Displaying items by tag: NTOZAKE SHANGE

Tim Rhoze, Artistic Director of Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, has announced the company's 2024 season of four productions. The season will open with the original musical 1619: THE JOURNEY OF A PEOPLE by Chicago writer and performer Ted Williams III. The musical commemorates the arrival of the first 20 Africans on the shores of Point Comfort, Virginia on August 20, 1619. In it, three modern characters lead audience members on a journey through multiple performance pieces, leaving viewers both inspired and challenged about the progress of America's African sons and daughters. This production uses various musical forms including hip-hop, jazz, and blues, to commemorate the struggle for survival and equality and to celebrate the stories and journeys of America's African sons and daughters. FJT is partnering with Evanston Public Library and Northwestern University for this production. 1619: THE JOURNEY OF A PEOPLE will play Saturdays and Sundays from June 15-30, 2024, with the press opening on Sunday, June 16 at 3 pm.

In July, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre will present Ntozake Shange's FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE/WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF. This performance piece - which Shange described as a  "choreopoem" – is a group of 20 poems on the power of Black women to survive in the face of despair and pain, accompanied by dance and music. It weaves interconnected stories of love, empowerment, struggle and loss into a complex representation of sisterhood, addressing subjects including rape, abandonment, abortion and domestic violence. The show ran for seven months Off-Broadway in New York City in 1976 before beginning a two-year on Broadway run from 1976 to 1978. It was subsequently produced throughout the United States, broadcast on television, and in 2010 adapted into a feature film titled FOR COLORED GIRLS. FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE/WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF will play Saturdays and Sundays from July 20 – August 4. The press opening will be Sunday, July 21 at 3 pm.

A special event with only two performances will be presented in August. A MOODY EXPERIENCE: MUSIC BEYOND THE MARGINS, featuring Evanston's very own four-time Grammy Award-winner, gospel artist Carlis l. Moody, Senior Pastor of Faith Temple in Evanston. Pastor Moody will join musical forces with his talented family, MC4, and local Evanston singing powerhouses Dudley Fair and Rene Black for performances on Saturday, August 24 and Sunday, August 25.

The season will conclude in October with Dael Orlandersmith's UNTIL THE FLOOD. This play explores the social uprising in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting of teenager Michael Brown by a police officer in 2014. The play draws from interviews with Missouri residents and delves into the hopes, dreams, and struggles of regular folks dealing with fear and trauma. It's a poignant examination of race and its impact on personal lives. UNTIL THE FLOOD will play Saturdays and Sundays from October 26 – November 10, 2024. Press opening is Sunday, October 27 at 3 pm.

Performances will be Saturdays at 7:00 pm and Sundays at 3:00 pm, at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes St., Evanston. Tickets for all productions are $30.00 and are on sale now at www.fjtheatre.com. Additionally, 2024 Premium Gold Member Cards, good for all three 2024 summer and fall play productions and A MOODY EXPERIENCE: MUSIC BEYOND THE MARGINS are now on sale for a very limited time for only $90 - a nearly 30 percent discount off of the regular season ticket prices.

THE GLORIA BOND CLUNIE PLAYWRIGHT'S FESTIVAL 2024

In addition to its 2024 season, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre is proud to announce the launch of a new play development initiative in 2024. The Gloria Bond Clunie Playwright's Festival honors the incredible career and legacy of Gloria Bond Clunie, founder of Fleetwood-Jourdain. She is also a founding member of the Playwriting Ensemble at Victory Gardens Theater where she premiered her plays NORTH STAR, SHOES, and LIVING GREEN. Her work as a theater and educator has been recognized by the NAACP, the Joseph Jefferson Awards, Chicago Black Theatre Alliance Awards, and Evanston Mayor's Award for the Arts, among many others. 

