Under the leadership of Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director Avery Willis Hoffman and Executive Director Angel Ysaguirre, Court Theatre proudly presents the Spotlight Reading Series. The Spotlight Reading Series will run from Friday, August 7, through Saturday, August 22, at venues throughout Chicago. Curated by Director of Engagement Kamilah Rashied, this is the tenth anniversary of the acclaimed and transformative program created by Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson in 2016.
"This year's Spotlight Reading Series is a legacy project," shares Rashied. "It honors Court's Resident Artist, Ron OJ Parson, who began this acclaimed program ten years ago. It celebrates a century of Black artistry and activism that has shaped our nation. And it is a love letter to the resilience, resistance, creativity, and innovation of the city of Chicago—Black Chicago, specifically."
Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director Avery Willis Hoffman adds: "The Spotlight Reading Series is an exceptional example of how we at Court put the classics in conversation with our current times. Activating a variety of artistic mediums, texts, and formats, Spotlight is an invitation to engage—with us, with each other, with history, with our city, and with art itself—and ideate our collective future. As America marks 250 years, this program represents civic discourse at its best."
Featuring the most ambitious programming to date, this year's landmark Spotlight Reading Series is organized around the theme "A Century of Black Progress." The tenth-anniversary celebration arrives on the heels of the centennial of Black History Month, which began in 1926 as Negro History Week, and looks ahead to the conclusion of August Wilson's American Century Cycle with Court Theatre's 2027 production of Joe Turner's Come and Gone.
By weaving together the past, present, and future of Black storytelling through a series of immersive events, the Spotlight Reading Series celebrates the soul of Chicago's cultural ecosystem and pays tribute to one hundred years of cultural excellence and resilience.
This year's Spotlight Reading Series is comprised of the following events:
- Friday, August 7: It's Nation Time: An Evening of Black Cinema
- Sunday, August 9: Kuumba Theatre Archive Unfurling
- Wednesday, August 12: Staged Reading of August Wilson's How I Learned What I Learned, featuring Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson
- Thursday, August 13: A Womanist Trilogy: Hurston, Richards, and Kennedy
- Friday, August 14: are you ready to smash white things? by Ireon Roach, a collaboration with Definition Theatre
- Saturday, August 15: Praise and Protest Exhibition Tour
- Saturday, August 15: Harsh Readers Circle
- Wednesday, August 19: Blackstone Book Club
- Saturday, August 22: The Chicago Critics Circles
All events are free and open to the public, and reservations are required. Reservations can be made online atCourtTheatre.org or by calling the Box Office at (773) 753-4472.
Accompanying the live events of the Spotlight Reading Series, Court Theatre—in partnership with Aaron Mays, Tribble, and Respair Media—is proud to present Spotlight Turns Ten, the Spotlight Reading Series companion podcast. Reflecting on the history of the Spotlight Reading Series and a century of Black progress and creativity, Spotlight Turns Ten will feature artists, creatives, and Court collaborators who have contributed to the series over the past decade.
The Spotlight Reading Series is presented in partnership with Arts + Public Life at the University of Chicago, Chicago Public Library, Definition Theatre, and the University of Chicago's Film Studies Center.
It's Nation Time: An Evening of Black Cinema
Experience the power of Black liberation cinema through William Greaves's Nationtime and Skip Norman's Cultural Nationalism—a vital double feature that explores the depth, defiance, and diverse aesthetics of Black liberation cinema and captures the relentless pursuit of self-determination. Presented in partnership with the University of Chicago's Film Studies Center.
Date: Friday, August 7, 2026
Time: 6:30pm Doors, 7:00pm Screening
Location: Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Room 201 (915 E 60th St, Chicago,
IL 60637)
Participant: Dr. Aymar Jèan "AJ" Escoffery (lecturer)
Kuumba Theatre Archive Unfurling
Discover the radical legacy of Chicago's Black Arts Movement at this exclusive Harold Washington Library archival unfurling event. Drawing from Special Collections that showcase the Kuumba Workshop, a revolutionary theatre company founded in 1969 by Val Gray Ward to pioneer "ritual theatre" as a tool for community liberation. Attendees will get an up-close look at original photographs and ephemera that celebrate Kuumba's enduring blueprint for Black art as activism. Presented in partnership with Chicago Public Library.
Date: Sunday, August 9, 2026
Time: 2:00pm
Location: Harold Washington Library Center Reading Room (400 S State St, Chicago, IL
60605)
Participants: Pemon Rami (guest speaker), Nix Mendy (archivist facilitator), Johanna Russ
(archivist facilitator)
How I Learned What I Learned by August Wilson, Featuring Ron OJ Parson
Experience a legendary theatrical collision as acclaimed director and Court Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson steps onstage to portray the master playwright in August Wilson's autobiographical solo masterpiece, How I Learned What I Learned. Presented as a one-night-only event for Court Theatre's 2026 Spotlight Reading Series 10th Anniversary Festival.
