Jonathan Abarbanel and Derrick Sanders Set for Post-Show Talk at Raven's RED VELVET

A third audience engagement event has been added to the list of special events surrounding Raven Theatre's production of Red Velvet, which details the story of Ira Aldridge, who in 1833 became the first black actor to play Othello on a London stage.

In addition to the previously announced talkback with Director/educators Henry Godinez of Northwestern University and Susan Padveen of Columbia College following tonight's performance of the play, theatre critic and educator Jonathan Abarbanel and noted freelance director Derrick Sanders will lead a discussion following the performance on Thursday, November 10. Actor James Vincent Meredith, who performed the title role in Chicago Shakespeare's production of Othello earlier this year, spoke following the October 16thperformance of Red Velvet.

Godinez, Resident Artistic Associate at the Goodman theater and professor in the Department of Theatre at Northwestern, has been a leading advocate of "authentic casting," for which Aldridge was a pioneer. Susan Padveen, associate professor of theatre at Columbia College Chicago and coordinator of the school's directing program, includes Othello among her many directing credits. Their discussion will be moderated by Jonathan Wilson, Professor of Theatre and Drama in Loyola University's Department of Fine and Performing Arts.

Jonathan Abarbanel, award winning Chicago theatre critic who reviews for The Arts Section on WDCB Public Radio, www.duelingcritics.net and the Windy City Times; and writes a column of theatre news and analysis for Chicago Footlights program magazine will be joined by Derrick Sanders, the nationally known director and assistant professor in the department of theatre and music at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Abarbanel and Sanders will discuss the relationship of African-American actors such as Aldridge to the British theater industry of the time (19th Century).

There will be no charge to attend the discussions only and reservations are not required. Regular ticket prices apply to performances.

ABOUT RED VELVET, by Lolita Chakrabarti: Red Velvet, which premiered in London in 2012 to critical acclaim, tells the backstage story of African-American actor Ira Aldridge and how in 1833 he became the first black actor to perform the role of Othello on a London stage. The action is set at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden after Edmund Kean, the greatest actor of his generation, has collapsed on stage while playing Othello. Aldridge has been asked to take over the role, but as the public riots in the streets over the abolition of slavery, how will the cast, critics and audience react to the revolution taking place in the theatre?

Red Velvet enjoyed its world premiere production at London's Tricycle Theatre and was revived in London this past February by the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company. Its US premiere was in 2014 at New York City's St. Ann's Warehouse, and it was produced earlier this year in Los Angeles at the Junction Theatre and at the San Francisco Playhouse. Raven's production will be the play's first in Chicago. It will be performed on the company's East Stage from September 28 through November 27, 2016 under Menendian's direction. Menendian says "Red Velvet will be an entertaining and moving story of backstage life and racial intolerance in the London theatre world of the early 19th Century. It was a time of dramatic change inside and outside the theater."

The lead role of Ira Aldridge, originally performed by the playwright's husband Adrian Lester, will be taken by Brandon Greenhouse, a cast member of Raven's Direct from Death Row The Scottsboro Boys. Greenhouse's Chicago credits also include Softly Blue (MPAACT), Intimate Apparel (Eclipse), Hair (American Theatre Company) and The Little Foxes(Goodman Theatre). He also appeared in The Two Gentlemen of Veronaand Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at American Players Theatre. In the role of Ellen Tree - the actress who plays Desdemona to Aldridge's Othello - will be Tuckie White, who appeared at Raven as Boo in last season's The Play About My Dad. The theatre company's manager Pierre will be played by Matt Klingler, who won a Jeff Award nomination for his performance as Chris Keller in Raven's All My Sons. Charles Kean, the son of legendary Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean and Aldridge's primary nemesis, will be played by Tyler Rich - familiar to Raven audiences as Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Goose.

Also in the cast are Anna Dauzvardis (Connie), Tim Martin (Casimir, Henry), Sophia Menendian (Halina, Betty, Margaret) and Scott Olson (Terrence, Bernard). Understudies are Charles Askenaizer, Brandon Boler, Annie Hogan, Jeremy Pfaff and Katrinka Smith.

The production and design team include Jeff Award winning designers Ray Toler (scenic design), Diane D. Fairchild (lighting design) and Mary O'Dowd (properties design and set dressing) along with Joelle Beranek (costume design), and Eric Backus (sound design). The production team includes Kiley Morgan (stage manager), Kelly Hovsepian (assistant stage manager), Destiney Higgins (assistant director), Conor Clark (technical director), Kendra Thulin (dialect coach), Eileen Rozycki (scenic artist) and Jessica Doyle (master electrician).

