Raven and The Yard to Present MILK LIKE SUGAR

The Yard's production of Milk Like Sugar, by award winning playwright Kirsten Greenidge, will feature a mixed ensemble of professional actors along with The Yard company members who are all students in the Senn Arts magnet program of Chicago's Senn High School. The play explores the journey of an inner-city 16-year-old, Annie, who is struggling to believe in herself and her opportunities for a future better than the lives of her mother and others in her community. After Annie's friend Margie becomes pregnant, Annie proposes she and another friend join with Margie in a pregnancy pact, but Annie soon has second thoughts about her idea and is faced with life-altering decisions. The play will be co-directed by Mechelle Moe and Joel Ewing. Moe is Raven Theatre's Director of Education and as part of that program has been Resident Teaching Artist at Senn Arts, where Ewing is Lead Theatre Teacher. Moe and Ewing are both working actors in Chicago and community members of The Hypocrites. Moe is also a company member with TimeLine Theatre company and Ewing has additionally appeared with companies including LiveWire and Strawdog.

The Yard, an outgrowth of Raven Theatre's education residency at Senn, is an itinerant theater company created this year to give Senn Arts students an opportunity to produce and perform at professional theater facilities with the support of professional theatre companies and artists. For its inaugural season, The Yard is collaborating with The Hypocrites (The Fourth Graders Present an Unnamed Love-Suicide) and Jackalope Theatre Company (I and You) in addition to Milk Like Sugar with Raven Theatre. The productions will use the host theatres' box offices, house management, stages, technical equipment and marketing support. Additionally, students will assist professional set, costume, lighting and sound designers on their productions. In-house stage managers and technical crew will also be used to bring every production to professional standards.

The play's cast will feature The Yard ensemble members in the teenage roles of Annie and her friends. Ireon Roach, a member of American Theatre Company's Youth Ensemble who also starred in Senn Arts' productions of Our America: Ghetto Life 101/Remorse, will play Annie. Annie's troubled and aggressive companion Talisha will be played by Lawren Carter, last seen in American Theater Company's Greensboro: A Requiem. Performing the part of Margie will be Sheharrell Rhodes, who has been seen in showcase productions at Senn Arts includingAn Evening of August Wilson in residency with Victory Gardens Theatre, The Fair of a Thousand Faces in residency with Bailiwick Chicago and Rampart, IL with American Theatre Company's Bridge Program. Tevon Lanier, last seen in Greensboro: A Requiem at ATC will play Malik. Megan Napier, who appeared in An Evening of August Wilson and semi-finalist in the 2015 August Wilson Monologue Competition, has been cast as Keera.

Professional Chicago actors will take roles as the play's adult characters. Elana Elyce, who appeared in Mud River Stone, with Eclipse Theatre and most recently understudied Remy Bumppo's production of Love and Information by Caryl Churchill will play Annie's distant mother, Myrna. Brandon Greenhouse, who recently appeared in Raven's Direct from Death Row The Scottsboro Boys, will play tattoo artist Antwoine.

The inner city milieu of gritty tattoo parlors, dimly lit public schools, and cramped apartment living quarters will be captured by set designer Andrew Swanson (with credits at Griffin, Steep and Jackalope) with lighting design by Maggie Fullilove-Nugent (The Hypocrites, the Neo-Futurists and Akvavit Theatre Company). Aaron James Stephenson (Polarity Ensemble Theatre, Definition Theatre Company) will be the production's sound designer and costumes will be designed by Emma Cullimore (resident costume designer for The Plagiarists and Chicago Tap Theatre). The stage manager for the play will be Christina Cassano (resident stage manager for The Plagiarists) and she will supervise student stage manager Darienne Andersen-Williams.

Raven Theatre is located at 6157 N. Clark St., Chicago. There are a limited number of free parking spaces available in the parking lot adjacent to the theatre, and free on-street parking is available nearby.