Governors State University’s Center for Performing Arts announces the world premiere of Red Summer written by Lookingglass Theatre’s Andrew White and MPAACT’s Shepsu Aakhu, composed by Shawn Wallace, directed by Lydia J. Dymond. Red Summer will play at the Center for the Performing Arts stage, just 35 miles from Chicago in University Park, IL, September 16-25, 2022. The press opening is Saturday, September 17 at 7:30pm.
Red Summer takes place during the Chicago race riots of 1919. The protagonists are two WWI soldiers—one Black, one white—returning from the battlefields of Europe. Upon their return they find themselves caught in the violence of a Chicago that is struggling to accommodate the Great Migration, the return of WWI veterans, a downturn in the economy, and long-standing ethnic tensions. Having fought on the same side in The Great War, they are now pitted against each other as their friends, family, and neighbors wage block-by-block warfare, and the city’s ethnic enclaves rage and burn.
The cast features: Allison Feist (Athena/Ensemble), Alexander Slade (Declan Weir), Anthony Augustine (Piano Player/Ensemble), Ashlea Woodley (Mam Weir), Ryan Huemmer (Connor), Autumn Price (Ensemble), Bob Sanders (Big Bill Thompson), Brian Healey (Casmero), Chloe Belongilot (Cora/Ensemble), Joshua Miller (Dixon), Katherine Delicath (Liza/Ensemble), Lauren Wells-Mann (Vanessa/Ensemble), Lewon Johns (Donald Lee Winters), Marc Rogers (Ensemble), Melenie Victoria (Ida B Wells/Ensemble), Michael Santos (Doyle/Ensemble), Michaelyn Oby (Josephine/Ensemble/ Eugene), CC Rios (Marlene Winters), Stewart Romeo (Ensemble), and Tim Hiemstra (Ensemble). The understudies are Danelle Taylor and Jacque Bischoff.
The creative team includes Shepsu Aakhu (Writer, Sound Design, Dramaturge), Andrew White (Writer), Shawn Wallace (Writer, Composer, Music Director), Andrea J. Dymond (Director), Razor Wintercastle (Production Stage Manager), Brittany Davis (COVID Compliance Officer), Reginald Lawrence (Production Manager), Lauren “LL” Lundy (Assistant Production Manager), Jessica Wardell (Scenographic Design), Shariba Rivers (Casting Director), Sean Neron (Technical Director), Brandon Wardell (Lighting Design), Evelyn Danner (Costume Design), Andrea Wukitsch (Choreographer), Nic Diamond (Master Carpenter), Abboye Lawrence (Media Artist), and Nick Sandys (Fight Choreographer).
Aakhu comments, “2019 was the centennial of the ‘Red Summer,’ which earned its name due to the blood that ran freely in the streets of Chicago (and many other American cities). These events are largely forgotten and unknown to the general populace—even to those who live in the cities in which they took fierce hold. As the saying goes, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it—and, arguably, one of the reasons racial conflicts continues to erupt in Chicago (and in every other urban metropolis in America) is because we choose to bury this history rather than look at it and understand it. This story must be told because it sheds light on a chapter of our shared history that is too often overlooked, in the hope that an honest look at our past will make it possible to have a clearer vision of our future.”
Playwright Andrew White adds, “Today, more than 100 years later, the same issues still simmer in every metropolitan area in America.”
About the artists
Shepsu Aakhu is a playwright, director, scenic designer, photographer, musician and Executive Director for MPAACT. As a playwright in residence with MPAACT, Shepsu has developed several critically acclaimed works in the Playwright's Laboratory, among them are: Feral, Warm on the Coolin' Board, Speaking in Tongues The Chronicles of Babel, Ghosts of Atwood, Ten Square, Trouble the Water, Relevant Hearsay, SOST, Kiwi Black, Kosi Dasa, Fascia, The Glow of Reflected Light, The Abesha Conspiracy; Beneath A Dark Sky, Piece-Meal Clan, and Otherworld Lovers. Shepsu is a four-time nominee for the Joseph Jefferson citation in multiple categories. In 2012 he was awarded the Joseph Jefferson citation for outstanding new work (Speaking in Tongues/Babel). In 2003 the play Kiwi Black was nominated in the same category. Shepsu was awarded two Joseph Jefferson citations for original music in 2002 and 2003 for Kosi Dasa and Kiwi Black respectively. Shepsu is a two-time recipient of the Theodore Ward Prize for Playwriting for Ten Square (2008-9) and Kiwi Black (2001-2002). He is a six-time nominee for best Original Work (Aldridge Award) by the BTAA of Chicago. Shepsu received the Ira Aldridge Award in 1999 for The Abesha Conspiracy and 2007 for Trouble the Water. Shepsu Aakhu was awarded the prestigious Artistic Fellowship in Scriptworks by the Illinois Arts Council in 2004.
