Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, the Evanston theatre company with a mission of delivering unique, inspirational, and invigorating Black American and African Diaspora-centered storytelling, has announced its 2025 season. Tim Rhoze, Artistic Director of the company founded in 1979, revealed the company’s programming today. All performances will be at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Art Center at 927 Noyes Street, Evanston.
The season will open with the World Premiere of a stage adaptation of the creative nonfiction book HONEYPOT: BLACK SOUTHERN WOMEN WHO LOVE WOMEN, by E. Patrick Johnson, Dean of the School of Communication at Northwestern University. The stage adaptation by D. Soyini Madison, Professor Emerita at NU, retells the oral histories of some 25 women-loving women through the genre of “performance ethnography.” The real-world interviews recounted in Dr. Johnson’s book are presented within a fantasy framework in which Johnson dreams of being kidnapped to a place in which this community of women is depicted as a hive of bees. Music, dance, prose, and poetry will be employed along with oral histories to tell the stories of these women, whose ages range from late teens to elders. Their histories include pain and abuse but also joy, love, and personal growth. A cast of eight will perform all roles, including the 25 women whose oral histories are presented, and other characters. HONEYPOT: BLACK SOUTHERN WOMEN WHO LOVE WOMEN will open to the press on Sunday, May 18 at 3 pm, following a preview on Saturday, May 17 at 7 pm, and runs 7 pm Saturdays and 3 pm Sundays through June 1.
In addition to its 2025 season, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre is proud to announce the second annual GLORIA BOND CLUNIE PLAYWRIGHT’S FESTIVAL. This new play development initiative honors the incredible career and legacy of Gloria Bond Clunie, founder of Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre. 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. Plays and playwrights will be announced later.
The Second Annual Gloria Bond Clunie Playwright's Festival will present stage readings of three new plays that were selected for the festival from over 50 submissions. The festival will present two short one-act play readings on Saturday, and a full-length play reading on Sunday. Single-day tickets ($10) and a festival weekend package ($15) are available for purchase.
This year’s festival will again take place over two weekends (June 20-22 and June 28 and 29) at FJT’s home, the Noyes Cultural Arts Center in Evanston. The first weekend will be for the playwrights to connect with each other, experiment while in workshops with directors and actors, and attend seminars with produced playwrights. The second weekend will offer additional rehearsal time with the directors and actors and present their works in public stage readings on Saturday at 5 pm and 7 pm, and Sunday at 3 pm.
In July, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theater will present Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s PASS OVER, a provocative riff on WAITING FOR GODOT and THE BOOK OF EXODUS in which two young Black men, Moses and Kitch, stand around on an urban street corner passing time and hoping that maybe today will offer them a way out of their cycle of violence and poverty and deliver them to a "promised land," reminiscent of The Book of Exodus. This will be the first Chicago area production of the play since its world premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre in 2017, and thus the first area production of the script as it was revised for Broadway in 2018. The CHICAGO TRIBUNE’s Chris Jones said of the revised script, “’Pass Over’ is no longer just an expression of authorial fury at the killing of young Black men by the police, but a play that embraces intersectionality and says, in essence, that we all need to start over and recalibrate… Nwandu has moved toward humanization, complexity, and compassion without sacrificing her radical political vision.” PASS OVER will open to the press on July 27 at 3 pm after a preview on July 26 at 7 pm and runs 7 pm Saturdays and 3 pm Sundays through August 17.
The 2025 season will conclude in November with the return of THE BALDWIN | GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE, a devised piece by Tim Rhoze and Bria Walker-Rhoze that premiered at FJT in 2023. The piece is inspired by the 1971 broadcast conversation between James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni. The words of Baldwin and Giovanni are complemented by an original musical score, choreography, and mural artwork. Rhoze and Walker-Rhoze have revised and expanded the piece since its 2023 premiere. THE BALDWIN | GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE will open to the press on Sunday, November 2 at 3 pm, following a preview on Saturday, November 1 at 7 pm, and runs 7 pm Saturdays and 3 pm Sundays through November 16.
Tickets for HONEYPOT: BLACK SOUTHERN WOMEN WHO LOVE WOMEN are $32.00, or $10.00 for students. PASS OVER and THE BALDWIN | GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE is $32.00. Tickets for HONEYPOT on sale now at https://ci.ovationtix.com/1771/production/1226627, and tickets for the latter two shows and the playwright's festival will be on sale beginning April 5 at www.fjtheatre.com.
