to our intimate house.

The 2026/27 Court Theatre Season Up Close:

AMERICAN PREMIERE

TITUBA

By Winsome Pinnock

Directed by Associate Artistic Director Gabrielle Randle-Bent

Dramaturgy by Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director Avery Willis Hoffman

Limited Engagement at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel

December 2026, dates to be announced

Performed in the hallowed halls of the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, the 2026/27 season opens with the American premiere of Tituba—a theatrical experience that offers a new lens on pre-Revolutionary War America through spiritually charged language, music, and dance.

In this solo performance, Tituba—the real-life person accused in the Salem witch trials of 1692 and featured in Arthur Miller's classic The Crucible—invites the audience to journey through her mystical world to hear her side of the story. With care and wry humor, she details her history with the girls in Salem Village, her beloved mother and husband, Reverend Parris's rage, the violence of enslavement, and her unspoken indigenous name, building to a scathing climax and the ignition of historic mass hysteria.

Set against the backdrop of the institution that accused Tituba centuries ago, Associate Artistic Director Gabrielle Randle-Bent directs, with dramaturgy by Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director Avery Willis Hoffman. Together, they bring Tituba's life story to light in a sacred place, uplifting her voice and showcasing the transformational power of storytelling.

JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE

By August Wilson

Directed by Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson

January 8 - February 7, 2027

More than twenty years in the making, Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson completes a defining chapter of his artistic legacy. With Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Parson completes August Wilson's American Century Cycle and joins an elite circle of directors who have staged all ten plays at the same theatre.

It is 1911, and Harold Loomis and his daughter, Zonia, have been on the road for years, searching for Zonia's mother and, unbeknownst to Harold, chasing his forgotten song. Their journey leads them to Seth Holly's boardinghouse, where they meet Holly, his wife, and fellow boarders who, like them, are in relentless pursuit of love, identity, freedom, and purpose.

Wilson's iconic, evocative prose and vivid characters shine in this portrayal of a nation haunted by slavery, with spirits around every corner and no escape in sight.

Ron OJ Parson's residency is made possible by The Joyce Foundation.

MOJADA

By Luis Alfaro

Directed by Wendy Mateo and Denise Yvette Serna

Presented In Partnership with Teatro Vista Productions

March 12 - April 11, 2027

An adaptation of an ancient classic tale of revenge, sacrifice, and the high price of pursuing freedom, Mojada renders Euripides's Medea myth urgently and achingly alive in the city of Chicago.

Medea survived a treacherous journey from Mexico to the United States in search of a better life, but the promise of the American Dream is quickly unravelling. She sews exquisite garments in her backyard, suffocated by fear. Her son sheds tradition as fast as he can, trading huaraches for Vans. And her husband grows distant, seduced by ambition and proximity to power. Trapped between who she was and who America demands she become, Medea finds herself in a standoff with the very dream she risked everything to reach. 

Co-directed by Teatro Vista Productions' Artistic Director Wendy Mateo and Artistic Collective member Denise Yvette Serna, Mojada confronts the contradictions at the center of American identity: opportunity and erasure, belonging and betrayal. Both a love letter and a searing indictment, this electrifying production asks: What are we willing to sacrifice in the pursuit of liberty?

safronia

Written, composed, and scored by avery r. young

Directed by Timothy Douglas

May 14 - June 13, 2027

An extraordinary new opera from inaugural Chicago Poet Laureate avery r. young, safronia blends gospel, blues, funk, folklore, poetry, and history to tell a tale of triumph and trauma, ownership and loss. Banished from their land, the Booker family is deadset on reclaiming what's theirs and granting their patriarch's last wish. But one final reckoning remains: safronia must avenge her father's death.

safronia is an epic poem told through the vibrant music of the hundreds of thousands who journeyed to Chicago during the Great Migration—and a revelatory conclusion to the 2026/27 season. It celebrates the sonic legacy of artists like Curtis Mayfield, Nina Simone, and Oscar Brown Jr., and completely reimagines the scope of the American classical music landscape.

After mounting a concert-style performance at Lyric Opera, composer avery r. young and director Timothy Douglas bring a fully realized production to Court's intimate venue, promising an evening that shimmers, soars, and binds us in a communal American history.

safronia was workshopped and commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago, with its world premiere concert-style production at Lyric Opera House on April 17-18, 2026.

Subscription Information

Three and four-play subscriptions to Court's 2026/27 season range from $120 to $300 and are on sale now. Please note, seating at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel is general admission; subscribers will receive access to the preferred section. To purchase a subscription or to receive more information, call the Court Theatre Box Office at (773) 753-4472, or visit Court's website at CourtTheatre.org. Individual tickets for Tituba will go on sale September 1st. Individual tickets for all other productions will go on sale October 1st.

About the Artists

WINSOME PINNOCK (Tituba Playwright) is a recipient of the 2022 Windham-Campbell Prize. She was born in Islington, North London, and is an award-winning playwright and dramaturg. Her work has been produced on the British stage and internationally since 1985. She was the first black British female writer to have a play produced by the Royal National Theatre. Winsome was Associate Professor in Drama at Kingston University from 2005 to 2019, and was Senior Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University. She has worked as a dramaturg with the Royal National Theatre's New Views scheme as well as with the Royal Court's International Department. The prizes awarded to her work include the George Devine Award, The Pearson Plays on Stage Award and the Unity Theatre Trust Award.

