Cast Announced for GANGSTA BABY at Open Space Arts
The show takes place September 19 through October 5 in Open Space Arts, 1411 W. Wilson Avenue.
The three Chicago actors who will join UK-based Cameron Raasdal-Munro in the American premiere of his semi-autobiographical drama GANGSTA BABY were announced. Open Space Arts is producing the LGBTQ+ drama in association with Emmy-winning Chicago producer G. Riley Mills and Kate Garassino.
The drama, which premiered at London’s Hope Theatre in January 2024, will again be directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair, who was appointed an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for his services to drama. GANGSTA BABY follows the story of the young gay sex worker “Junior” in the working-class city of Hastings, southeast of London; and his relationships with his violent and homophobic gangster father “Senior,” his transgender street artist half-brother Pete, and a client whose session with Junior is interrupted when Senior unexpectedly returns. GANGSTA BABY will play September 19 through October 5 in Open Space Arts, 1411 W. Wilson Avenue.
As previously announced, Cameron Raasdal-Munro, the play’s author, will repeat his London role as Junior. Veteran Chicago actor Josh Odor will play Senior. Odor was seen most recently in Chicago in NO SUCH THING at Rivendell, in Facility Theatre's Jeff winning RIGHT NOW, and went on for Steppenwolf's NO MAN'S LAND, which starred Austin Pendleton, Jeff Perry and Mark Ulrich. Bryan Nicholas Carter, an alumnus of the School at Steppenwolf seen earlier this year in KID PRINCE AND PABLO with Lifeline Theatre, will play Mitch, the client of sex worker Junior. Jensen Knudson, a student at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts who has understudied with Oak Park Festival Theatre, has been cast as Pete – Junior’s transgender half-brother who is a street artist going by the name “Gangsta Baby.”
GANGSTA BABY explores themes that represent often forgotten communities; the realities of growing up working class, sex work, of having incarcerated family members, the cruelness of internalized homophobia, classism and the truth of addiction. How growing up in a criminal class affects your perception of self, and what it is like to be raised in that environment as someone queer. After an exceptional stage reading at the Kings Head Theatre, GANGSTA BABY had a three-week run at The Hope Theatre in January 2024. It won the London Theatre website Pink Prince Theatre’s “Best creative of the year,” and “Best male actor of the year” for Cameron’s portrayal of JUNIOR. Pink Prince Theatre rated it a five-star production, calling it “…a hard-hitting whirlwind of a show which doesn’t shy away from brutal honesty… a truly socially important piece of theatre.” The site oughttobeclowns.com praised it for its “kaleidoscopic look at what life on the other side of the tracks can look like, especially for queer kids, and how difficult it can be to chase away the shadow of violence once it has entered your world.”
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