'THE GOOD NEGRO' Set for Goodman Theatre's 2009-10 Season

Artistic Director Robert Falls announced today the final production of Goodman Theatre's 2009/2010 season-The Good Negro, Tracey Scott Wilson's "thunderous...stunning" (Variety) new play, comes to Chicago fresh from its off-Broadway run at The Public Theater. Resident Director Chuck Smith, who previously collaborated with Wilson on the Goodman's 2004/2005 Chicago-premiere production of The Story, will direct The Good Negro in the Albert Theatre in Spring 2010.

Before there was change, there was Birmingham. When Claudette Sullivan is beaten and arrested for taking her little girl into the "white only" restroom at a department store, she finds herself at the heart of the 1960's American Civil Rights Movement. Tensions build in the increasingly hostile South as a trio of emerging black leaders attempts to conquer their individual demons amid death threats from the Ku Klux Klan and wire taps by the FBI. Through personal and intimate stories inspired by the political upheavals of the era, The Good Negro reveals the human frailties behind the historic headlines.

Tracey Scott Wilson's recent work includes The Good Negro, produced at The Public Theater/NYSF and Dallas Theater Center, and The Story, produced at The Public Theater/NYSF and Goodman Theatre. Additional productions include Order My Steps for Cornerstone Theater Company's Black AIDS/Black Faith Project in Los Angeles; Exhibit #9; and Leader of the People. She is currently working on several screenplays, including a screen version of The Story. She has written a pilot for NBC and Curtis Hanson and is currently writing another pilot for NBC and Alicia Keyes' Production Company. Wilson earned two Van Lier Fellowships from New York Theatre Workshop and a residency at Sundance Ucross. She is the winner of the 2001 Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, the 2003 AT&T Onstage Award, the 2004 Whiting Award and the 2004 Kesserling Prize.

The Good Negro joins previously announced season selections Animal Crackers, Book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, Music and Lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, directed by Henry Wishcamper; the Broadway-bound double-bill of Hughie by Eugene O'Neill, directed by Robert Falls and Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett, directed by Jennifer Tarver; A True History of the Johnstown Flood by Rebecca Gilman; and The Sins of Sor Juana by Karen Zacarías, directed by Henry Godinez, which kicks off the 5th biennial Latino Theatre Festival; and the 32nd annual production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, adapted by Tom Creamer, in the Albert Theatre. Owen Theatre selections include Joan D'Arc, Created by Tanya Palmer and Aida Karic, adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maiden of Orleans), directed by Aida Karic; High Holidays by Alan Gross, directed by Steven Robman; and The Long Red Road by Brett C. Leonard, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Subscriptions for the 2009/2010 season are now on sale (subscriptions do not include A Christmas Carol).

Visit www.GoodmanTheatre.org/Subscribe or call 312.443.3800.

Named the country's "Best Regional Theatre" by Time magazine (2003), Goodman Theatre is a leader in the American theater, internationally recognized for its artists, productions and educational programs since its founding in 1925. Artistic Director Robert Falls and Executive Director Roche Schulfer's forward-thinking leadership has earned the Goodman unparalleled artistic distinction, garnered hundreds of awards-including the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre (1992)-and moved dozens of plays from Chicago to stages in New York and abroad. Central to its commitment to the reinvestigation of classics and development of new plays and artists is the Goodman's Artistic Collective, including Brian Dennehy, Frank Galati, Henry Godinez, Steve Scott, Chuck Smith, ReGina Taylor and Mary Zimmerman. The largest not-for-profit theater in Chicago, the Goodman moved in 2000 into a brand new state-of-the-art complex which houses two principal theaters: the 856-seat Albert Ivar Goodman Theatre and the 400-seat flexible Owen Bruner Goodman Theatre. Board Chairman is Shawn M. Donnelley and Karen Pigott is President of the Women's Board. American Airlines is the Exclusive Airline of Goodman Theatre. Kraft Foods is the Principal Sponsor of the Goodman's free Student Subscription Series.

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