GABRIELLE RANDLE-BENT (Tituba Director, Associate Artistic Director) is a mother, director, dramaturg, and scholar. Her directorial highlights include A Raisin in the Sun; Antigone; The Island; and The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice (co-directed with Charles Newell) at Court Theatre; 1919 (Steppenwolf); and The Year of Magical Thinking (Remy Bumppo). She is a co-founder of the Civic Actor Studio, a leadership program of the University of Chicago's Office of Civic Engagement. She has a BA in Drama from Stanford University, an MA in Performance as Public Practice from the University of Texas at Austin, and a PhD from Northwestern University.

DR. AVERY WILLIS HOFFMAN (Tituba Dramaturg, Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director) is proud to join Court Theatre. Avery recently served as inaugural Artistic Director, Brown Arts Institute and Professor of the Practice of Arts and Classics at Brown University. Over the last two decades, she has curated multidisciplinary projects as inaugural Program Director at Park Avenue Armory, led content development for the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History, managed Avery Productions, and produced multiple artistic collaborations with director Peter Sellars. A Marshall Scholar, Avery earned a DPhil and MSt in Classical Languages and Literature from Oxford, and a BA in Classics and English from Stanford.

AUGUST WILSON (Joe Turner's Come and Gone Playwright) authored Radio Golf, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II, and Gem of the Ocean. Mr. Wilson's works garnered many awards, including Pulitzer Prizes for Fences (1987) and for The Piano Lesson (1990); a Tony Award for Fences; Great Britain's Olivier Award for Jitney; as well as seven New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, Jitney, and Radio Golf. He was an alumnus of New Dramatists, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a 1995 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and on October 16, 2005, Broadway renamed the theatre located at 245 West 52nd Street, The August Wilson Theatre. Mr. Wilson was born and raised in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was posthumously inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2007.

RON OJ PARSON (Joe Turner's Come and Gone Director, Resident Artist) is Resident Artist at the Tony Award-winning Court Theatre. Credits include East Texas Hot Links, The Lion in Winter, Arsenic and Old Lace, and Two Trains Running at Court Theatre; HYMN (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Twisted Melodies (Northlight Theatre); Toni Stone (Goodman); Trouble in Mind (TimeLine Theatre); Relentless (TimeLine and Goodman); and The Reclamation of Madison Hemings (Indiana Repertory Theatre). Ron received a 3Arts Make a Wave grant in 2021, the 2022 Zelda Fichandler Award, a University of Chicago Diversity Award, many Jeff Awards and Black Theatre Alliance Awards, the LA NAACP Award for Jitney; he is a Joyce Foundation grantee, and was named Chicagoan of the Year for Theater by the Chicago Tribune. Ron is a proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and SDC. www.ronojparson.net. 

LUIS ALFARO (Mojada Playwright) is a Chicano playwright, poet, and performance artist born and raised in downtown Los Angeles. He is the 2024 World Theatre Artist for Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and the recipient of the 2024 award in literature from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. He was the Associate Artistic Director of Center Theatre Group at the Music Center of Los Angeles County (2021-2022, 1995-2005), home of the Mark Taper Forum, and the Ahmanson and Kirk Douglas Theaters, where he produced over one hundred and fifty new play commissions, productions, workshops, and readings. His plays include Aztlan, Earlimart, The Travelers, Electricidad, Oedipus El Rey, Mojada, Delano, Body of Faith, Alleluia the Road, Black Butterfly, Bruja, and Straight as a Line. He was a student of the playwright Maria Irene Fornes, performance artist Scott Kelman, and a product of the Inner-City Cultural Center in downtown Los Angeles.

WENDY MATEO (Mojada Co-Director) is the Artistic Director of Teatro Vista Productions, and an actor, writer, director, and filmmaker. Mateo has been seen on stages throughout Chicago, including at Lookingglass Theatre, where she is an ensemble member. Mateo's directing credits include the play Not for Sale 2.0 by Guadalis del Carmen at UrbanTheater Company, ¡Bernarda! By Emilio Williams at Teatro Vista Productions and the upcoming world premiere of The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao at Goodman Theatre. On television and film, Mateo can be seen on Chicago Med, as Ronnie in Station Eleven, and in Steve McQueen's Widows. As a filmmaker, Wendy has written and produced three short films including the latest, Hair, written and directed by Lorena Diaz and Wendy Mateo.

