American Blues Theater, under the continued leadership of Artistic Director Gwendolyn Whiteside, announces “The Room”, a brand-new reading series that brings original work, plays in development, and new stories to Chicago audiences. Offering in-depth discussions as well as action steps for patrons that intersect with themes of the plays, “The Room” will debut virtually via Zoom for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic with the intent to transition into an in-person experience in the future. Inaugurating the series is A Shot: #A Love Story Inspired by Black Lives Matter by Gloria Bond Clunie, directed by Ensemble member Chuck Smith and featuring Ensemble members Wandachristine and Ian Paul Custer. Artistic Affiliate Cara Parrish is the Production Stage Manager. The reading of A Shot: #A Love Story Inspired by Black Lives Matter takes place Friday, August 7, 2020 at 7pm.
Gwendolyn Whiteside notes, “It has long been our desire to host a regular reading series to highlight new work, original commissions, and plays in development. Postponing our in-person work due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic allowed us time to launch the reading series. While we anxiously await the day when we can safely gather together in-person again, we’re thrilled to connect with audiences virtually via ‘The Room’.”
Tickets for A Shot: #A Love Story Inspired by Black Lives Matter are Pay-what-you-can with a suggested donation of $10, and are currently on sale at www.americanbluestheater.com. Ticket holders will be sent a pre-reading email complete with instructions on joining the virtual reading via Zoom.
Future readings in “The Room” series include:
September
Yes, My Name is...Lucy
Written by Ensemble member Wandachristine
Directed by Ensemble member Chuck Smith
Featuring Tony Award winner Deanna Dunagan & Artistic Affiliate Camille Robinson
October
Alma
Written by Benjamin Benne
Directed Ana Velazquez
Winner of 2019 Blue Ink Playwriting Award
November
Days of Decision - the music of Phil Ochs
Written & performed by Artistic Affiliate Zachary Stevenson
Songs by Phil Ochs
December
Red Bike
Written by Caridad Svich
ABOUT A Shot: A Love Story Inspired by Black Lives Matter
Friday, August 7, 2020 at 7pm
Runs: 35 minutes; followed immediately by a post-show discussion
When Mrs. Nettie Morris (Wandachristine) goes to the storefront campaign office of congressional hopeful Jeffrey Talbott (Ian Paul Custer) determined to save her grandson from Chicago’s violent streets and incarceration with an ingenious plan – a very personal life and death struggle takes a surprising turn.
GLORIA BOND CLUNIE (playwright) is an award-winning playwright, director, and educator. She is a founding member of the Playwriting Ensemble at Chicago’s regional Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theater where her plays North Star, Living Green, and Shoes premiered and the founding Artistic Director of Evanston’s Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre. Other works by this Northwestern University graduate (B.A. Theater, MFA-Directing) include Sweet Water Taste, Smoke, Blu, Quark, Buck Naked, Bankruptcy, #Lovestories inspired by Black Lives Matter, My Wonderful Birthday Suit, and the adaptation of The Last Stop on Market Street. Theaters presenting her work include The Goodman, Triad Stage, Chicago Children’s Theater, Children’s Theater of Charlotte, and Orlando Shakespeare. This Dramatist Guild Fellow has numerous awards including a Chicago Jeff, Theodore Ward African-American Playwriting Prizes, NEA and Illinois Arts Council Fellowships, the American Alliance for Theater’s Education Distinguished Play Award, YWCA YWomen Leadership Award, a Dramatist Guild Fellowship, and the Evanston Mayor’s Award for the Arts.
CHUCK SMITH (director) is a proud Ensemble member of American Blues Theater. At Blues, he directed Leroi Jones’ Dutchman and Pearl Cleage’s Flyin’ West. 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 (Mrs. Nettie Morris) is a proud Ensemble member of American Blues Theater. She has starred on many stages throughout the country in notable productions as the touring company of Fences, The Vagina Monologues, Gee’s Bend, and Thyestes. For her work in Old Settler, she received a Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Supporting Actress and a Best Actress nomination for the noted Ruby Dee/Black Theater Alliance Award. For her work in American Blues Theater’s production of Beauty’s Daughter, she won the Ruby Dee/Black Theater Alliance Award for her solo performance. She’s toured regionally in Danai Gurira’s (“Black Panther” & “Walking Dead”) production of Familiar as well as the San Diego’s Old Globe production. Other recent productions include A Wonder in My Soul at Baltimore Center Stage and Incendiary at Goodman Theater. In film she’s worked alongside Whoopie Goldberg in “Clara’s Heart” and starred in the hit comedy as Mrs. Jones in “Me and Mrs. Jones” with Kym Fields. She’s appeared in the television series “Chicago PD”, numerous commercials, and voiced the animated characters in “The PJ’s”, “The Justice League”, and “Scarface” the video game. She’s written a fiction novel, “I Love You More…Than Shoes!” about four actresses over 50 years old still trying to make it in Hollywood; she working on a Zoom production of the popular novel. As a playwright, she’s written for American Blues Theater’s Ripped Festival for 3 years. Her newest play, Yes, My Name is…Lucy! was commissioned by Ensemble member Chuck Smith. It will receive a reading in American Blues Theater’s The Room – reading series. To all her friends, she’s known as…”The Woman Who Can Do It All!”
IAN PAUL CUSTER (Jeffrey Talbott) is a proud Ensemble member of American Blues Theater. He’s previously appeared in Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story (Jeff Award – Best Ensemble, Best Musical), Little Shop of Horrors, The Columnist, and 8 years with It’s a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago! Chicago credits: 33 Variations (Jeff Award – Best Production), To Master the Art (TimeLine Theater/Broadway Playhouse); Bad Jews (Theatre Wit); Annie Bosh is Missing (Steppenwolf Theatre, Next Up); High Holidays (Goodman Theatre); Princess and the Pea (Marriott Theatre); Watson’s Go to Birmingham (Chicago Children’s Theatre). Regional credits: Hero: The Musical (Asolo Rep) and Peter Pan (360 Entertainment – London, UK). Television credits: “APB” and “Empire” (FOX); “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago PD (NBC). Ian is a graduate of The Theater School at DePaul University and is represented by Gray Talent Group.
CARA PARRISH (stage manager) is a proud Artistic Affiliate of American Blues Theater where is also the Human Resources Coordinator. Chicago credits: Gem of the Ocean, Electra, Hard Problem, Photograph 51, Five Guys Named Moe, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, & Lady From the Sea (Court Theatre); WITCH, Port Authority, Yellow Moon, The Letters, The Caretaker, Death of a Streetcar Named Virginia Woolf, & The Blond, The Brunette, and the Vengeful Redhead (Writers Theatre); Too Heavy for Your Pocket & The Vibrator Play (TimeLine Theatre Company); James and the Giant Peach (Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook); Jabari Dreams of Freedom (Chicago Children’s Theatre); Romeo and Juliet & Emma (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Beauty’s Daughter & Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (American Blues Theater). Cara is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.
ABOUT American Blues Theater
Winner of the American Theatre Wing’s prestigious 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 31-member Ensemble has 600+ combined years of collaboration on stage. As of 2020, the theater and artists received 221 Joseph Jefferson Awards and nominations that celebrate excellence in Chicago theater and 38 Black Theatre Alliance Awards. The artists are honored with Pulitzer Prize nominations, Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Emmy Awards and numerous other accolades.