This festival will take place over two weekends (May 24-26th and May 31-June 2nd) at the FJT's home, the Noyes Cultural Center in Evanston. The first weekend will be for the playwrights to connect with each other, experiment while in workshops and seminars, and spend uninterrupted time developing their play. The second weekend will offer rehearsal time with a director and actors, with public staged readings. 

Schedule of Plays
 
Saturday June 1
4:00pm - BORING BLACK PLAY by Jessica Posey , directed by Melissa Golden
7:30pm - INHERITANCE -OR- BROTHERS FROM THE DEEP by Michael Jones,
directed by Jamal Howard
 
Sunday, June 2
3:00pm - 3 SISTERS FORCED TO FACE THE SKY by Nehanda Julot, directed by Aurelia Clunie

LISTING INFORMATION
 
1619: THE JOURNEY OF A PEOPLE
A Musical by Ted Williams III
Directed by Tim Rhoze and Ted Williams III
This is a co-production with Evanston Public Library and Northwestern University
June 15-30, 2024
Saturdays at 7 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Press opening Sunday, June 16 at 3 pm
Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center
927 Noyes Ave., Evanston
Tickets $32.00
Tickets on sale now at www.fjtheatre.com
Phone 847-866-5914
 
From the beginning of American slavery to Reconstruction, the Great Migration, the Civil Rights Era, and modern movements for justice, 1619 packs generations of history into an amazing musical theater experience that traces the African American journey toward freedom and equality.
 
FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE/WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF
By Ntozake Shange
Directed by Tim Rhoze
July 20 – August 4, 2024
Saturdays at 7 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Press opening Sunday, July 21 at 3 pm
Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center
927 Noyes Ave., Evanston
Tickets $32.00. Tickets on sale now at www.fjtheatre.com
Phone 847-866-5914
 
Filled with passion, humor, and raw honesty, legendary playwright/poet Ntozake Shange's form-changing choreopoem tells the stories of seven women of color using poetry, song, and movement. It speaks to our world today about women's struggles, strengths, desires, resilience, and the sanctified magic of love and possibility.
 
Cast: Angelena Browne, Candice Jeanine, Caitlin Dobbins, Jazzma Pryor, Jenise Sheppard, Nehanda, Tuesdai B. Perry
 
A MOODY EXPERIENCE: MUSIC BEYOND THE MARGINS
Saturday, August 24 at 7 pm, Sunday, August 25 at 3 pm
Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center
927 Noyes Ave., Evanston
Tickets $32.00. Tickets on sale now at www.fjtheatre.com
Phone 847-866-5914
 
Grammy Award-winning gospel artist Pastor Carlis L. Moody Jr. (Faith Temple) joins musical forces with his talented family, MC4, and local Evanston singing powerhouses Dudley Fair and Rene Black, to bring us a musical concert event like no other. The tickets will go fast for this special event, so don't delay.
 
UNTIL THE FLOOD
by Dael Orlandersmith
Directed by Tim Rhoze
October 26 – November 10, 2024
Saturdays at 7 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Press opening Sunday, October 27 at 3 pm
Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center
927 Noyes Ave., Evanston
Tickets $32.00. Tickets on sale now at www.fjtheatre.com
Phone 847-866-5914
 
This tour de force theatrical journey builds a sobering brick-by-brick portrait of a society still reckoning with racism in all its insidious forms...the effect is akin to that of a prayer, a poetic plea for understanding and peace that ought to be heard everywhere. Powerful and thought-provoking theatre.
 
THE GLORIA BOND CLUNIE PLAYWRIGHT'S FESTIVAL 2024
Saturday, June 1 at  5pm & 7 pm, Sunday, June 2 at 2 pm & 5pm
Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center
927 Noyes Ave., Evanston
Tickets $10.00. Tickets are sale soon at www.fjtheatre.com
Phone 847-866-5914
 
This festival will take place over two weekends (May 24-26th and May 31-June 2nd) at the FJT's home, the Noyes Cultural Center in Evanston. The first weekend will be for the playwrights to connect with each other, experiment while in workshops and seminars, and spend uninterrupted time developing their play. The second weekend will offer rehearsal time with a director and actors, with public staged readings. 