DENISE YVETTE SERNA (Mojada Co-Director) is an award-winning theatre practitioner in Chicago, Illinois. Credits include productions and new play development with Teatro Vista Productions, Lyric Opera of Chicago, MCA Chicago, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Neo-Futurists, Paramount Theatre, Bramble Theatre Company, Strawdog Theatre Company, Prop Thtr, and Global Hive Laboratories. Denise has facilitated international workshops, productions, readings, fundraisers, panels, and festivals to promote activism for racial equity, accessibility, climate justice, gender based violence, immigration, literacy, community collaboration, and collective joy. deniseyvetteserna.com.

avery r. young (safronia Playwright, Composer, and Librettist) is Chicago's inaugural Poet Laureate, American Poet Laureate Fellow, interdisciplinary artist, and a co-director of The Floating Museum. His art practice spans from the co-curation of The Chicago Architecture Biennial 5, This Is A Rehearsal, to written and performance works featured in national and international exhibitions, theater, festivals, and anthologies.  He has scored Lise Haller Baggeson's Hatorgrade Retrograde: The Musical, scoring Red Clay Dance's Rest.Restore.Nourinsh.Move.Heal, and produced two albums, booker t soltreyne: a race rekkid and tubman. The latter is the soundtrack to his volume of poetry titled, neckbone: visual verses [Northwestern].

TIMOTHY DOUGLAS's (safronia Director) credits include The Color Purple (Signature Theatre, Helen Hayes Award), She Who Dared (Chicago Opera Theater), Champion (Boston Lyric Opera), Blue (New Orleans Opera), the premiere of Something Happened in Our Town (Children's Theatre Company), Frankenstein (Classic Stage Company), and the Great Theatre of China production/tour of Disgraced. He has made productions for Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cleveland Playhouse, Denver Center, Downstage New Zealand, Folger Shakespeare, Guthrie Theater, Juilliard, Kennedy Center, Mark Taper Forum, Milwaukee Rep, National Theatret Norway, Portland Center Stage, Red Bull, and Steppenwolf, among many others, including Yale Rep's world premiere of August Wilson's Radio Golf. timothydouglas.org.

About Court Theatre

Winner of the 2022 Regional Theatre Tony Award, Court Theatre reimagines classic theatre to illuminate our current times. In residence at the University of Chicago and on Chicago's historic South Side, we engage our audiences with intimate and provocative experiences that inspire deeper exploration of the enduring questions that confront humanity and connect us as people.

Court Theatre has opened its 2025/26 season with a thunderclap: Theodore Ward’s Big White Fog directed with remarkable sensitivity and vigor by Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson. This is not only a revival of a classic work from the Federal Theatre Project era—it is also a reminder of how eerily contemporary Ward’s questions of ideology, disillusionment, and power struggles remain nearly ninety years after the play first startled audiences at Chicago’s Great Northern Theatre in 1938.

At its center, Big White Fog dramatizes the life of the Mason family, a striving Black household in Depression-era Chicago. Ward places the Mason living room at the intersection of history’s most turbulent crosscurrents: the false promise of the American Dream, the fiery appeal of Marcus Garvey’s “back to Africa” movement, and the revolutionary fervor of Communism. The fog of the title is both literal and metaphorical—a veil of economic despair, racial injustice, and ideological confusion that threatens to swallow the family whole.

Ron OJ Parson, long admired for his deft handling of Black classics, stages the play with clarity and urgency. Parson respects the density of Ward’s text but never lets the ideological debates bog down the human drama. Instead, he finds the beating heart in the Mason family’s conflicts—the stubborn pride of the patriarch, the sacrifices of the women, the fragile dreams of their children. Parson’s direction makes clear this is not an artifact of theatre history; it is a living work, pulsating with relevance for an America once again convulsed by inequality, polarization, and disillusionment.

The cast assembled for this production is outstanding. Joshua L. Green brings charisma and conviction to Victor Mason, the father whose fierce commitment to Garveyism and economic uplift sets him on a collision course with his family. Green embodies Victor’s unbending pride, making his devotion to a nationalist vision both inspiring and tragic. As Ella Mason, Sharriese Hamilton gives the play its moral core: her performance glows with quiet dignity, balancing love for her family with the weary pragmatism of a woman trying to hold a household together as history presses in from all sides.

Patrick Newson Jr. is superb as Lester Mason, the eldest son, a man who has had to stifle his own dreams, his every ambition weighed down by the crushing realities of family duty and economic hardship. Newson brings a heartbreaking openness to the role, embodying the innocence crushed under the weight of adult failures and historical forces. Greta Oglesby, as matriarch Martha Brooks, is simply unforgettable. Oglesby’s performance is steeped in humor, wisdom, and resilience; she grounds the play in generational memory. Her presence on stage is nothing short of magnetic.

The production’s design team gives Big White Fog a visual richness that matches its thematic weight. Jack Magaw’s scenic design transforms the Court stage into a lived-in Mason household, layered with details that evoke aspiration. Yvonne L. Miranda’s eye-popping 1920s costumes dazzle while grounding each character in their social and ideological context, making the clash of visions as visible as it is spoken. Lee Keenan’s lighting design shifts the mood with precision. Adding another layer of atmosphere, Christopher Kriz’s original compositions during scene changes, underscores the emotional undercurrents of the play and keeps the audience tethered to its restless rhythm.

