Displaying items by tag: Anthony Moseley

Collaboraction  Theatre Company could not have chosen a more resonant inaugural production for its new House of Belonging than Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till. In this sleek, in-the-round studio in Humboldt Park, the company inaugurates its new home by opening an old wound—one that America has never fully allowed to heal. The result is not merely a staging of history, but an act of communal witnessing, one that insists the past is not past.

Co-adapted by G. Riley Mills and Willie Round and co-directed by Anthony Moseley and Dana N. Anderson, Trial in the Delta transforms the 1955 courtroom proceedings in Sumner, Mississippi, into a visceral live docudrama. Actors emerge, take the stand, and deliver testimony drawn from the long-buried trial transcript of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, the men who kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Emmett Till. In this immersive setting, spectators are not allowed the comfort of distance. You are seated inside the machinery of injustice.

The production’s most devastating power lies in its restraint. This is not melodrama; it is documentation made theatrical. When NK Gutiérrez steps forward as Mamie Till-Bradley, the room seems to recalibrate its breathing. Her presence is not performative grief but moral force. Mamie’s insistence on truth—her refusal to look away, her demand that the world see what was done to her son—becomes the spiritual engine of the evening. Darren Jones’s Mose Wright, Mysun Aja Wade’s Willie Reed and Donald Fitzdarryl’s Chester Miller, embody the perilous bravery of Black witnesses testifying in a Jim Crow courtroom, where truth itself was an act of defiance.

The ensemble functions as a grim chorus of American roles: judges, clerks, journalists, sheriffs, defendants, and bystanders. Richard Alan Baiker’s Judge Curtis Swango carries the chilly authority of a system that pretends neutrality while protecting white supremacy. Tyler Burke and Matt Miles, as Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, avoid caricature; their ordinariness is the horror. Evil here is not monstrous but banal, upheld by procedure and custom. That banality is the production’s sharpest blade.

Prosecutor Gerald Chatham (John Henry Roberts, center) holds a photo of Emmett Till as he asks Till’s murderers Roy Bryant (Tyler Burke, left ) and J.W. Milam (Matt Miles, right) if they recognize their victim, as Till’s mother Mamie Bradley (NK Gutiérrez) looks on, in Collaboraction's Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till. 

Emmy Weldon’s set and Levi Wilkins’s lighting make elegant use of Collaboraction’s new 99-seat flexible studio, shaping the room into a courtroom that feels both provisional and eternal—anywhere, anytime. Shawn Wallace’s original music hums beneath the proceedings like a low current of grief and warning, while Warren Levon’s sound design places the audience inside a sonic environment of testimony, tension, and aftermath. The design team’s work never distracts; it quietly conspires with the text to tighten the emotional vise.

What distinguishes this staging from earlier iterations is how fully the new space is activated as a moral arena. The reserved jury seating—occupied by audience members—does more than gesture at interactivity. It implicates. You are reminded, without theatrical gimmickry, that verdicts are rendered not only in courtrooms but in communities, institutions, and histories. The post-show “Crucial Conversation” deepens that charge, extending the production beyond performance into dialogue—an extension of Collaboraction’s KEDA methodology in action.
KEDA—Knowledge, Empathy, Dialogue, and Action—frames the company’s belief that theatre should not end with reflection, but move audiences toward change.

Opening the House of Belonging with Trial in the Delta is a statement of values. This is not a theater christened with spectacle or escapism, but with reckoning. In a cultural moment eager to repackage or blunt the edges of history, Collaboraction insists on confrontation. The question the production leaves behind is not simply what happened in 1955, but what we have allowed to keep happening since.

Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till does not offer catharsis. It offers clarity. It reminds us that justice delayed is not just justice denied—it is justice rehearsed in different forms, across different bodies, in different decades. In Collaboraction’s new home, the walls are fresh, the tech is state-of-the-art, and the future feels open. But the story told on opening night is a reminder that belonging, in America, has always been contested—and that the work of making it real is unfinished.Top of Form

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

When: Extended through March 15th!

Where: Kimball Arts Center, 1757 N. Kimball Ave

Running time: under two hours, including a short Crucial Conversation after every performance

Tickets: $25 - $55.00 (10% discount for groups of 10 or more)

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(312) 226-9633

Collaboraction Theatre Company is thrilled to announce its inaugural production at Chicago’s newest live theater space, Collaboraction’s new House of Belonging in Humboldt Park: 

Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till, the company’s award-winning live docudrama, will return in its most fully realized form yet. Featuring a powerhouse ensemble of returning artists and new voices, this urgent, unforgettable theatrical event invites audiences to confront the truth, honor a legacy, and experience history as if it were happening today.

A series of sneak-peek events will kick off in late January at Collaboraction’s new home in the Kimball Arts Center, 1757 N. Kimball Ave in Humboldt Park.

Previews of Trial in the Delta, Sunday, February 1 and Thursday, February 5 at 7:30 p.m., will be part of the Grand Opening build-up. Collaboraction’s Grand Opening Performance and Ritual Celebration is Friday, February 6 at 7:30 p.m. 

Performances of Trial in the Delta continue through March 15th: Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. (Exception: No
3 p.m. show Saturday, February 7.) Run time is approximately one hour 50 minutes, including a short Crucial Conversation after every performance. Tickets are $25-$55, and go on sale today at collaboraction.org. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for information on group discounts.

“As Collaboraction turns 30 and opens our new House of Belonging in Humboldt Park, we couldn't co-dream a more relevant first production than Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till, bringing to life the trial that served as a catalyst of the start of the Civil Rights movement," said Collaboraction Artistic Director Anthony Moseley. "When Mamie Till said that ‘everybody's business is my business,’ it’s as if she had a dream for a Beloved Community. We are honored to be a part of her legacy and manifesting our new space for arts, youth, social justice and community.”