Red Velvet will open on Tuesday, October 4. following previews from Wednesday, September 28 - Monday, October 3. The regular run will continue from Friday, October 7 through Sunday, November 27, 2016, with performances Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online at www.raventheatre.com or by phone at 773-338-2177.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Henry Godinez is a professor in the Department of Theatre at Northwestern, and is the Resident Artistic Associate at Goodman Theatre, where he's fostered the co-production of Pedro Páramo with Teatro Buendia of Cuba, and directed the world premieres of Charise Castro Smith's Feathers and Teeth, José Rivera's Boleros for the Disenchanted, Karen Zacarias' Mariela in the Desert, ReGina Taylor's Millennium Mambo, and Luis Alfaro's Straight as a Line. As an actor he recently appeared in 2666 at Goodman. Born in Havana, Cuba, Godinez is co-founder of Teatro Vista, and proudly serves on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and Albany Park Theater Project.

Susan Padveen is a freelance director, writer, educator and producer. This summer she produced and directed The Portrait as part of the Solo Celebration at the Greenhouse Theater Center. Last season she returned to Polarity Ensemble Theatre, where she had previously directed Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and The White Airplane by Darren Callahan, to direct the world premiere of Richard Engling's Anna in the Afterlife. Last summer she participated in an artist residency at Ko Festival in Amherst, Massachusetts, continuing development of a devised play, The In-Between, to be produced this coming winter; and she co-curated and produced a Festival of devised work called Dancing on the Ceiling as a Box Partner at Stage 773, (directed A Mighty Heart as part of it.) She has directed at Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, The National Jewish Theatre (where she was co-Artistic Director), Pegasus Players, and the Neapolitans. Susan is an Associate Professor at Columbia College Chicago in the Theatre Department, where she coordinates the directing program. Favorite productions there include John Guare's Landscape of the Body, He Who Gets Slapped and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Susan has written several adaptations of novels and stories for performance, including Baaa, Autobiography of a Face, and An American Tragedy, which is currently being adapted into a musical.

Jonathan Abarbanel is an award-winning Chicago theatre critic who reviews for The Arts Section on WDCB Public Radio, www.duelingcritics.net and the Windy City Times, and writes a column of theatre news and analysis for Chicago Footlights program magazine. Jonathan's articles have appeared in American Theatre, Back Stage, Show Music and Variety among other publications, and have been published internationally in Bulgarian, Chinese, French, German, Polish, Portuguese, Dutch and Russian. He's the immediate past Chairperson of the American Theatre Critics Association and teaches in the School of Theatre & Music at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Derrick Sanders is a freelance director and assistant professor at the University of Illinois - Chicago. This past summer, he directed The African Company Presents Richard III at American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin. He also recently directed the Washington D.C. and West Coast premieres of Will Power's Fetch/Clay Make/Man at Round House Theatre and Marin Theatre Company. He also directed Fences at Marin Theatre, The Mountaintop at Virginia Stage Company, the world premiere of Mr. Chickee's Funny Money at Chicago Children's Theatre, Clybourne Park at University of Illinois at Chicago School of Theatre and Music, and Clybourne Park and the world premiere of Beneatha's Place for "The Raisin Cycle" at Center Stage in Baltimore. His other credits include King Hedley II at the Off-Broadway Signature Theatre; Seven Guitars and King Hedley II for "August Wilson's 20th Century" at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; Joe Turner's Come and Gone at Center Stage; Fencesand Radio Golf at Virginia Stage; Jitney and Stick Fly at True Colors Theatre in Atlanta; Sanctified at Lincoln Theater in Washington, D.C.; Gee's Bend at Cincinnati Playhouse, which won Acclaim Awards for best director and outstanding production; Topdog/Underdog at American Theatre Company in Chicago; the world premieres of Bud, Not Buddy and Jackie and Me at Chicago Children Theatre; and the world premiere of Five Fingers of Funk at Minneapolis Children's Theatre.

Sanders was assistant director of August Wilson's world premiere productions of Radio Golf and Gem of the Ocean on Broadway and at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, as well as the Huntington Theatre in Boston and Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles for Radio Golf. As the founding artistic director of Congo Square Theatre Company in Chicago, he directed numerous productions including Joe Turner's Come and Gone, which won Black Theatre Alliance Awards for best production and direction; Seven Guitars, which won Joseph Jefferson Awards for best production and direction; and the world premiere of Deep Azure. A member of UIC's Theatre Faculty, he organizes Chicago's August Wilson Monologue Competition. He was named Chicago Tribune's Chicagoan of the Year in 2005. Mr. Sanders short film Perfect Day, which he wrote and directed has been screened in over 20 film festivals across the world and has garnered critical acclaim and numerous awards. He received his BFA from Howard University and MFA from University of Pittsburgh.

For tickets and more information, visit www.raventheatre.com.

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