The ideological clash within the Mason household is the play’s dramatic engine. Victor’s belief in Garvey’s call for Black economic independence and a return to Africa is met with resistance from his family, who seek other paths—through Communism, through assimilation, or through personal ambition. Ward refuses to let any single vision emerge as the sole solution, instead dramatizing the painful divisions that ideological fervor can create within a family. In the end, no ideology rescues them from the crushing realities of poverty, racism, and systemic neglect. This tragic irony is what makes Big White Fog so haunting.

Ward’s writing is radical for its time. To depict a Black family grappling openly with competing ideologies and the hypocrisy of the American Dream in 1938 was nothing short of revolutionary. It’s no wonder Big White Fog had a fraught reception in its original run. Yet the very qualities that unsettled audiences then—its candor, its ideological clashes, its refusal to reduce Black life to stereotype—are what make it feel so piercingly contemporary now.

The play’s questions echo loudly: What system, if any, can deliver justice and dignity to Black Americans? What price must be paid for loyalty to one’s ideals? And can a family survive when its members are torn apart by competing visions of liberation? In today’s America, as the nation debates racial justice, economic inequity, and the limits of free speech, these questions resonate with uncanny force. The Mason family’s divisions mirror our own: parents and children, neighbors and colleagues, citizens and leaders locked in ideological combat while the fog of inequality thickens around us.

Theodore Ward dared to write the truth. At a time when most mainstream depictions of Black life trafficked in stereotype or sentimental uplift (think “Cabin in The Sky”), Ward insisted on portraying the complexity, dignity, and contradictions of ordinary people. His plays carved out space for honest exploration of the Black experience—politically charged, socially grounded, unflinchingly real. Ward’s commitment cost him: his leftist sympathies drew the scrutiny of the FBI, and he was effectively blacklisted during the McCarthy era. Yet his legacy endures, shaping the lineage of Black theatre from Lorraine Hansberry to August Wilson and beyond.

Court Theatre’s revival is more than an act of cultural memory. It is an act of cultural urgency. To stage Big White Fog now is to recognize that the struggles Ward captured in 1938—the tensions between faith and politics, survival and principle, hope and despair—are still the struggles being faced in 2025. Parson and his cast honor Ward’s achievement while challenging us to confront the fog we still inhabit.

In the end, the play offers no easy answers. Ward was too honest for that. But what he gives us—through his words and through this luminous production—is the reminder that theatre can be a forum for grappling with the hardest questions of human existence. Big White Fog demands that we listen, that we argue, that we reckon with the past and the present alike.

Court Theatre has given Chicago audiences a gift in reviving Theodore Ward’s masterpiece. And with Parson’s masterful direction and this ensemble’s unforgettable performances, the fog clears just enough for us to see the truth: Ward’s voice still matters, perhaps now more than ever.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

When: Through Oct 11th

Where: Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave.

Running !me: 2 hours, 15 minutes  - 15 minute intermission

Tickets: $27 - $94 Student, Group and military discounts available

773-753-4472

https://www.courttheatre.org

*This review is also shared on https://www.theatreinchicago.com/!  

Stories that explore the emotional lives of men—especially Black men—are still far too rare on the American stage. Outside the monumental works of August Wilson, narratives that center male vulnerability, intimacy, and connection remain the exception. Lolita Chakrabarti’s Hymn, now playing at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, is a welcome and moving addition to that limited canon.

Originally written for a London audience, Hymn has been thoughtfully reworked by Chakrabarti for an American setting, shifting the story from Bristol, England to Chicago. The transition is seamless—perhaps even revelatory. Under the deft direction of Ron O.J. Parson, the play feels deeply rooted in the cultural and emotional rhythms of its new home.

At the heart of Hymn is the evolving relationship between two middle-aged Black men: Benny, played with warmth and quiet power by Chiké Johnson, and Gil, brought to life with nuance and restraint by James Vincent Meredith. The story begins with a funeral and slowly unfolds into something akin to a spiritual duet. Benny introduces the idea of “sympathetic resonance,” a musical concept describing how sound vibrations can cause another object to vibrate in harmony. It becomes a poetic metaphor for the emotional bond that grows between the two half-brothers as they become a whole.

Though the story is driven by dialogue, it's punctuated by music and movement—moments that feel less like breaks in the action and more like expressions of unspoken truths. As Benny and Gil dance, sing, and joke their way through scenes from their shared and separate pasts, their connection strengthens in ways that are more felt than seen. It’s only as the final notes settle that we fully understand what we’ve witnessed.

The production design roots the story firmly in the present while pulsing with the energy of the hip-hop era that shaped the characters. Rasean Davonte Johnson’s scenic and projection design is sleek, versatile, and evocative, transforming the minimalist set from a church to a boxing ring, a spare bedroom, and even a local eatery effortlessly. Yvonne Miranda’s costume design subtly tracks the characters’ emotional evolution, using clothing as quiet storytelling. Willow James’ sound and composition design doesn’t just support the action—it lives within it, amplifying the emotional beats with a soundscape drawn from the golden age of hip-hop and rap, pulling the audience into the same rhythm that moves the characters.

Hymn is a quiet triumph. It doesn’t shout its themes or offer easy catharsis. Instead, it hums, vibrates, and resonates—an invitation to witness male vulnerability not as spectacle, but as something sacred and human.

