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Showing posts with label Chuck Smith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chuck Smith. Show all posts

Friday, February 2, 2024

Chicago Premiere of The Reclamation of Madison Hemings Via American Blues Theater February 16 – March 24, 2024

 ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar

American Blues Theater continues its 2023-24 Season

with the Chicago Premiere of

The Reclamation of Madison Hemings

Written by Charles Smith

Directed by Ensemble Member Chuck Smith

Featuring Ensemble Member Manny Buckley and Jon Hudson Odom

February 16 – March 24, 2024

at American Blues Theater’s new home, 5627 N. Lincoln Ave.

Tickets on-sale now

American Blues Theater, under the continued leadership of Executive Artistic Director Gwendolyn Whiteside, presents the Chicago premiere of The Reclamation of Madison Hemings, written by Charles Smith and directed by Ensemble Member Chuck Smith. The Reclamation of Madison Hemings will be presented in American Blues Theater’s new permanent home, located at 5627 N Lincoln Ave in Chicago, February 16 – March 24, 2024. The press opening is Thursday, February 22 at 7:30pm. Tickets are on sale now at www.americanbluestheater.com or by calling (773) 654-3103.

It’s 1866, and the Civil War has ended. Madison Hemings, son of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, and Israel Jefferson, formerly enslaved footman, return to Monticello in search of Israel’s long-lost brother. Their search gets sidetracked when Madison decides to claim what’s left of his birthright as the son of an American president. Together, the two men must face their conflicting feelings about the man who wrote “All men are created equal.” Slavery has been abolished, but what has changed? What do we need to keep with us as we move through this world and what should we leave behind?

Executive Artistic Director Gwendolyn Whiteside comments, “Ensemble member Chuck Smith brought this incredible project to us. We immediately connected the poignant themes to our mission. We’re thrilled to work with celebrated playwright Charles Smith, and we’re honored for the opportunity to premiere this script to Chicago audiences.”

The Reclamation of Madison Hemings will play in the new home of American Blues Theater. The new venue, which had its first public performance on December 8, 2023, includes two theaters (137-seat proscenium and 40-seat flexible studio); an inviting lobby with box office, bar, and concessions; gendered and all-gendered restrooms; dressing rooms and greenroom; administrative offices; production spaces for scenery, props, and costumes; a small on-site parking lot with ample street parking.

The cast of The Reclamation of Madison Hemings includes Jon Hudson Odom (Madison Hemings) and Manny Buckley* (Israel Jefferson).

The creative team includes Jonathan Berg-Einhorn (scenic/props), Jared Gooding* & Rachel West* (co-lighting), Lily Walls* (costumes), Rick Sims* (sound), Warren Levon* (associate sound), and Richard Lundy (stage management).

*Denotes Ensemble member or Artistic Affiliate of American Blues Theater.

 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

CHARLES SMITH (Playwright) – Charles Smith’s plays include The Reclamation of Madison Hemings, Objects in the Mirror, Free Man of Color, Knock Me a Kiss, The Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues, Freefall, The Gospel According to James, Jelly Belly, Pudd’nhead Wilson, Les Trois Dumas, Denmark, Sister Carrie, The Sutherland, Black Star Line, Takunda, Cane, and City of Gold. His plays have been produced by Indiana Repertory Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, The Acting Company, People’s Light, The New Federal Theatre, Penumbra, Crossroads Theatre Company, Shakespeare & Company, Penguin Repertory Theatre, Ujima Theatre Company, The Colony Theatre, St. Louis Black Rep, Weissberger Theater Group, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Jubilee Theatre, Ensemble Theatre in Houston, Pegasus Theatre Chicago, Westcoast Black Rep., Robey Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theater, Ensemble Theatre in Cleveland, Independent Theatre in Adelaide, South Australia, the HBO New Writers Project, the International Children’s Theater Festival in Seattle, and The National Black Theatre Festival. He has been commissioned by Cleveland Play House and The Acting Company, and has received multiple commissions from Victory Gardens, Indiana Rep, and Goodman. His awards include a Joseph Jefferson Award, a John W. Schmid Award, two Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards, the Illinois Arts Council Governors Award, the Joyce Award, the Cornerstone National Playwriting Award, The National Black Theatre Festival’s August Wilson Playwriting Award, Princess Grace Fellowship, the Theodore Ward National Playwriting Award, two Black Theatre Alliance Awards for New Work, the NBC New Voices Award, and numerous other AUDELCO, Jeff, NAACP, and Black Theatre Alliance award nominations. He is an alumnus of New Dramatists, a graduate of the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop, one of the founding members of the Playwrights Ensemble at the Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago, Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Presidential Research Scholar in the Arts and Humanities at Ohio University and has taught playwriting at Northwestern University, for the Prague Summer Program in Creative Writing in the Czech Republic, and for the Center for Dramatic Art in Groznjan, Croatia. His plays may be obtained through Dramatic Publishing, Samuel French, Northwestern Press, Smith and Kraus, Swallow Press, and Alexander Street Press. 

