Tim Rhoze, Producing Artistic Director of Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, has announced the creative team for its world-premiere production of THE BALDWIN | GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE, the final production of FJT’s 2025 season. Casting announcement is forthcoming. This theatrical work, conceived and written by Tim Rhoze and Bria Walker-Rhoze, is inspired by a 1971 televised conversation between James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni. The thoughts, opinions, and admissions of these two literary giants regarding theology, Black relationships, classism, music, and the pursuit of creative writing, remain as relevant today as they were then. Rhoze and Walker-Rhoze have elevated this important conversation and devised a creative, dynamic, and theatrical experience infused with spoken word, poetry and prose, original music, choreography, and mural artwork. Tim Rhoze will direct and also design the set and costumes. The piece has been expanded with new material, music, and choreography, from a workshop production in 2023. THE BALDWIN | GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE will open Sunday, November 2 at 3:00 pm, following a preview on Saturday, November 1 at 7:00 pm. It will play weekends through November 16 at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes Street, Evanston.
The inspiration for THE BALDWIN | GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE is the two-hour dialogue between James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni that was taped for a 1971 PBS TV show called SOUL! Then forty-seven years old, Baldwin was a legend for THE FIRE NEXT TIME and countless other essays, novels, and criticism. Giovanni, then twenty-eight, was a luminary of the Black Arts Movement as the author of the 1968 poetry collection BLACK FEELING, BLACK TALK. This iconic segment of SOUL! was taped in London and first broadcast in the US on November 30, 1971.
Rhoze has been Producing Artistic Director of Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre since 2010. In addition to his many directing credits at FJT, he also authored the company’s 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. Walker-Rhoze, an Artistic Associate with FJT and Associate Professor of Acting at Carnegie Mellon University, directed FJT’s 2023 production of OBAMA-OLOGY and co-directed FJT's production of CROWNS.
The artistic team for THE BALDWIN | GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE also includes Rick Sims (Sound Designer), Ethan Korvne (Music Composer), David Goodman-Edberg (Lighting Designer), and Sholo Beverly (Scenic Mural Artist).
Performances will be Saturdays at 7:00 pm and Sundays at 3:00 pm, from November 1 - 16, 2025, at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes St., Evanston. Tickets for all productions are $32.00 and are on sale now at www.fjtheatre.com.
LISTING INFORMATION
THE BALDWIN | GIOVANNI EXPERIENCE
WORLD PREMIERE
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 now 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 original composed music, choreography, and mural artwork, this will be an intellectual, spiritual, and artistic journey of a lifetime.
BIOS
TIM RHOZE (Director, Co-Writer, Producing Artistic Director) Tim Rhoze has been the Producing Artistic Director of Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre since 2010. His directing credits include: PASS OVER, HONEYPOT: SOUTHERN BLACK WOMEN WHO LOVE WOMEN, 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 A HOME ON THE LAKE, a co-production with Piven Theatre Workshop. 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. He was also nominated and won several Black Theatre Alliance Awards for his acting, producing and directing.
BRIA WALKER-RHOZE (Co-Writer, Artistic Associate) is a multidisciplinary artist and educator. She is an Associate Professor of Acting at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). 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); SCENES FROM AN EXECUTION (Quantum Theatre); 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
YOLANDE CORNELIA "NIKKI" GIOVANNI, JR. (June 7, 1943 - December 9, 2024) was an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. Giovanni gained initial fame in the late 1960s as one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement. Influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement of the period, her early work provides a strong, radical African American perspective, leading one writer to dub her the "Poet of the Black Revolution."
JAMES ARTHUR BALDWIN (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American novelist and social critic. His essays, as collected in NOTES OF A NATIVE SON (1955), explore intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th-century America. Some of Baldwin's essays are book-length, including THE FIRE NEXT TIME (1963), NO NAME IN THE STREET (1972), and THE DEVIL FINDS WORK (1976). An unfinished manuscript, REMEMBER THIS HOUSE, was expanded and adapted for cinema as the Academy Award–nominated documentary film I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO.
Baldwin's novels and plays fictionalized his personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures thwarting the equitable integration of not only African Americans, but also gay and bisexual men, while depicting some internalized obstacles to such individuals' quests for acceptance. Such dynamics are prominent in Baldwin's second novel, GIOVANNI'S ROOM, written in 1956.
SOUL! (1968–1973), one of America's first Black performance/variety television programs, was produced by the New York City PBS affiliate, WNET. It showcased prominent Black artists, writers, activists, and human rights leaders, conversing about various Black experiences in a bold, unapologetic way. It was helmed by pioneering producer Ellis Haizlip.
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.