Highly Recommended

When: Through May 25
Where: Chicago Shakespeare Theatre 800 East Grand Avenue in Chicago.
Tickets: $52 - $95
Info:  www.chicagoshakespeare.com

*This review is also featured on https://www.theatreinchicago.com/!

Murder’s a hoot in Court Theatre’s revival of Joseph Kesselring’s “Arsenic and Old Lace.” Lighthearted and stylish, director Ron OJ Parson’s production makes for a charming season opener. Court Theatre was awarded a Tony award for best regional theatre and it feels fitting for a well-known classic to be this year’s kick-off. Slapstick humor and sinfully crackling dialogue are brought to life by an excellent ensemble of some of Chicago’s favorite performers.

It's hard to imagine this subversive comedy finding a mass audience in a less cynical era, but the 1941 Broadway production of “Arsenic and Old Lace” ran for years spawning a successful West End run as well. Boris Karloff, a major star of the 1940s, featured in the original Broadway run, contributing to its success. Frank Capra directed the popular film version starring Carey Grant.

According to lore, Kesselring had set out to write a serious play about the famed serial killer Amy Archer-Gilligan, but during the writing process found the story played better as a farce. The current popularity of murder-related podcast and docuseries makes this an especially relevant play to remount. It serves as an ironic satire of one of our nation’s favorite subjects—murder.

“Arsenic and Old Lace” tells the story of two sweet old spinster sisters who live in a Brooklyn mansion, they just happen to poison some of their guests. Hijinks ensue when their two nephews pay them a visit and discover their grizzly hobby.

In Parson’s production the Brewster sisters, Abby and Martha are played by Taylar and Celeste Williams. Their stage chemistry is fun to watch as they’re chased around the set by their adult nephews Mortimer and Jonathan (played by Eric Gerard and A.C. Smith). The latter, A.C. Smith, turns in another stage-filling and hilarious performance as the deranged long-lost nephew who returns to the family home with a secret to dispose of. Eric Gerard masters physical humor as he balances his frightening older brother, his murdering aunts and his engagement to the minister’s daughter Elaine (Emma Jo Boyden).

The action of the play is contained to the living room of the mansion. John Culbert’s set is the perfect backdrop for the door-slamming, stair climbing romp. Rachelanne Healy’s costumes transport us back to the 1940s and the absurd funeral costumes worn by the Brewster sisters play their own role in the laugh-out-loud spectacle.

Appealing to the popular anti-hero tropes in today’s pop culture, Court finds a pleasant way to welcome back audiences with an amusing production of a beloved classic. Thrills and laughs abound in this refreshing yet traditional staging. Ron OJ Parson nods to heartfelt film director Frank Capra, famous for ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and many other classics in his endearing production. Comedies in the “farce” style have mostly disappeared from new work, so plays like “Arsenic and Old Lace” are a nice trip down memory lane to a simpler time. Though the play is about murder, there’s a sweet natured charm to the tongue-in-cheek candor of the lines and plot. Seeing this excellent cast counter physical humor with witty banter is sure to bring a smile to your face.

Through October 2^nd at Court Theatre. 5535 S Ellis Ave. www.courtthreatre.org

It’s not often that Goodman Theatre imports plays from other theatre companies. It’s also an exciting moment when a frequent Goodman actress gets to showcase her newest play on the mainstage. “Relentless” by Tyla Abercrumbie was originally developed and produced by TimeLine Theatre in Chicago as part of their Playwrights Collective. The past year was still tricky for most theatre companies, and many had to reconfigure their seasons on short notice. Directed by Ron OJ Parson, “Relentless” premiered at TimeLine in early 2022 to rave reviews and has since been moved to the Owen stage at Goodman.

Set in 1919, “Relentless” tells the story of two Black sisters who return to their family home in Pittsburgh following the death of their mother. Janet (Jaye Ladymore) and Annelle (Ayanna Bria Bakari) are two bourgeois young women who live in Boston. Janet and Annelle see the world differently. Annelle sees the bright side of things, which seems easy from her perspective as a doctor’s wife. Janet is unmarried and doesn’t see much use for marriage. It’s when Janet begins reading her mother’s diary that she considers keeping the house and staying in Philadelphia.

For many Americans, the year immediately following WWI and the 1918 flu pandemic, was a time of great optimism. For those still reeling from the horrors of slavery, seemingly very little had changed in the 60 years since the Civil War.

In fluidly moving scenes, Janet is transported by her mother’s diary to the twilight years of slavery. As middle-class characters, her and Annelle have been somewhat shielded from some aspects of discrimination, but the details of their mother’s journal pull back the veneer on the gilded life they live. Annelle would rather not know anything at all, but the injustices spurn Janet to rage.

Abercrumbie’s story has the look and feel of an August Wilson play, but with a unique perspective. This is a story about Black women, told by a Black woman. Female characters are dimensional here, they swear, they drink, and they talk about sex. Culturally we assume previous generations were somehow more innocent but that couldn’t possibly be true. Though like Wilson’s plays, “Relentless” underscores that every generation of Black Americans has had to deal with the same issues of violence, racism and oppression. “Relentless” asks if anything has really changed.