CHUCK SMITH (Director) is an Ensemble member of American Blues Theater where he directed Leroi Jones’ Dutchman and Flyin’ West. He is a member of Goodman Theatre’s Board of Trustees and is a Goodman Theatre Resident Director. He is also a resident director at the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe in Sarasota, Florida. Goodman credits include the Chicago premieres of Pullman Porter Blues; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; Race; The Good Negro; Proof and The Story; the world premieres of By the Music of the Spheres and The Gift Horse; James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner, which transferred to Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company, where it won the Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Award for Best Direction; A Raisin in the Sun; Blues for an Alabama Sky; August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, Two Trains Running and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Objects in the Mirror, Having Our Say, Ain’t Misbehavin’ the 1993 to 1995 productions of A Christmas Carol; Crumbs From the Table of Joy; Vivisections from a Blown Mind and The Meeting. He served as dramaturg for the Goodman’s world-premiere production of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean. He directed the New York premiere of Knock Me a Kiss and The Hooch for the New Federal Theatre and the world premiere of Knock Me a Kiss at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theater, where his other directing credits include Master Harold... and the Boys, Home, Dame Lorraine and Eden, for which he received a Jeff Award nomination. Regionally, Mr. Smith directed Death and the King’s Horseman (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Birdie Blue (Seattle Repertory Theatre), Jitney and Gem of the Ocean (Nashville Shakespeare Festival), The Story (Milwaukee Repertory Theater), Blues for an Alabama Sky (Alabama Shakespeare Festival) and The Last Season (Robey Theatre Company). At Columbia College he was facilitator of the Theodore Ward Prize playwriting contest for 20 years and editor of the contest anthologies Seven Black Plays and Best Black Plays. He won a Chicago Emmy Award as associate producer/theatrical director for the NBC teleplay “Crime of Innocence” and was theatrical director for the Emmy-winning “Fast Break to Glory” and the Emmy-nominated “The Martin Luther King Suite”. He was a founding member of the Chicago Theatre Company, where he served as artistic director for four seasons and directed the Jeff-nominated Suspenders and the Jeff-winning musical Po’. His directing credits include productions at Fisk University, Vanderbilt University, Roosevelt University, Eclipse Theatre, ETA, Black Ensemble Theater, Northlight Theatre, MPAACT, Congo Square Theatre Company, The New Regal Theater, Kuumba Theatre Company, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, Pegasus Players, the Timber Lake Playhouse in Mt. Carroll, Illinois, the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, and the University of Wisconsin in Madison. In 2019 he received an Honorary Ph.D. from his alma mater Governors State University and has received lifetime achievement awards from The African-American Arts Alliance of Chicago, the League of Chicago Theaters and the Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee. He is a 2003 inductee into the Chicago State University Gwendolyn Brooks Center’s Literary Hall of Fame and a 2001 Chicago Tribune Chicagoan of the Year. He is the proud recipient of the 1982 Paul Robeson Award and the 1997 Award of Merit presented by the Black Theater Alliance of Chicago.