LISTING INFORMATION
HONEYPOT: BLACK SOUTHERN WOMEN WHO LOVE WOMEN
From the book by Dr. E. Patrick Johnson
Adapted for the stage by Dr. D. Soyini Madison PhD
Co-Directed by Tim Rhoze and Dr. D. Soyini Madison PhD
Original music and sound design by Ethan Korvne
Lighting Design by Josiah Croegaert
Set Design by Tim Rhoze and Kotryna L. Hilko
Choreography by Marsae Lynn Mitchell
Co-production with Northwestern University Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts
May 17 – June 1, 2025
Saturdays at 7 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Press opening Sunday, May 18 at 3 pm
Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center
927 Noyes St., Evanston
Tickets $32.00, Students $10.00. On sale now at www.fjtheatre.com
Phone 847-866-5914
Immersive interviews of some 25 women-loving women are recounted within a fantasy framework in which this community of women, who range from late teens to elders, is depicted allegorically as a hive of bees. Original music, choreography, prose, and poetry will be employed along with powerful, deeply moving oral histories of brutality, love, joy, activism, art, and personal growth.
GLORIA BOND CLUNIE PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL
One-act play readings Saturday, June 28 at 5 pm and 7 pm
Full length play reading Sunday, June 29 at 3 pm
Plays to be announced
Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center
927 Noyes St., Evanston
Tickets $10.00 per session, or $15.00 for package for all three sessions, on sale April 5 at www.fjtheatre.com
PASS OVER
by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu
Directed by Tim Rhoze
July 26 – August 17, 2025
Saturdays at 7 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Press opening Sunday, July 27 at 3 pm
Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center
927 Noyes St., Evanston
Tickets $32.00, on sale April 5 at www.fjtheatre.com
Phone 847-866-5914
A provocative riff on WAITING FOR GODOT and THE BOOK of EXODUS. PASS OVER is a rare piece of emotionally charged theater by a bold American voice. Twenty-something Moses and Kitch stand around on an urban street corner – talking smack, passing the time, and hoping that maybe today will be different. As they dream of their "promised land," a stranger wanders in with their own agenda and threatens their plans. Emotional and lyrical, PASS OVER crafts everyday profanities into poetic, poignant, and humorous riffs, exposing the unquestionable human spirit of young men stuck in a cycle just looking for a way out.
THE BALDWIN | GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE
Devised by Tim Rhoze and Bria Walker-Rhoze
Directed by Tim Rhoze
November 1 – 16, 2025
Saturdays at 7 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Press opening Sunday, November 2 at 3 pm
Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center
927 Noyes St., Evanston
Tickets $32.00, on sale April 5 at www.fjtheatre.com
Phone 847-866-5914
The dynamic poeticism of Spoken Word and the piercing directness of Prose are at the forefront of this momentous theatrical experience inspired by the 1971 broadcast conversation between authors James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni. Infused with originally composed music, choreography, and mural artwork, this will be an intellectual, spiritual, and artistic journey of a lifetime.
BIOS
TIM RHOZE (Director, Artistic Director) Tim Rhoze has been the Producing Artistic Director of Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre since 2010. His directing credits include: UNTIL THE FLOOD, FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE/ WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF, 1619: THE JOURNEY OF A PEOPLE, THIS BITTER EARTH, THE BALDWIN | GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE, THE LIGHT, AMERICAN SON, 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, 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, and others. 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 also co-writer and director of THE BALDWIN | GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE and A HOME ON THE LAKE. His performances in August Wilson’s PIANO LESSON (1997) and JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE (2024) at the Goodman Theatre were nominated for Jeff Awards.
D. SOYINI MADISON (Adapter/Co-Director HONEYPOT: BLACK SOUTHERN WOMEN WHO LOVE WOMEN) is Professor Emerita at Northwestern University. Her work focuses on the intersections of local activism, the political economy of human rights, and indigenous performance tactics. Her latest book, ACTS OF ACTIVISM: HUMAN RIGHTS AND RADICAL PERFORMANCE, is based on how local activists in Ghana, West Africa employ modes of performance, as tactical interventions, in their day-to-day struggles for women’s rights, water democracy, and economic justice.