Performances by Jaye Ladymore and Ayanna Bria Bakari are what this play hinges on. Both actresses fill the space with their characters, both giving them distinct personalities and similarities that create a sisterly chemistry on stage. Demetra Dee as the mother, Zhuukee, in the years of slavery is the discovery of the evening. There’s a fragile yet strong delivery in her lines. She’s soft in situations that would make others harsh. “Relentless” is a play with anger at its core, but perhaps Zhuukee represents a sense of forgiveness, or healing.

Through May 8 at Goodman Theatre 170 N Dearborn Street www.goodmantheatre.org

We are rarely privy to the forthright conversations traded among the wealthy about class dynamics and privilege. Doubly so when they involve the rarified class of rich, well-borne African Americans.
In Stickfly, playwright Lydia Diamond said she wanted to “write a play that talks about class and class strata within the African American community. I don’t think people think of that very often, and it is fascinating.”

In Diamond’s Stickfly, receiving a stellar production at Writers Theatre, we become a fly on the wall for a combative and contentious family battle, one that veers toward ugly, and delves into family secrets perhaps better left unspoken.

All this makes for a rousing, thought provoking evening, with a beautiful production under the direction of Ron OJ Parsons. Part melodrama, part soap opera, the two acts fly by, as engrossing as a Netflix binge watch.

We meet the LeVay family, who are like any other African American family in many ways, exceptional in that they are very well to do, highly educated and they own property in the elite Edgartown section of Martha’s Vineyard. We learn this property has been in Mrs. LeVay’s family (the Wickhams) for generations, a gift to one of her ancestors. But it’s Joseph LeVay’s money that keeps it up.

The set design (Linda Buchanan) suggests a wealthy, old money lifestyle. There is expensive (including museum-caliber impressionists) artwork on the walls. Outside the kitchen window sailboats ply the Atlantic Ocean. There is a staircase leading up to several bedrooms. The family room is nicely appointed with fine furniture and bookcases. The kitchen has the latest appliances and a fully stocked refrigerator. To the left of the kitchen, a door leads to the back porch and garden, with seating. You can almost feel and hear the seaside.

Class dynamics figures prominently in this excellent production. As the play opens, a young woman, Cheryl (Ayanna Bria Bakari) is preparing the house for guests. She is college bound, but filling in for her mother, the longtime housekeeper who has fallen ill. Cheryl is in some respects an honorary member of the LeVay household, but within limits - owing to her household duties.

The first family member to arrive is Kent (Eric Gerard), a highly educated but meandering writer, along with his fiancée Taylor (Jennifer Latimore) a researching entomologist. Kent tours the property with Taylor, explaining his great great ancestor.

“He was never a slave. He was a shipper. But we don’t talk about that,” Kent says, foreshadowing other matters that we learn have also been unspoken.

Taylor, who comes from a poorer background, is awed and shocked, and intimidated, by the casual wealth of this family. But the gardens make good grounds for her research into insects, referenced by the play's title.

Soon we meet Flip (DiMonte Henning) the misogynistic, arrogant, plastic surgeon, the older brother of Kent. These two men are nothing alike. Where Kent is warm and understanding, Flip is abrasive and smug.

Tensions build and sparks fly when we learn Flip and Taylor had a fling several years ago – but no one else knows about it. Flip also exerts the pressure of class structure pressure on Taylor, who is an exuberant, free spirit.

“You seem to have no social constraints, which concerns me, because you will be my brother’s wife,” Flip says to her.

Joseph LeVay (David Alan Anderson) the family patriarch, arrives without his wife. He seems to be preoccupied, and when questions arise about Mama LeVay’s absence, Joseph quickly puts them to rest, revealing himself as a controlling bully.

Flip announces that his girlfriend is coming – and, notably, that she is Italian. This says a lot about his character. Flip could not introduce just any white girl to his parents, even though her family is as rich and accomplished as the LeVay’s. Her family has a home in tony Kennebunkport, and she looks good on his resume.

Tellingly, Kent says not that he is so in love with her, but that she’s Italian, which makes her exotic. He’s a playboy by his own admission. He’s also his father’s favorite…the reason why becomes clearer as the action unfolds.

When we finally met Kimber (Kayla Raelle Holder) we realize that she is in fact just your average socially conscious WASP. She is nether impressed nor notices the wealth around her - well, except for the housekeeper - but that is no biggie. She is comfortably at home, unlike Taylor, who feels compelled to assist Cheryl with her housekeeping duties.

The first half of Stickfly establishes the tensions among the characters. The fast-paced dialog turns up a notch in the second act, with emotions spinning out of control. Parsons does an excellent job keeping the highly charged production on pace. The actors move about the set, entering and leaving with a precision that looks natural.

By the end of the night you realize you will have weathered emotional storms with six very different people. And these characters are so real, you feel they have studied themselves, and some have even grown, as well. Stickfly is highly recommended. It runs through March 15 at Writers Theatre in Glencoe, IL.