JON HUDSON ODOM (Madison Hemings) previously appeared at American Blues Theater in On Clover Road. Other Chicago credits include No Man’s Land, Describe the Night, The Seagull, Ms. Black For President (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Toni Stone, A Christmas Carol (Goodman Theatre); Witch (Writers Theatre). Regional credits include: Ain’t No Mo’, An Octoroon, Botticelli in the Fire, Shipwreck (Woolly Mammoth Theatre); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Denver Center for the Performing Arts); The Magic Play (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Angels in America (Round House Theatre & Olney Theatre Center). TV credits include: “Lovecraft Country “(HBO), “Somebody Somewhere” (HBO Max), “South Side” (HBO Max), “Chicago PD” (NBC). Film credits include: “The Year Between”, “A Savage Nature”, “Reporting for Christmas.” He is a five-time nominee and recipient of the Helen Hayes Awards & Jeff Award nominee. He attended University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

MANNY BUCKLEY (Israel Jefferson) is an Ensemble member of American Blues Theater. He is a Chicago based actor, director, and writer. Directing credits include Driving Miss Daisy, The Bad Seed (Jedlicka Performing Arts), Kingdom, an audio play (Broken Nose Theatre), Uhuru, Cane, Origin Story, Mother of Pearl and The Reapers On Woodbrook Avenue (Blue Ink Festival), multiple short plays in the Ripped: The Living Newspaper, #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence, and The One Minute Play Festival. Acting credits include work with Chicago Shakespeare, Steppenwolf, Goodman, Court, Victory Gardens, Chicago Dramatists, Next Theater, House Theatre, Shattered Globe Theater, Cincinnati Children’s Theatre and Studio Theatre. Manny has numerous credits with American Blues Theater, including his critically-acclaimed, award-winning solo performance in Looking Over the President’s Shoulder. Film and TV credits include: Proven Innocent, Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, The US Navy, Northwestern University, and The Onion. He has received nominations for the Joseph Jefferson Award, the Helen Hayes Award and the 3Arts Award; he is the recipient of both a Black Theater Alliance Award and Black Excellence Award. Mr. Buckley was recently seen in American Blues Theater’s sold-out production of Fences and annually in American Blues' annual production of It's a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!

Dates: 

February 16 – March 24, 2024

Previews: February 16, 71, 18 and 21

Opening: February 22 at 7:30pm

Regular Run: February 23 – March 24, 2024

 

Schedule:                    

Thursdays: 7:30pm

Fridays: 7:30pm

Saturdays: 7:30pm

Sundays: 2:30pm

 

Location: American Blues Theater, 5627 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago

Ticket prices: $25-$55, plus a $4.50 ticket fee

Box office:  Buy online at www.americanbluestheater.com or by calling (773) 654-3103.

About American Blues Theater

Winner of the prestigious National Theatre Company Award from American Theatre Wing (Tony Awards). American Blues Theater is an Ensemble of artists committed to producing new and classic American stories that ask the question: “What does it mean to be American?”

The diverse and multi-generational artists have established the second-oldest professional Ensemble theater in Chicago. As of 2023, the theater and artists received 232 Joseph Jefferson Awards and nominations that celebrate excellence in Chicago theater and 44 Black Theatre Alliance Awards. The artists are honored with Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize nominations, Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Emmy Awards and numerous other accolades. 


Friday, November 30, 2018

Welcome five new American Blues Theater Ensemble members

Welcome five new American Blues Theater Ensemble members
Elyse Dolan, Jared Gooding, Philip Earl Johnson, Chuck Smith, and Wandachristine,
 and new Artistic Affiliate Zachary Stevenson


American Blues Theater announces the addition of five new Ensemble members and one new Artistic Affiliate to the Blues family. Joining the Ensemble is director, designer and Associate Producer Elyse Dolan, who directed several works in past Ripped and Blue Ink festivals; designer Jared Gooding, lighting designer of Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story; actor Philip Earl Johnson, who is slated to appear in the upcoming Chicago premiere of Steven Dietz’s On Clover Road; director Chuck Smith, director of the recent American Blues production of Pearl Cleage’s Flyin’ West; and actress and playwright Wandachristine, who won many awards for her solo performance Beauty’s Daughter. Actor Zachary Stevenson has been named an Artistic Affiliate. Stevenson recently made his Chicago debut as “Buddy Holly” in American Blues Theater’s Joseph Jefferson Award-winning musical Buddy – the Buddy Holly Story, in which he also won a Jeff Award for Performance in a Musical.

“We are thrilled to announce the addition of these incredible artists into the Ensemble and Artistic Affiliates. We’ve enjoyed amazing collaborations with all of these artists over the years and are so excited to deepen our commitment to making great art together. We look forward to the amazing work we have planned with this extremely talented group in upcoming seasons,” comments Gwendolyn Whiteside, Artistic Director of American Blues Theater.

