COLLEGIATE SHOWCASE TOUR PACKAGE (THREE SHOWS)
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EVERYBODY by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Loyola University Chicago)
During the medieval era, plays were often read aloud as part of family and community gatherings, serving as instruments for the theology of Orthodox Catholicism. With the second wave of the bubonic plague pandemic, dramatic literature began to touch more on living and life’s impermanence. The 15th century saw The Somonyng [Summoning] of Everyman, a morality play about sin, repentance, and death. Its message that God presents salvation and religion provides the means to salvation was one with implications for how audiences may have imagined the afterlife. Everyman went on to become the most widely read and frequently produced play written in the English language.
BLOOD AT THE ROOT by Dominique Morriseau (Columbia College Chicago)
A striking new ensemble drama based on the Jena Six; six black students who were initially charged with attempted murder for a school fight after being provoked with nooses hanging from a tree on campus. The bold new play by Dominique Morisseau examines the miscarriage of justice, racial double standards, and the crises in relations between men and women of all classes and, as a result, the shattering state of Black family life.
TWO TWENTY-SEVEN (Chicago State University)
TWO TWENTY-SEVEN is a family comedy in two acts.
Mary Jenson and her best friend Carrie Cross sit out front of the building, gossiping about everyone in the neighborhood but especially their fellow tenants. Mary is a firm believer that “the truth is the light” and should be told no matter who it hurts because it is the truth. Mary’s gossiping affects most of the tenants in some particular way including best friend Carrie. The two of them end up in a rip-roaring fight scene. In the end, it is Mary who is really hurt as her husband Art deserts her to run off with a new love and a new life. It is Mr. Giles, the blind tenant who “sees a little but hears a lot” that causes Mary to realize that it is the folks with sight who at times, are blind.
TWO TWENTY-SEVEN is the winner of the following awards:
1st Place Norman Lear, Playwriting
1st Place ANTA West, Playwriting
1st Place NADSA, Playwriting
2nd Place Lorraine Hansberry, Playwriting
NAACP Image, playwriting
TWO TWENTY-SEVEN was optioned by Marla Gibbs and Norman Lear and adapted to television and became NBC’s hit series, 227.
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