Pegasus Theatre Announces World Premiere of Charles Johnson's RUTHERFORD'S TRAVELS

Chicago -Pegasus Theatre Chicago announces the world premiere of Rutherford's Travels, the adaptation of CharLes Johnson's beloved National Book Award-winning novel, "Middle Passage," November 2 - December 4 at Pegasus's resident home Chicago Dramatists, 773 N. Aberdeen. Rutherford's Travels is co-adapted and directed by Pegasus Theatre Producing Artistic Director Ilesa Duncan and co-adapted by David Barr, III, music directed and composed by Shawn Wallace and choreographed by Nicole Clarke-Springer.

The performance schedule includes previews Wednesday, Nov. 2 - Friday, Nov. 4 at 7:30 p.m.with opening nights Saturday, Nov. 5 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 6 at 3 p.m. The performance schedule is Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets are $30, seniors are $25 and students are $18. Tickets and more information are available at PegasusTheatreChicago.org.

For more than ten years, Duncan and Barr have been working with MacArthur Fellow and acclaimed author CharLes Johnson to bring his seminal work to the stage. The New York Times calls "Middle Passage" a novel "in the honorable tradition of "Billy Budd" and "Moby-Dick."" And the Chicago Tribune praises the work declaring, "Long after we'd stopped believing in the great American novel, along comes a spellbinding adventure story that may be just that."From workshops to staged readings to public discussions and the author's own input, a world premiere production was created. Combining movement, music and Johnson's story, Rutherford's Travels is a tale told through Rutherford Calhoun's 1830s journal log entries. Calhoun, a newly freed Illinois slave and exceptionally learned scoundrel travels to New Orleans where he escapes his debtors and a forced marriage by stowing away on an outbound rigger named The Republic. But The Republic isn't just any ship, it is a slave ship and it's headed to Africa.

"Rutherford's Travels and the events leading up to its world premiere are the perfect fit for Pegasus's new season because it's a journey that forever changes its protagonist. Rutherford makes choices that force him to face consequences," says Duncan. "The adaptation of Dr. Johnson's seminal work has been a loving, long process for David Barr and me. We are thrilled that Pegasus is producing it."

The cast of Rutherford's Travels includes Breon Arzell, "Rutherford Calhoun;" Osiris Khepera, "Santos/Diamelo/Riley;" Gary Houston, "Captain Falcon;" Darren Jones, "Papa Zerinque;" Andrew Malone, "Jackson/Ngonyama;" Ron Quade, "Josiah Squibb;" Nelson Rodriguez, "Cringle/Rev. Chandler;" Tiffany Renee Johnson, "Baleka/Almuseri God;" Naima Hebrail Kidjo, "Isadora/African Mother;" Heather Chrisler, "Tom/Meadows" and David Fehr, "McGaffin/Quakenbush."

Rutherford's Travels production team is Elyse Balogh, scenic design; Josh Wroblewski, lighting design; Melissa Perkins, costume design; Sarah Putts, sound design; Alec Long, props design; R&D Choreography, violence design and Liam Fitzgerald, production manager.

ABOUT CHARLES R. JOHNSON, author of Middle Passage

Charles R. Johnson, award-winning philosopher, novelist, essayist, short story writer, and scholar of black American literature and Buddhism, is the author of four novels, including "Middle Passage" (1990) and "Dreamer" (1998) (the first fictional account of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life), three collections of short stories and over 20 screenplays. He has also published books on philosophy, spiritual inquiry and cultural criticism, as well as two books of drawings and two books of children's literature.

A MacArthur fellow, Johnson has received a 2002 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, a 1990 National Book Award for his novel "Middle Passage," a 1985 Writers Guild award for his PBS teleplay "Booker," the 2016 W.E.B. Du Bois Award at the National Black Writers Conference, and many other awards. The CharLes Johnson Society at the American Literature Association was founded in 2003. Dr. Johnson recently published "Taming the Ox: Buddhist Stories and Reflections on Politics, Race, Culture, and Spiritual Practice." His forthcoming book is "The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling." A native of Evanston, Illinois, he now lives in Seattle.