About the Artists

ELYSE DOLAN is a proud Ensemble member of American Blues Theater where she is also the Associate Producer. She has directed several short plays in past Ripped festivals, staged readings in the annual Blue Ink Festival, and has been Assistant Director on a handful shows including Six Corners (dir. Gary Griffin) and Little Shop of Horrors (dir. Jonathan Berry). Her directing work has been seen across Chicago at The New Colony (where she is also their Director of Education), Broken Nose Theatre, Prop Thtr, Commission Theatre, Babes with Blades, 20% Theatre Company, Pride Films & Plays, and more. She has also served as Assistant Director on productions at Raven Theatre, Oracle Theatre, 16th Street Theater, and Redtwist Theatre. She also does set dressing and properties design for the annual production of It’s a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago! Elyse holds a B.A. from Denison University.

JARED GOODING is a proud Ensemble member of American Blues Theater where he has designed lighting for Flyin’ West, Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story, This Wonderful Life, Beauty’s Daughter, and The Columnist. His other design credits include the Associate Design of Lookingglass Alice (Lookingglass Theatre Company), serving as the Lighting Assistant for The Wiz Live on NBC, designs for Victory Gardens Theater, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, UIC Theatre, Writers Theatre, Strawdog Theatre, The Hypocrites, TimeLine Theatre, Madison Children's Theatre, Definition Theatre, Windy City Playhouse, Sideshow Theatre, First Floor Theater, About Face Theatre, MPAACT, Pegasus Theatre, Next Theatre, Congo Square Theatre, Citadel Theatre, ETA, and Fleetwood Jourdain Theatre. He is a company member with MPACCT. He spends his off time managing a DJ company for Chicago area bars.

PHILIP EARL JOHNSON is a proud Ensemble member of American Blues Theater where he performed in David Auburn’s Chicago premiere of The Columnist and upcoming Chicago premiere Steven Dietz’s On Clover Road. He has appeared Goodman Theater in Enemy of the People, Talking Pictures, The Actor and Brutality of Fact. Other Chicago credits include: A Christmas Story at The Paramount Theatre; Danny Casolaro Died For You at TimeLine Theatre Company; The Dance of Death and Old Glory at Writers Theatre; The Royale and The Big Meal (Jeff Award for Best Ensemble) at American Theatre Company; Tartuffe, Skylight, James Joyce's The Dead and The Mystery Cycle at Court Theatre; Picasso at the Lapin Agile at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and The Conquest of The South Pole at Famous Door Theatre. He was in the first national tour of Angels in America: Millenium Approaches and Perestroika, launching at The Royal George Theatre. He has spent 10 seasons at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival appearing in many productions including the title roles in Macbeth, Cyrano De Bergerac, Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra. Other regional credits include A Moon for The Misbegotten at Laguna Playhouse and Just Men at Stella Adler Theatre. Recent television credits include “Empire”, “Chicago Med”, “Chicago Fire”, and “Mind Games”. When not in Chicago, he tours the country with his European-style clown act MooNiE: Juggler Ropewalker, Foolish Mortal!