In Madison’s research and applied work on indigenous activism in South-Saharan Africa, she also teaches and writes extensively on “critical performance ethnography.” By combining conventional ethnography with performance theory as well as an explicitly critical and rhetorical purpose, Madison translates and directs her ethnographic data for the public stage. It is through the public staging of ethnographic data where principles of advocacy, publicity, and ethics are further examined in her published work. Madison’s staged work includes: I HAVE MY STORY TO TELL, a performance reflecting the oral histories of University of Carolina laborers and service workers; MANDELA, THE LAND, AND THE PEOPLE, a performance based on the life and work of Nelson Mandela; IS IT A HUMAN BEING OR A GIRL? a performance ethnography on traditional religion, modernity, and women’s poverty; and, WATER RITES a multi-media performance on the privatization of public water and the struggle for clean and accessible water as a human right.
E. PATRICK JOHNSON (Author, HONEYPOT: BLACK SOUTHERN WOMEN WHO LOVE WOMEN book) is the Dean of the School of Communication and the Annenberg University Professor at Northwestern University. A scholar/artist, Johnson performs nationally and internationally and has published widely in the areas of race, gender, sexuality and performance. He has written the books, APPROPRIATING BLACKNESS: PERFORMANCE AND THE POLITICS OF AUTHENTICITY, SWEET TEA: BLACK GAY MEN OF THE SOUTH—AN ORAL HISTORY. HONEYPOT: BLACK SOUTHERN WOMEN WHO LOVE WOMEN, and BLACK. QUEER. SOUTHERN. WOMEN. — AN ORAL HISTORY.
Johnson's performance work dovetails with his written work. His staged reading, POURING TEA: BLACK GAY MEN OF THE SOUTH TELL THEIR TALES is based on his book, SWEET TEA, and has toured to over 100 college campuses from 2006 to the present. In 2009, he translated the staged reading into a full-length stage play, SWEET TEA—THE PLAY, which premiered in Chicago in April 2010.
ANTOINETTE CHINONYE NWANDU (Playwright, PASS OVER) is a New York-based writer for stage and screen. In the summer of 2017, weeks after Trump’s election, Nwandu's play PASS OVER had its World Premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. A filmed version of that Jeff Award-winning Steppenwolf production—directed by Spike Lee— premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and at SXSW and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. In 2018, PASS OVER made its New York debut at LCT3/Lincoln, complete with a new ending. In 2021, PASS OVER ushered in the re-opening of Broadway after the pandemic closure. Additional plays include BREACH: A MANIFESTO ON RACE IN AMERICA THROUGH THE EYES OF A BLACK GIRL RECOVERING FROM SELF-HATE (2018 Victory Gardens World Premiere); FLAT SAM (Douglas Turner Ward prize); and VANNA WHITE HAS GOT TO DIE! (Fire This Time Festival).
BRIA WALKER-RHOZE (Co-writer, THE BALDWIN-GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE) is a multidisciplinary artist and educator. She is an Associate Professor of Acting at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Artistic Associate at Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre (FJT) in Evanston, IL. Selected writing credits: CROSSROAD (City Theatre Company Spotlight Series); YOU THINK THE ARTS DON’T MATTER? WHAT ABOUT QUARANTINE? (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette op-ed); CHANT (The Monologue Project). Selected directing credits: JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN, MYTHS & HYMNS (CMU); OBAMA-OLOGY, co-director of CROWNS (FJT); FURY (Parker Theatre); staged reading OFF WITH HER MAIDENHEAD (The Pitch series for Merry-Go-Round Playhouse); EMILIA (Pitt Stages); FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE/WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF (SUNY New Paltz). Selected acting credits: THE GARBOLOGISTS, CROSSROAD, THE ROYALE, POP!, MARCUS OR THE SECRET OF SWEET (City Theatre Company); THE ROYALE (St. Louis Repertory Theatre); FIRES IN THE MIRROR, ROMEO & JULIET (Pittsburgh Public Theatre Playtime Series); FROM THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA (Triad Stage); BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK (The Rep at Point Park); SAINTS TOUR (Bricolage Production Company). www.briawalker-rhoze.com.
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 Black American and African Diaspora-centered storytelling. The company has been honored by the Black Theatre Alliance/Ira Aldridge Awards and is frequently listed as a top-rated Chicago theatre company. 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.