ABOUT David Barr, III, co-adapter

David Barr, III is the winner of the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work, the Mixed Blood Versus America National Playwriting Contest, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, the Theodore Ward Contest, Unicorn Theatre National Playwriting Award, the Donahue-Tremaine Trust Award for excellence in playwriting and three Illinois Arts Council Fellowships. His plays, which have been produced at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago Dramatists (where he is a resident playwright alumnus) and many other local and national theaters. His works include The Face of Emmett Till (co-written with Mamie Till Mobley), The Death of the Black Jesus, By the Music of the Spheres, A Red Death (adapted from the Walter Mosley novel of the same title), The Journal of Ordinary Thought, Billy (adapted from the AlBert French novel of the same title), Black Caesar, The Upper Room and Every Time I Feel the Spirit. Rutherford's Travels marks Barr's fifth world premiere with Pegasus Theatre Chicago. Barr is also a co-writer of the screenplay adaptation of "Death Of Innocence: The Story of Emmett Till and The Hate Crime That Changed America". This screenplay (adapted from the book of the same name written by Christopher Benson and Mamie Till-Mobley shortly before her death) was optioned by HBO Films for development in 2006.

ABOUT Ilesa Duncan, co-adapter and director

Ilesa Duncan is the producing artistic director at Pegasus Theatre Chicago. Her recent directing work includes For Her as a Piano and Blacula at Pegasus, Darlin' with Step Up Productions, Broken Fences at 16th Street Theater, the Jeff Award-nominated The Nativity with Congo Square and the Jeff Award-winning Jar the Floor at ETA Creative Arts. Duncan has also worked with Goodman Theatre, Writers Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, Lifeline Theater, Stage Left and Chicago Dramatists, as well as Contemporary American Theatre Company (Ohio), The ALLIANCE THEATRE (Atlanta), Arena Stage (Washington DC) and Lincoln Center Theater (New York). Duncan's creative nonfiction short stories have been published (Columbia College Chicago) and she's written poems and screenplays. For the stage, she was a co-writer and director of Blakk Love: Stoeez of A Darker Hue and facilitated the group-writing project Portraits (2007) for the Chicago Foundation for Women and the devised project Do You See What I'm Saying for Chameleon.

ABOUT SHAWN WALLACE, music director and composer

Shawn Wallace is a keyboardist, composer and music director. He has music directed and composed for such theatres as MPAACT, Chicago Theatre Company and DanzTheatre Chicago. 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. Wallace 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. He has worked for several years as a teaching artist throughout Chicago schools teaching Record Production and Theatre Tech to youth from 6th through 12th grades. 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).

ABOUT NICOLE CLARKE-SPRINGER, choreographer

Nicole Clarke-Springer is a member of Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre where she has performed with artists such as Roberta Flack in Kevin Iega Jeff's Flack as well as Jennifer Holiday in the world-renowned Penumbra Theatre's Black Nativity. As a member of Deeply Rooted's artistic team, Clarke-Springer choreographed works such as Nine, Dounia and Femme, and was assistant choreographer to Kevin Iega Jeff for Congo Square Theatre's Nativity for two years. In 2013, Clark-Springer was named Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre's emerging choreographer for the program Generations. Clarke-Springer received her B.S. in Arts Administration-Dance from Butler University in Indianapolis, IN where she received the award as Butler Ballet's Outstanding Performer.

ABOUT PEGASUS THEATRE CHICAGO

Pegasus Theatre Chicago has been a mainstay in the Chicago theater community for nearly 38 years. Its recently rebranded mission is to produce boldly imagiNative Theatre, champion new and authentic voices and illuminate the human journey. It adheres to the core values of community engagement, social relevance, boldness, adventure and excellence.

Pegasus is also committed to initiating important conversations through the arts with strong community engagement and socially relevant programming, including the Young Playwrights Festival for high school-age scribes, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2017. Pegasus Theatre Chicago has received seventy-seven Joseph Jefferson Citations since its inception.

Pegasus Theatre Chicagoannounces the world premiere of Rutherford's Travels, the adaptation of CharLes Johnson's beloved National Book Award-winning novel, "Middle Passage," November 2 - December 4 at Pegasus's resident home Chicago Dramatists, 773 N. Aberdeen. Rutherford's Travels is co-adapted and directed by Pegasus Theatre Producing Artistic Director Ilesa Duncan and co-adapted by David Barr, III, music directed and composed by Shawn Wallace and choreographed by Nicole Clarke-Springer. The performance schedule includes previews Wednesday, Nov. 2 - Friday, Nov. 5 at 7:30 p.m. with opening nights Saturday, Nov. 5 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 6 at 3 p.m. The performance schedule is Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets are $30, seniors are $25 and students are $18. Tickets and more information are available at PegasusTheatreChicago.org.

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