CHUCK SMITH is a proud Ensemble member of American Blues Theater where he directed Pearl Cleage’s Flyin’ West and Leroi Jones’ Dutchman. He is a member of Goodman Theatre’s Board of Trustees and is Goodman Theatre’s Resident Director. He is also a resident director at the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe in Sarasota, Florida. Goodman credits include the Chicago premieres of Pullman Porter Blues; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; Race; The Good Negro; Proof; and The Story; the world premieres of By the Music of the Spheres and The Gift Horse; James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner, which transferred to Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company, where it won the Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Award for Best Direction; A Raisin in the Sun; Blues for an Alabama Sky; August Wilson’s Two Trains Running and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Objects in the Mirror; Having Our Say; Ain’t Misbehavin’; the 1993 to 1995 productions of A Christmas Carol; Crumbs From the Table of Joy; Vivisections from a Blown Mind; and The Meeting. He served as dramaturg for the Goodman’s world-premiere production of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean. He directed the New York premiere of Knock Me a Kiss and The Hooch for the New Federal Theatre and the world premiere of Knock Me a Kiss at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theater, where his other directing credits include Master Harold... and the Boys, Home, Dame Lorraine, and Eden, for which he received a Jeff Award nomination. Regionally, Mr. Smith directed Death and the King’s Horseman (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Birdie Blue (Seattle Repertory Theatre), The Story (Milwaukee Repertory Theater), Blues for an Alabama Sky (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), and The Last Season (Robey Theatre Company). At Columbia College he was facilitator of the Theodore Ward Prize playwriting contest for 20 years and editor of the contest anthologies Seven Black Plays and Best Black Plays. He won a Chicago Emmy Award as associate producer/theatrical director for the NBC teleplay Crime of Innocence and was theatrical director for the Emmy-winning Fast Break to Glory and the Emmy-nominated The Martin Luther King Suite. He was a founding member of the Chicago Theatre Company, where he served as artistic director for four seasons and directed the Jeff-nominated Suspenders and the Jeff-winning musical Po’. His directing credits include productions at Fisk University, Roosevelt University, Eclipse Theatre, ETA, Black Ensemble Theater, Northlight Theatre, MPAACT, Congo Square Theatre, The New Regal Theater, Kuumba Theatre Company, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, Pegasus Players, the Timber Lake Playhouse in Mt. Carroll, Illinois, the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, and the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He is a 2003 inductee into the Chicago State University Gwendolyn Brooks Center’s Literary Hall of Fame and a 2001 Chicago Tribune Chicagoan of the Year. He is the proud recipient of the 1982 Paul Robeson Award and the 1997 Award of Merit presented by the Black Theater Alliance of Chicago.

WANDACHRISTINE is a proud Ensemble member of American Blues Theater. She has starred on many stages throughout the country in such notable productions as the touring company of Fences, The Vagina Monologues, Gees Bend, and Thyestes just to name a few. She was recognized for her work in the acclaimed production of Old Settler; for which she was a Supporting Actress nominee for the prestigious Joseph Jefferson Award and a Best Actress nominee for the noted Ruby Dee/Black Theater Alliance Award as well. Once again she was recognized for her work in another acclaimed production, produced by American Blues Theater, Beauty’s Daughter and this time she won the Ruby Dee/Black Theater Alliance Award for her solo performance.  Earlier this year she toured in Dani Gurira’s (“Black Panther” and “Walking Dead”) production of Familiar.  Now she’s hard at work appearing in the new staging of A Wonder in My Soul at Baltimore Center Stage. On film she’s worked alongside of Whoppie Goldberg in “Clara’s Heart”, starred in the hit comedy as Mrs. Jones, in the film “Me and Mrs. Jones” with Kym Fields, and Birdie on “Chicago PD”.  Her voice can be heard daily in numerous television and radio commercials, along with a few animated characters, for such shows as “The PJ’s”, “The Justice League” and “Scarface” the video game. She’s written her first fiction novel, “I LOVE YOU MORE…THAN SHOES!”, which is about four actresses over 50 still trying to make it in Hollywood. As a playwright, she now has two plays that will be produced soon; “One Day?” and “Sammy, Harry, Oscar and Me…Morris”, this one will be directed by another Blues Ensemble member Chuck Smith.

ZACHARY STEVENSON is a proud Artistic Affiliate of American Blues Theater who recently made his Chicago debut as “Buddy Holly” in American Blues Theater’s Joseph Jefferson Award-winning musical Buddy – the Buddy Holly Story, in which Zach also won a Jeff Award for Performance in a Musical. Originally from Vancouver Island, Canada, Zach recently relocated to Chicago after spending the last few years being based in Kansas City, MO. Select credits include: Million Dollar Quartet (Paramount Theatre – “Carl” U/S), Hair (CanStage), Ring of Fire (Chemainus Theatre Festival / Western Canada Theatre), Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave (Blue Bridge Repertory), Urinetown (Belfry Theatre), Red Rock Diner (Arts Club Theatre), Assassins (Quintessence), and over ten productions of Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story throughout the US and Canada, for which he’s been nominated for a Jessie Richardson Award and Ovation Award. Zachary has also had the pleasure of music directing several productions, including Million Dollar Quartet (Arts Club), and Ring of Fire (Chemainus Theatre Festival), as well as performing in countless headlining concerts across North America. Off stage, Zach is busy writing a one-man show about the 1960s folksinger and activist, Phil Ochs.