Schedule of Plays
 
Saturday June 1
4:00pm - BORING BLACK PLAY by Jessica Posey , directed by Melissa Golden
7:30pm - INHERITANCE -OR- BROTHERS FROM THE DEEP by Michael Jones,
directed by Jamal Howard
 
Sunday, June 2
3:00pm - 3 SISTERS FORCED TO FACE THE SKY by Nehanda Julot, directed by Aurelia Clunie

 
TED WILLIAMS III (writer, 1619: THE JOURNEY OF A PEOPLE), is a performing artist and educator who lives to inspire. He has taught Political Science at Wright College, Chicago State University, and currently is the Chairman of the Social Sciences Department at Kennedy-King College. He holds degrees in Public Policy Studies from the University of Chicago and Rutgers University and is the former host of WYCC-PBS Television's THE PROFESSORS weekly talk show. He has provided political commentary for BET-TV, WGN-TV, NBC-TV, UPFRONT WITH JESSE JACKSON, PRI's SMILEY AND WEST, WVON radio, and a host of additional media outlets.
 
He has also appeared in commercials for companies including Empire Carpet, Six Flags, Cheerios, and Subway; and recently appeared in the films HUMAN ZOOS, THE CHRISTMAS THIEF, NBC's CHICAGO PD, and Showtime's THE CHI. Moreover, he is the creator of the productions 1619: THE JOURNEY OF A PEOPLE, TORN the Musical, and of the book THE WAY OUT: CHRISTIANITY, POLITICS, AND THE FUTURE OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY. 1619 was funded by the Illinois Arts Council and was nominated for the 2020 August Wilson Award for the Best Writing of a Musical, by the Black Theater Alliance Awards. He is also a contributor to the Third World Press text, Not Our President and a former candidate for the Chicago City Council. Williams is currently an Illinois Humanities Road Scholar and was appointed by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to serve on the state's Reparations Commission. He considers his most important work his role as a mentor to young people and as a husband and father to Roslyn and their three beautiful children, Gabrielle, Amaris, and Ted IV.
 
NTOZAKE SHANGE (writer, FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE/WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF). Ntozake Shange (1948-2018) was an American author of plays, poetry, and fiction noted for their feminist themes and racial and sexual anger. 

In addition to FOR COLORED GIRLS, Shange created a number of other theatre works that employed poetry, dance, and music (known as "choreopoems") while abandoning conventions of plot and character development. One of the most popular of these was her 1980 adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's MOTHER COURAGE, featuring a Black family in the time of the American Civil War. Some of Shange's other works for the stage are WHERE THE MISSISSIPPI MEETS THE AMAZON (1977), Three Views Of Mt. Fuji (1987), and THE LOVE SPACE DEMANDS: A CONTINUING SAGA (1992).
 
Shange's poetry collections included NAPPY EDGES (1978) and RIDIN' THE MOON IN TEXAS (1987). She also published the novels SASSAFRASS, CYPRESS & INDIGO (1982), about the diverging lives of three sisters and their mother; the semiautobiographical BETSEY BROWN (1985); and LILIANE: RESURRECTION OF THE DAUGHTER (1994), a coming-of-age story about a wealthy Black woman in the American South. In addition, Shange wrote a number of children's books, including WHITEWASH (1997), DADDY SAYS (2003), and ELLINGTON WAS NOT A STREET (2004).
 
CARLIS L. MOODY, JR. (writer/performer THE MOODY EXPERIENCE: MUSIC BEYOND THE MARGINS). is Senior Pastor of Evanston's Faith Temple Church of God in Christ and a Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter who is keeping the spirit of traditional gospel music alive. He has written over 100 songs for traditional and contemporary gospel artists such as, Shirley Caesar, Olanda Draper, Babbie Mason, Melinda Watts, J Moss, Excelsior, and Milton Brunson & the Thompson Community Singers. Pastor Carlis has four Grammy Awards to his credit, one of which is for "Through God's Eyes," two Stella Awards, one Gospel Music Workshop Award, and numerous awards for legendary songs like "I'm Available To You," recorded by the Milton Brunson's Thompson Community Singers.
 