Andrew White is a founding member of Lookingglass Theatre Company, where he served as Artistic Director from 2010-16, and currently serves as the Director of Community Engagement in the company’s Department of Curiosity. As a Lookingglass ensemble member and performer, he has participated as an actor, writer or director in more than forty Lookingglass productions. He wrote the book and lyrics for Lookingglass’ 2012 production of Eastland: A New Musical, received a Jeff Award for his 2004 adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984, and wrote and directed Of One Blood for Lookingglass in 1989. Andy has worked in corporate, non-profit, and classroom environments, structuring and facilitating conversations with participants around organizational and community issues since 1990. He has worked in Lookingglass Outreach and Education programs with students of all ages: developing and implementing arts-integrated units in elementary and high schools. As well as facilitating faculty workshops in schools across the Chicagoland area; and working with teenagers across the city to use theater as a means of engaging their peers in dialogue about community issues, from HIV to racism. He has taught in various Lookingglass outreach programs and residencies, and in 2007 co-founded Mosaic Experience, a company that uses an arts-based approach to dialogue about diversity.
Shawn Wallace’s (composer) musical styles range from Gospel to Jazz to Hip-Hop and beyond. As keyboardist, he has worked with luminary artists such as Common, Ice Cube, Bobby Brown, Dwele, Johnny Gill, Jon B., Bilal, Estelle, Julie Dexter, Rene Neufville, Rakim, Eric Roberson, Maggie Brown, Ugochi and Cherisse Scott. A native of Chicago's far Southwest side, Shawn studied Music Theory and Composition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and currently serves as Musical Director for two New Thought congregations: The Emmaus Center and the Namaste Center for Spiritual Living-Chicago. His independent film score credits include: Severed Ties (Showcase Productions/Lions Gate Films), Puzzle Love (Storybox Productions) and Son of America (Tanskin Productions/N’Spire Entertainment INC), and is also working as Musical Arranger and Musical Director on Charleston Olio by Ifa Bayeza, co-author of Some Sing, Some Cry with Ntozake Shange.
Andrea J. Dymond (director) is a Chicago-based freelance director, specializing in developing and directing new work, Andrea most recently directed Thirst at Strawdog Theatre, and the world premieres of The Greatest Theatrical Event…EVER! at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Shepsu Aahku’s Black and Blue for MPAACT. Andrea was formerly Resident Director at Victory Gardens Theater, where she directed 11 productions, including 7 world premieres, and helped to develop and launch the The Ignition Festival of New Plays. In addition to directing around Chicago and the U.S., her experience includes literary management, research and production dramaturgy, directing at new works festivals; serving as thesis play advisor for MFA playwrights at Carnegie Mellon University and directing at NNPN’s MFA Playwrights Workshops at the Kennedy Center. A teacher at Columbia College Chicago, Andrea’s courses have included Directing, Collaboration, African American Scene Study, Text Analysis, Dramaturgy, Acting and New Play Development. She was also facilitator of the Theodore Ward Award for African American Playwriting.
Support for the development of Red Summer was provided, in part, by Chicago Performance Lab through Theater and Performance Studies in the Logan Center at the University of Chicago and Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in Evanston, IL.
This project is supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Fact Sheet
Title: Red Summer
Written by: Shepsu Aakhu and Andrew White
Composed by: Shawn Wallace
Directed by: Lydia J. Dymond
Schedule: September 16-25, 2022
- Preview: Friday, September 16 at 7:30pm followed by post-show discussion
- Press opening: Saturday, September 17 at 7:30pm
- Sunday, September 18 at 2:00pm
- Saturday, September 24 at 7:30pm
- Sunday, September 25 at 2:00pm
Tickets: www.govst.edu/RedSummer; (708) 235-2222
$29-$39; Students: $5 (September 16 only) $10 (September 17-25)
Notes of interest:
- The plot of Red Summer in some ways mirrors the stories of its two authors. It is about two men whose histories and fates are co-written by historic elements outside of their control, but who make choices that are within their power. Despite similar points of view, the two men often find themselves on different sides of the fickle coin of opportunity as they face similar choices about how best to bridge the racial divide and make the world a little less brittle and mean.
- Red Summer earned its name due to the blood that ran freely in the streets of Chicago (and many other American cities) during the summer of 1919. Yet these events are largely forgotten and unknown to the general populace—even to those who live in the cities in which they took fierce hold. One of the reasons racial conflict continues to erupt in America is because we choose to bury this history rather than look at it and understand it. This story sheds light on a chapter of our shared history that is too often overlooked, in the hope that an honest look at our past will make it possible to have a clearer vision of our future.
- Reginald Lawrence practices his craft under the name Shepsu Aakhu. As such, he is a playwright, director, scenic designer, photographer, musician and Executive Director for MPAACT. Andy White is most closely associated with Lookingglass Theatre Company as an ensemble member, playwright, actor and artistic director.
- The playwrights have been friends and colleagues in Chicago theater for more than thirty years and had long looked for an opportunity to work together. In 2017, they began co-writing Red Summer in response to our country’s continued racial divisions. This project appealed to both of them for the same reasons – an opportunity to finally work together creatively, and to address an issue about which they both cared deeply. Additionally, it entailed an archaeological dig through Chicago’s troubled racial past, which offered further excitement to these two mild history buffs.