About American Blues Theater 
Winner of the American Theatre Wing’s prestigious 2016 National Theatre Company Award, American Blues Theater is a premier arts organization with an intimate environment that patrons, artists, and all Chicagoans call home.  American Blues Theater explores the American identity through the plays it produces and communities it serves. 

The diverse and multi-generational artists have established the second-oldest professional Equity Ensemble theater in Chicago.  The 33-member Ensemble has 600+ combined years of collaboration on stage. As of 2018, the theater and artists received 195 Joseph Jefferson Awards and nominations that celebrate excellence in Chicago theater and over 35 Black Theatre Alliance Awards. The artists are honored with Pulitzer Prize nominations, Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Emmy Awards and numerous other accolades.   

American Blues Theater programs and activities are made possible, in part by funding by The MacArthur Funds for Arts & Culture at Prince, the Shubert Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, SMART Growth Grant, Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, Anixter Foundation, Actors’ Equity Foundation, and the Chip Pringle Fund. ComEd is the Season Lighting Sponsor.


Friday, September 9, 2016

New Ensemble Member and Artistic Affiliates to Join American Blues Theater

American Blues Theater announces
new Ensemble member Darren Canady
and Artistic Affiliates Rohina Malik, Chuck Smith 
and Nathan Singh



American Blues Theater announces the addition of a new Ensemble member and three new Artistic Affiliates. Joining the Ensemble is playwright Darren Canady whose world-premiere commission TRANSit is currently playing in repertory with Dutchman. Joining American Blues’ family of Artistic Affiliates is lauded director Chuck Smith, who directed Blue’s current production of Dutchman, as well as Nathan Singh, assistant director of TRANSit. Finally, critically-acclaimed playwright and performer Rohina Malik, who is currently working on a new play commission for Blues about the Muslim-American experience, has also been named an Artistic Affiliate.

“We’re thrilled to announce our commitment to these exceptional artists. While working with each of them, we felt their artistry and collaborative spirit would greatly enhance our growing American Blues family,” said Producing Artistic Director Gwendolyn Whiteside


About the Artists


Darren Canady is a proud Ensemble member of American Blues Theater. Currently his world-premiere commission TRANSit is playing in repertory with Dutchman at American Blues Theater. His work has been produced at the Alliance Theatre, Congo Square Theater, Horizon Theatre, London’s the Old Vic Theatre, M Ensemble, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, American Blues Theater, and others. His awards include the Alliance Theater's Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Award, Chicago’s Black Excellence Award, the Black Theatre Alliance Award, the American Theatre Critics Association’s Osborn Award, and Joseph Jefferson Award nomination. His play You’re Invited appeared in The Best American Short Plays 2010-2011. His work has been developed at the Fremont Centre Theatre, Premiere Stages, and Penumbra Theatre. He is an alum of Carnegie Mellon University, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, The Juilliard School, and is a former member of Primary Stages’ Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group. He is also an artistic affiliate of Congo Square Theatre. He currently teaches playwriting at the University of Kansas.


Rohina Malik is a proud Artistic Affiliate of American Blues Theater. She is commissioned by Blues to write a play about the Muslim-American experience. She's a critically acclaimed playwright and solo performance artist. She was born and raised in London, England, of South Asian heritage. Her one-woman play UNVEILED had its world premiere at the 16th Street Theater, where it received critical acclaim. Rohina’s second play THE MECCA TALES was produced by Chicago Dramatists in 2015 and nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work. Her new play, YASMINA’S NECKLACE, had its world premiere at the 16th Street Theater in January 2016, and was recently nominated for a Jeff Award for Best New Work. She is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists, an Artistic Associate at American Blues Theater, 16th Street Theater and Voyage Theater Company in NYC. Her plays have been produced at the 16th Street Theater, Victory Gardens Theater, Crossroads Theater, Next Theater, Brava Theater, Voyage Theater Company, Silk Road Rising, Theater Project Baltimore and Mustard Seed Theater. UNVEILED was recently presented in two South African Theater festivals: The Grahamstown Arts Festival and the 969 Festival in Johannesburg. Rohina is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America.