Booming thunder unleashed by a violent storm marks a scene change in King Hedley II, the sound and fury expressing the clash of deep emotional confrontations playing out as the stage goes to black.

Under the direction of Ron OJ Parson, Court Theatre gives us what is surely a definitive rendition of August Wilson’s 2000 play.

Wilson gives vivid voice to the life of his African American characters, showing them hemmed in and struggling for opportunity accorded readily to others. In King Hedley’s 1980s setting, amid trickle down economics, Americans saw greater divides between rich and poor, and rising mass incarceration. And against this backdrop, Wilson’s characters live life – with all its glory, and all its monumental tragedy, which abounds in the play.

In King Hedley II, the action takes place in 1985 in the backyards of two modest brick homes. Following five years in prison, Hedley (Kelvin Roston Jr.) returns to the home where his aunt raised him, optimistic, and aiming to rebuild his life. He plans to marry Tonya (Kierra Bunch). His aunt died while he was away, and his birth mother Ruby (actress Taylar) is now living in the house.

Hedley plants flower seeds, a perfect metaphor for his aspirations to reclaim his life, then struggles to stop others from trampling his young plants, and dragging him down with pessimism. His mother warns him the soil is too weak. Tonya, already a single mom, rebuffs Hedley’s overtures.

“I got to make it whatever way I can,” says Hedley (Kelvin Roston Jr.). “I look around and say 'Where's the barbed wire?”
“You could cut through barbed wire,” says Mister (Donald L. Conner). “But you can’t cut through not having a job.”

The ninth in Wilson’s ten-part Pittsburgh Cycle, each play takes place in that city, and each in a different decade. A Pulitzer finalist, it earned Viola Davis a Tony in its original Broadway run. I had the chance to see it in 2001 at Goodman Theatre, and barely understood what I watched then.

But at Court I threw down my program and leapt to my feet to cheer and applaud, like the rest of the audience, even before the final spotlight ended. It is that good, and hopefully we the people are better audiences for Wilson than 20 years ago. 

Though August's womenfolk are more guarded than optimistic, there is a hopefulness brought to Hedley by his buddy Mister, who works in a nail factory. Characteristically, Mister is hoping for a raise, that never materializes, even though business is booming. Hedley is in line to work on a demolition job for the City of Pittsburgh, but his employer (presumed to be African American) was denied the contract because the bid was too low, and the city doubted his capabilities.

Hedley and Mister devise side jobs, including re-selling refrigerators and, as opportunities narrow, plan a heist at a jewelry store. The plan and execution will remind you of  David Mamet's American Buffalo.

Into this intriguing setting come two even more powerful dramatis personae: the neighbor Stool Pigeon (Dexter Zollicoffer), a quirky person who is a hoarder, and delivers thundering prophecies drawn in ominous tones from long Bible passages. 

The other arrival is Elmore (A.C. Smith), hoping to recapture his lost love Ruby, and aiming to unburden himself of a secret that Ruby wanted both of them to take to her grave. (No spoiler here.) 

Smith tears up the stage with his larger than life Elmore. But then so does Zollicoffer as Stool Pigeon, a haunting character impossible to forget. And Taylar, Conner and Bunch all deliver remarkably good performances. And Roston gives us a complex, and nuanced portrait of Hedley.  

Wilson, who died in 2005, loads his plays with high-octane dialog. These can be challenging to deliver, or watch – with extra hurdles in understanding the overtones for white people like me. Parsons, working with this great cast, keeps each performance in balance with the others.

This is no small achievement when you realize that any of these characters could be the main protagonist in any other play. And indeed some recur in other works in the Pittsburgh Cycle. Act I of King Hedley II runs 80 minutes; after a 10 minute intermission Act II runs 70 minutes. You will be amazed at how quickly the time passes. Highly recommended for those who like great performances, staging, and a complex play. See King Hedley II through October 13 at Court Theatre in Chicago.

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Too Heavy for Your Pocket at TimeLine Theatre is both an important play, and a good one. Powerful, but not too heavy to bear, with a rock-star cast directed by Ron OJ Parsons, it tells the story of the Freedom Riders – groups of blacks and whites who traveled through the segregated South in 1961 on Greyhound and Trailway's buses, asserting the new freedoms set under the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

It is written by rising talent Jeron Breon Holder, currently a writer on NBC’s New Amsterdam, who developed it while working on his MFA at the Yale School of Drama in 2016. This project was triggered by a remark his grandmother made about a young friend who abandoned college to join the Freedom Riders. What followed were weeks touring locations and studying events that transpired more than 30 years before Holder was born.

The buses were met often with violence, and the passengers beaten and jailed. As stories of the lives of black people's experiences in the South are emerging – think The Butler, Hidden Figures, Selma – our awareness of this heritage of injustice grows. This is valuable.

Evelyn (Ayanna Bria Bakari) and Sally (Jennifer Latimore).