He is active as a choral conductor, director, writer, composer, arranger, clinician, and pianist, who teaches throughout the United States and abroad and has taken his compositions to over 39 countries. At age 16, Pastor Carlis was appointed Music Director at Faith Temple Church in Evanston, Illinois. He faithfully served in this capacity for over 30 years.
 
DAEL ORLANDERSMITH (writer, BEFORE THE FLOOD) is an American actress, poet and playwright. Orlandersmith was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and Drama Desk Award nominee for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Actress in a Play for YELLOWMAN in 2002. THE BLUE ALBUM, in collaboration with David Cale, premiered at Long Wharf Theatre in 2007. Bones was commissioned by the Mark Taper Forum, where it premiered in 2010. She wrote and performed the solo memoir play FOREVER at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, the Long Wharf, New York Theatre Workshop, Portland Center Stage in 2016 and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.
 
In 2016, Orlandersmith wrote and performed UNTIL THE FLOOD, commissioned by St. Louis Repertory Theatre. It was later produced at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, ACT Seattle and Goodman Theatre. Orlandersmith has toured extensively with the Nuyorican Poets Café (Real Live Poetry) throughout the United States, Europe and Australia. YELLOWMAN and a collection of her earlier works have been published by Vintage Books and Dramatists Play Service. She attended Sundance Institute Theatre Lab for four summers and is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, The Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, a Guggenheim and the 2005 PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award for a playwright in mid-career. She is the recipient of a Lucille Lortel Foundation Playwrights Fellowship and an Obie Award for BEAUTY'S DAUGHTER.

TIM RHOZE (Artistic Director) Tim Rhoze has been the Producing Artistic Director of Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre since 2010. His directing credits include: THIS BITTER EARTH, THE BALDWIN - GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE, THE LIGHT, AMERICAN S, ON, HOME, TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES 1992, THE MEETING, FIRES IN THE MIRROR, BLACK BALLERINA (co-writer), NUTCRACKER(ISH), CROWNS, HAVING OUR SAY, FROM THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA, FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF, WOZA ALBERT!, GOING TO ST. IVES, SINGLE BLACK FEMALE, A SONG FOR CORETTA, YELLOWMAN, SWEET, LADY DAY AT EMERSON BAR & GRILL, BEAR COUNTRY, NOBODY, FENCES, PIANO LESSON, AIN'T MISBEHAVIN, K2, THE GLASS MENAGERIE, et. al. Tim is also the writer/director of WHY NOT ME? A SAMMY DAVIS JR. STORY, and MAYA'S LAST POEM, both produced at FJT; and BLACK BALLERINA, produced at FJT and Pittsburgh Public Theatre. He was co-writer and director of A HOME ON THE LAKE, co-produced with the Piven Theatre Workshop.

ABOUT FLEETWOOD-JOURDAIN THEATRE

Founded in 1979, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre is a professional, award-winning theatre company that has been thrilling audiences with over four decades of unique, inspirational, and invigorating African American and African Diaspora-centered storytelling. The company has been honored in the Black Theatre Alliance/Ira Aldridge Awards. From original plays to the best of Broadway, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre has remained committed to supplying the very best in theatre. "Umoja!! ....Working Together in Unity" is the foundation from which FJT began and continues to thrive!

It is our mission to present powerful, thought-provoking, Theater Arts programming with a commitment to diversity and creative excellence. We are dedicated to providing a nurturing and creative environment for directors, playwrights, actors, set, light, and costume designers. In this positive environment, they can further develop their creative skills and share their artistic expressions. The Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre is funded by the City of Evanston and in part by the Illinois Arts Council, A State Agency.