Chuck Smith is a proud Artistic Affiliate of American Blues Theater.  He recently directed Dutchman at American Blues Theater. He is member of Goodman Theatre’s Board of Trustees and is Goodman Theatre’s Resident Director. He is also a resident director at the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe in Sarasota, Florida. Goodman credits include the Chicago premieres of Pullman Porter Blues; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; Race; The Good Negro; Proof; and The Story; the world premieres of By the Music of the Spheres and The Gift Horse; James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner, which transferred to Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company, where it won the Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Award for Best Direction; A Raisin in the Sun; Blues for an Alabama Sky; August Wilson’s Two Trains Running and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Ain’t Misbehavin’; the 1993 to 1995 productions of A Christmas Carol; Crumbs From the Table of Joy; Vivisections from a Blown Mind; and The Meeting. He served as dramaturg for the Goodman’s world-premiere production of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean. He directed the New York premiere of Knock Me a Kiss and The Hooch for the New Federal Theatre and the world premiere of Knock Me a Kiss at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theater, where his other directing credits include Master Harold... and the Boys, Home, Dame Lorraine, and Eden, for which he received a Jeff Award nomination. Regionally, Mr. Smith directed Death and the King’s Horseman (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Birdie Blue (Seattle Repertory Theatre), The Story (Milwaukee Repertory Theater), Blues for an Alabama Sky (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), and The Last Season (Robey Theatre Company). At Columbia College he was facilitator of the Theodore Ward Prize playwriting contest for 20 years and editor of the contest anthologies Seven Black Plays and Best Black Plays. He won a Chicago Emmy Award as associate producer/theatrical director for the NBC teleplay Crime of Innocence and was theatrical director for the Emmy-winning Fast Break to Glory and the Emmy-nominated The Martin Luther King Suite. He was a founding member of the Chicago Theatre Company, where he served as artistic director for four seasons and directed the Jeff-nominated Suspenders and the Jeff-winning musical Po’. His directing credits include productions at Fisk University, Roosevelt University, Eclipse Theatre, ETA, Black Ensemble Theater, Northlight Theatre, MPAACT, Congo Square Theatre Company, The New Regal Theater, Kuumba Theatre Company, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, Pegasus Players, the Timber Lake Playhouse in Mt. Carroll, Illinois, and the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He is a 2003 inductee into the Chicago State University Gwendolyn Brooks Center’s Literary Hall of Fame and a 2001 Chicago Tribune Chicagoan of the Year. He is the proud recipient of the 1982 Paul Robeson Award and the 1997 Award of Merit presented by the Black Theater Alliance of Chicago.


Nathan Singh is a proud Artistic Affiliate of American Blues Theater.  He recently assistant directed TRANSit at American Blues Theater. Currently pursuing his MFA in Directing at The Theatre School at DePaul University. He recently directed The Children's Hour, In The Blood, Women, and The Great God Pan at The Theatre School. In April, he will be directing Wig Out! in their Fullerton Theatre.

About American Blues Theater
American Blues Theater is the premier American theater producing visceral theatrical works while engaging its audience in missions of local service agencies.  American Blues Theater illuminates the American ideas of freedom, equality, and opportunity in the plays produced and communities served.

The multi-generational and inter disciplined artists have established the second-oldest professional Equity Ensemble theater in Chicago.  The 37-member Ensemble has 532+ combined years of collaboration on stage. As of 2016, the theater and artists received 186 Joseph Jefferson Awards and nominations that celebrate excellence in Chicago theater and over 31 Black Theatre Alliance Awards. The artists are honored with Pulitzer Prize nominations, Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Emmy Awards and numerous other accolades.  


The American Blues Theater Ensemble includes all four Founders Ed Blatchford, Rick Cleveland, James Leaming, and William Payne with Dawn Bach, Matthew Brumlow, Manny Buckley, Kate Buddeke, Sarah Burnham, Dara Cameron, Casey Campbell, Darren Canady, Brian Claggett, Dennis Cockrum, Austin Cook, Laura Coover, Ian Paul Custer, Lauri Dahl, Joe Foust, Cheryl Graeff, Marty Higginbotham, Jaclyn Holsey, Lindsay Jones, Nambi E. Kelley, Kevin R. Kelly, Steve Key, Ed Kross, Warren Levon, Michael Mahler, Heather Meyers, John Mohrlein, Christopher J. Neville, Suzanne Petri, Carmen Roman, Editha Rosario, Sarah E. Ross, and Gwendolyn Whiteside.

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