The challenge is that however well intentioned, these stories are filtered – even unconsciously - from a viewpoint of white people’s participation. We get what is called White Gaze, or depictions focusing on White Saviors. The overarching cultural perspectives make us feel good about the values, but we miss the full story. Think of the difference between the sentimental The Green Book, and searing works like August Wilson’s Fences, or James Baldwin’s If Beal St. Could Talk.
Holder takes the Freedom Riders as a backdrop to an engaging and rather incisive portrait of two young married couples, best friends living near each other in rural Tennessee. Bowzie Brandon (Jalen Gilbert) has just won a college scholarship; his wife Evelyn (Ayanna Bria Bakari) is the breadwinner. Their best friends are Tony (Cage Sebastian Pierre) and Sally (Jennifer Latimore).

Brandon decides to join the Freedom Riders. Yet this choice is not instantly celebrated, and instead throws this small circle of friends into emotional chaos. Each embodies a facet of that period’s African-American culture. But what elevates the work is that each represents a slice of the human condition.

Sally is a church-bound social conservative, who questions whether challenging the status quo is the moral path. Hardworking Tony, the salt of the earth and Brandon’s best bro, quickly supports his buddy’s choice. Most complex is the response of Evelyn, a former nightclub singer who has settled into the straight and narrow path with Brandon, and has supported his dreams - until this one. Bowzie goes ahead anyway.

"When I get on that Greyhound bus, it's gonna be the first serious thing I've done in my life," Bowzie says.

But what begins as an exhilarating ride, turns into a grind, and Holder  gives us real people, not symbols. Bowzie is broken and he longs for home, the only jailed protester who doesn't hear from his family and friends, while back home, the tides of change, and the pressure of Bowzie's plight, impact his friends and spouse. 

His wife Evelyn cuts off communication for her own emotional protection. Finally Bowzie reaches Tony, who tells him to come home and take care of his wife, "You ain't no Martin Luther King," And we see Sally hit a breaking point, when she realizes she is mistreated in her home, as well as outside it. In a stunning scene, she laments, "Everyone treats you like a dog," she says. "I want a freedom ride for me! Where is my goddam freedom ride!" 

Jireh Breon Holder

Holder has done a great job establishing the settings and building the emotional dynamics of these characters -though at a couple points the exposition through dialog is a tad leaden. My heart was in my throat and my tears surfaced. But between the melodrama and angst, Holder drops in parodies of church life and services – in which Latimore’s gifts for mimicry, and Gilbert’s impersonation of the church pastor are priceless. Bakari’s irrepressibly beautiful voice surfaces immediately in the first scenes, as she simply hums to herself – and eventually in a nightclub scene with a scintillating song.

Shout-outs are due the dramaturg (Regina Victor) and artistic director PJ Powers) who brought this play to TimeLine; and to the scenic designer (Jose Manuel Diaz-Soto) for blending the household and its rural surroundings. And to whomever is responsible for this exceptional casting – the chemistry of these four is electric. Running at the TimeLine theatre through June 29, Too Heavy for Your Pocket is highly recommended.

"Nostalgia is a disease." bemoans Lynn Nottage's downtrodden characters in 'Sweat' now playing at Goodman Theatre. This 2017 Pulitzer prize winner examines the ordinary lives of factory workers in a Pennsylvania town in the years leading up to the 2008 recession. 'Sweat' is the second Pulitzer for playwright Lynn Nottage, making her the first woman to ever receive the prize twice. Goodman Theatre premiered her first prize winning play 'Ruined' in 2008. Ron OJ Parson directs an all-star cast in this Chicago premiere. 

'Sweat' switches between 2000 and 2008 as the changing economy finds factory work becoming scarce in traditionally blue-collar Pennsylvania. The play begins with two young men's release from prison for an undisclosed crime. One white (Mike Cherry), has a swastika tattooed on his forehead, the other a young black man (Edgar Miguel Sanchez), crisply dressed holding a bible. We're immediatley swept back to year 2000 when things were as they always had been. Three coworkers of different backgrounds celebrate their friend Tracey's (Kristin Fitzgerald) birthday in a local dive bar. When their friend Cynthia (Tyla Abercrumbie) mentions she's putting in for a promotion at the plant, tensions rise in quick moving scenes. 

The majority of the play takes place in a rundown bar tended by retired plant employee Stan (Keith Kopferer). Kupferer plays a reliable moral backbone of the play as Tracey and Cynthia are pitted against each other when the layoffs begin. Fitzgerald and Ambercrumbi deliver powerhouse performances. Both each other's match as they square off in scenes so intense you nearly forget to breath. 

Though first produced before Trump won the election, it's as if Nottage knew the outcome. It's a quick descent into blatant racism for these otherwise easy-going characters. Economic stress in these reliably blue states turns those at the bottom of an economy against each other. Nottage captures life for those holding onto the past with compassion but perhaps not dignity. 

It's nice to see a full length play these days. 'Sweat' runs two and a half hours but the scenes are so taught you'd hardly notice. This deeply human story has a long-burning fuse that leads right up to a full-fledge powder keg. In the four walls of a smelly bar we're shown some of the darkest sides of capitalism. In that regard, 'Sweat' is not just an American play, but a universal and timeless play about those left behind. 

Through April 14th at Goodman Theatre. 170 N Dearborn Street. 312-443-3800