Samuel Roberson Fellowship Recipients Bring ALEX IN WINDYLAND To The Stage

The 2024 Samuel G. Roberson Jr. Resident Fellowship, awarded to artivist Abby Thompson and Filament Theatre, was awarded for the development of the play Alex in Windyland, now slated for production at Filament Theatre, 4041 N. Milwaukee Ave, in Chicago, from May 17-23, 2025. The Samuel G. Roberson Jr. Resident Fellowship is funded by McMullen & Kime Charitable Trust and administered by the League of Chicago Theatres.

The 2024 Samuel G. Roberson Jr. Resident Fellowship is an annual grant awarded to a Black Theatre Artist to fund a residency or collaboration with a Chicago area non-profit organization. The Samuel G. Roberson Jr. Resident Fellowship offers early to mid-career Black theatre artists the opportunity to work with a Chicago-based non-profit organization in a supportive environment. The Fellowship provides the Artist with a grant of $20,000 and the Partner Organization receives $7,500 to support their work with the Artist. The fellowship is administered by the League of Chicago Theatres and funded by the McMullen & Kime Charitable Trust. Applications were reviewed by an external panel of Chicago directors, actors, playwrights and administrators.

“The Samuel G. Roberson Fellowship supports the work of an artivist in collaboration with a non-profit theatre. We are so proud to have supported Abby and Filament on the development of theatrical project, one that reflects the experiences of youth in foster care and focuses on giving back,” says Marissa Lynn Jones, Executive Director of the League of Chicago Theatres.

Alex in Windyland is an imaginative and heartfelt new play inspired by the real stories of Chicago youth in foster care. Created in collaboration with young people at LYDIA Home, the production shines a light on the complexities of the foster care system. The day before her 12th birthday, Alex is taken from her sister and transported onto a train called Windyland, a magical liminal space where Alex faces new challenges, finds new friends, and goes on adventures. Will Alex be reunited with her sister? Will she find a forever home? The clock is ticking, and the train keeps running. As the train speeds forward, the urgency of her situation becomes clear — just as it does for thousands of foster youth navigating an unpredictable system.

The cast includes Shenise Brown, James Crumb, Jade Gray, Jazz Jabulani, Octavio Montes de Oca and Alyssa Vera Ramos.

Tickets for Alex in Windyland start at $25 and are available at https://bit.ly/alexinwindyland. All proceeds through the run will support Chicago's LYDIA Home a nonprofit in serving youth in foster care. The opening is May 17, 2025, at 10:30am and will run through May 23, 2025, in honor of Foster Care Awareness Month.

About The Samuel G. Roberson Jr. Resident Fellowship

The Samuel G. Roberson Jr. Resident Fellowship funds a residency for early to mid-career Black theatre artists based in Chicago for a one-year partnership with a Chicago area theatre. Each year, the Fellowship will be focused on a particular area of concentration in Theatre Arts.

The artist and partner organization will work together toward a public performance of a play, performance piece, or other performance endeavor. Each year, an artist will be awarded $20,000 for participation in the program. The partner organization will be awarded $7,500 for its support of the artist.

Previous recipients of the Samuel G. Roberson Jr. Resident Fellowship are:

-Tonika Lewis Johnson (Artist & Activist/2023), who is collaborating with Rivendell Theatre Ensemble on The Folded Map Project. The theatrical interpretation of her work with Rivendell will center on the psychological and social impact of segregation and racism in the city of Chicago.
-Jerrell L. Henderson (Director/2022), who presented AmericanMYTH: Crossroads, a new genre-defying historic reckoning with five performers mixing live theatre, shadow puppetry, lights, and immersive sound, staged at Free Street Theater in the Fall of 2023.
-Kristiana Rae Colón (Playwright/2021), who worked with Congo Square Theatre to develop homan + fillmore, an afrofuturistic, hybrid-media work and community healing-focused work based on the 2016 Freedom Square encampment at Homan & Fillmore.

About Samuel G. Roberson Jr.

After graduating from Howard University's Theatre Arts Department in 2005, Samuel G. Roberson Jr. began his theatre career with an apprenticeship at The Children's Theatre of Minneapolis, where he spent three years defining his desires for acting, writing, directing, and social justice theater. During this time, he began writing and using his artistry to draw attention to issues important to him. He successfully wrote and produced two plays, And They Said I Wouldn't Make It: A story of Hope, an autobiographical one man show about his fight with cancer as a child. And Same Difference, a 2 man show that deals with black male identity, and the pressures one experiences to act, sound and look a certain way in order to fit in to society.

After his success in Minneapolis, Sam made the move to Chicago where he continued pushing boundaries within the arts and within himself. Through his work with several prominent Chicago Theatres, including Steppenwolf, The Goodman, Northlight, Victory Gardens, Writers Theatre and Congo Square, as well as Spike Lee's film, Chiraq, Sam made a name for himself not just as an artist but as an activist and leader within the theatre community. In addition to continuing to produce and perform his one-man show, Sam also founded the Make Me A Match Project (M3P), a non-profit organization focused on raising awareness about the need for bone marrow donors within the African American community. Through his efforts with M3P, he helped register donors that resulted in bone marrow matches.

In 2013 he was elected the Artistic Director of Congo Square Theatre. Under his leadership, Congo Square presented the world premiere and subsequent remount of Kelvin Roston's award winning and Jeff-nominated Twisted Melodies, both productions directed by Sam. He created Congo Square's signature conversation series, Owning Our Worth, which has hosted culturally specific theater leaders of color in public dialogue for talks on issues relevant to the theatre community at-large. He felt very strongly that it was his duty as an influential member of the community to advocate for more diverse work and casting throughout the Chicago Theatre scene. He also helped bring together a cohort of artists to create Chicago Artists Against Injustice using his artistry as a way to start difficult conversations around issues that often divide us. Wanting to spread his work to Chicago's youth, Sam founded Congo Square's Education program, Y-BOOM (Young Brothers Owning Our Mission), a literacy-based leadership program that provides a safe environment for adolescent African American men. It was his work with Y-BOOM that garnered the attention of the 3Arts organization who awarded him a 3Arts award for service and leadership as an artist in his community.