Date: Wednesday, August 12, 2026
Time: 6:00pm Doors, 6:30pm Reading
Location: Rubenstein Forum, Friedman Hall (1201 E 60th St, Chicago, IL 60637)
Creative Team: Aaron Mays (director), Charles Andrew Gardner (associate director)
Cast: Ron OJ Parson (actor)
A Womanist Trilogy: Hurston, Richards, and Kennedy
Experience an extraordinary triple feature with A Womanist Trilogy: Hurston, Richards, and Kennedy. This powerful evening unites Zora Neale Hurston's Color Struck, Beah Richards's A Black Woman Speaks, and Adrienne Kennedy's She Talks to Beethoven to explore the interior lives of Black women. Moving from rural folk drama and fiery poetry to avant-garde surrealism, this vital trilogy offers a breathtaking testament to the enduring power of Black feminist voices in American theater across the 20th century.
Date: Thursday, August 13, 2026
Time: 6:00pm Doors, 6:30pm Reading
Location: Rubenstein Forum, Friedman Hall (1201 E 60th St, Chicago, IL 60637)
Creative Team: Kemati Janice Porter (director)
are you ready to smash white things? by Ireon Roach
Join us for a thrilling staged reading of are you ready to smash white things? by multi-talented Chicago artist and playwright Ireon Roach, a celebrated former winner of Definition Theatre's Amplify series. This fierce, brilliant, and deeply contemporary work uses sharp wit and unflinching honesty to interrogate institutions, dismantle systemic structures, and explore the visceral realities of Black liberation and identity. Presented in partnership with Definition Theatre.
Date: Friday, August 14, 2026
Time: 6:00pm Doors, 6:30pm Reading
Location: Rubenstein Forum, Friedman Hall (1201 E 60th St, Chicago, IL 60637)
Creative Team: Ireon Roach (playwright), Charlique C. Rolle (director), Tyrone Phillips
(post-show moderator)
Praise and Protest Exhibition Tour
The exhibition Praise and Protest: Voices of the Chicago Black Renaissance invites visitors to explore a transformative cultural movement told through the rare archival records of the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection. This interactive gallery tour honors the extraordinary artists, scholars, and activists who reshaped American culture from the 1930s through the 1950s. This exhibition shines a light on understudied aspects of Black history and artistry whose seminal explorations of Black life remain as timely as they are extraordinary. Presented in partnership with Chicago Public Library.
Date: Saturday, August 15, 2026
Time: 11:00am (Lunch provided from 1:00pm - 2:00pm)
Location: Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection at the Woodson Regional Library (9525 S
Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60628)
Participants: Courtney Becks (facilitator), Raquel Flores-Clemons (archivist facilitator)
Harsh Readers Circle
For 40 years, the Harsh Readers Circle has met monthly at the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection, located inside the Woodson Regional Library. Inspired by the legacy of Vivian G. Harsh herself, this staple book club is dedicated to reading and discussing the finest works of Black fiction and non-fiction. Join the Circle for this special convening as they explore their August selection: A Street in Bronzeville, the groundbreaking debut book of poetry by Chicago's own Gwendolyn Brooks. Presented in partnership with Chicago Public Library.
Date: Saturday, August 15, 2026
Time: 2:00pm (Lunch provided from 1:00pm - 2:00pm)
Location: Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection at the Woodson Regional Library (9525 S
Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60628)
Participants: Courtney Becks (facilitator)
Blackstone Book Club
Court Theatre's Community Reads Series bridges page and stage by inviting audiences to explore foundational literature that mirrors the theatrical season. Anchoring the Spotlight Reading Series 10th Anniversary Festival, this year's book club selection is Harvey Young and Queen Meccasia Zabriskie's groundbreaking text, Black Theater is Black Life: An Oral History of Chicago Theater and Dance, 1970-2010. Filling a critical gap in the history of African American culture in Chicago, the book weaves together interviews with prominent artists who have shaped the city's cultural landscape over decades. Presented in partnership with Chicago Public Library.
Date: Wednesday, August 19, 2026
Time: 5:30pm
Location: Blackstone Branch of the Chicago Public Library (4904 S Lake Park Ave,
Chicago, IL 60615)
Participants: Adia Sykes (facilitator)
The Chicago Critics Circles
Part I: Black Authorship
Co-presented in partnership with Arts + Public Life, this roundtable talk frames Black publications as vital sites of cultural production, political imagination, and narrative control. By examining how independent media, literary institutions, and emerging platforms document and interpret Black life, the panel highlights a crucial legacy of self-determination. This timely convening directly advances the Spotlight Festival theme through the essential lens of narrative sovereignty. Presented in partnership with Arts + Public Life.
Date: Saturday, August 22, 2025
Time: 2:00pm
Location: Green Line Performing Arts Center (329 E Garfield Blvd,
Chicago, IL 60637)
Participants: Adrienne Brown (moderator), Donna Rose Weems (speaker)
Part II: Claiming Space
Co-presented in partnership with Arts + Public Life, this roundtable explores how physical and social spaces act as incubators for Black cultural life and resistance. In a roundtable conversation, panelists will investigate how these environments are intentionally created, stewarded, and preserved. Presented in partnership with Arts + Public Life.
Date: Saturday, August 22, 2025
Time: 4:00pm
Location: Green Line Performing Arts Center (329 E Garfield Blvd,
Chicago, IL 60637)
Participants: Tara Betts (speaker)
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.