Collaboraction, now open in the Kimball Arts Center, is a sleek, 4,000-square foot space featuring a new 99-seat flexible studio theater and a 50-seat cabaret with cafe/bar. Free and nearby street parking is available. For CTA riders, the 82 Kimball-Homan bus stops right in front of the building. The theater is also a short walk from the Kimball stop on the 72 North and 73 Armitage bus lines. For bikers and pedestrians, the Kimball trailhead on The 606 leads directly to the Kimball Arts Center.

On September 20, 1955, the trial of the men who murdered Emmett Till began—and the world would never be the same. In Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till, Collaboraction transforms the original, long-buried trial transcript into a gripping, immersive theatrical experience that places audiences face-to-face with the people whose testimony shaped the civil rights movement.

Co-adapted by Willie Round and G. Riley Mills and co-directed by Anthony Moseley and Dana Anderson, Trial in the Delta unfolds like a live reenactment of the actual proceedings in Sumner, Mississippi. Actors seated among the audience rise to become witnesses for the prosecution and defense—including the trailblazing Mamie Till-Bradley, bringing raw, unfiltered history to life.

Born from a groundbreaking collaboration with NBC5 Chicago, Trial in the Delta won a National Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary, two Chicago/Midwest Emmy Awards and a Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association. Collaboraction grew the teleplay into a full-length, immersive theatrical experience that had two short runs at the DuSable Black History Museum. The final live performance in February 2023 was professionally filmed and has been screened for groups including the The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley Institute, the Chicago History Museum, the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and the First Circuit Court of Philadelphia. 

Now, Collaboraction’s live production will receive its most ambitious staging yet to inaugurate the company’s new House of Belonging. Boasting a dynamic cast of returning favorites and bold new talent, this multi-week run invites audiences to bear witness, honor Emmett Till’s legacy, interrogate America’s past, and ignite urgent conversation for our present.

Collaboraction’s path to its new House of Belonging

After departing its previous space of 10 years in Wicker Park’s Flat Iron Building at the start of the pandemic, Collaboraction leaders scouted more than two dozen spaces on Chicago’s south and west sides before breaking ground in Humboldt Park in March 2025

Today, in what used to be a pet store, Collaboraction boasts a sleek, 4,000-square foot space with a new 99-seat flexible studio theater plus a 50-seat cabaret with a cafe/bar. The company has begun activating both spaces with live theater, spoken word, music, dance, film, improv, workshops, community meetings and special events, produced by Collaboraction and with guest artists and companies. Collaboraction’s House of Belonging is also home to The Light, the company’s paid youth artist-activist program.

Collaboraction’s 99-seat performance space is a clean, hi-tech flexible studio with state-of-the-art light, sound and video equipment, including an HD multicam system ready to stream live and recorded content worldwide. The theater also serves as a digital studio for video projects and a learning space for youth interested in careers in production and tech. Collaboraction’s tech booth was intentionally designed to be ADA compliant, unlike most booths in Chicago theaters. Backstage, artists and staff have access to two brand new dressing rooms, bathrooms, storage, green room/office space and an exterior dock.

At Collaboraction’s groundbreaking in February 2025, Chicago 26th Ward Alderperson Jessie Fuentes said, “Poetry, theater and hip-hop saved my life when I was young and looking for community growing up in Humboldt Park. It was art that made me a politician. So this groundbreaking means more to young people and families than many of you may believe.“

To manifest its new home, Collaboraction has launched a $3 million House of Belonging capital campaign. The campaign kicked off with a $200,000 grant from the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Other lead supporters include The Paul M. Angell Foundation, The Joseph and Bessie Feinberg Foundation, The LaChapelle Family Foundation, Kerry James Marshall and Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Cordogan, Clark & Associates, AV Chicago and ETC’s Light the Way Program. collaboraction.org/our-new-house-of-belonging

Collaboraction’s design and construction team was led by Cordogan, Clark & Associates, Evan Williams and John Clark, project architects; with general contractor Troy Riley, Oakwood Construction, and Collaboraction company member John Ross Wilson. AV Chicago, ETC, and Kerry James Marshall and Cheryl Lynn Bruce came together to support high production values. AV Chicago, a top Chicago provider of production solutions for live and virtual events, provided high-end gear, technical expertise and installation services. ETC, a leading supplier of lighting solutions and control equipment for theater, film, TV, architectural spaces and entertainment industries, provided lighting equipment through its Light the Way Program.

About Collaboraction

Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2026, Collaboraction is an award-winning Chicago theater company that uses immersive, socially conscious performance to spark change and build equity. Across all platforms, Collaboraction uses its KEDA methodology - Knowledge, Empathy, Dialogue, and Action - to spark changes in behavior and attitudes that manifest social change.

Collaboraction’s work includes NBC Chicago’s three-time Emmy Award-winning The Lost Story of Emmett Till: Trial in the Delta, the resulting live stage play film, Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till, live productions of Crime Scene, Moonset Sunrise, A Blue Island In the Red Sea, its annual Peacebook and Sketchbook festivals, and its youth ensemble, The Light.

Collaboraction receives generous operating support and program funding from the Joseph and Bessie Feinberg Foundation, the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Marc and Jeanne Malnati Family, Gary Grube, the Lester and Hope Abelson Fund for the Performing Arts at the Chicago Community Foundation, Naperville Rotary Club, Field Foundation, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

Collaboraction is led by Darlene Jackson, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director; Anthony Moseley, Chief Programming Officer and Artistic Director; and a dedicated board, company members and staff.

For more, visit collaboraction.org or follow Collaboraction onFacebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Bluesky.