Chuck Smith News

With less than twenty-four hours until the Ensemble Theatre opened the Regional Premiere of KNOCK ME A KISS, I got to have a brief conversation about the play with its playwright, Charles Smith. During our conversation we discussed the play, which introduces audiences to Yolande Du Bois, daughter of W.E.B. Du Bois. It exposes the audience to the hardships she faced and endured in search of her own happiness.

Perhaps one of the greatest achievements of theatre is its ability to shed light on an issue or people that the audience may not be wholly familiar with. The Harlem Renaissance is the well-known and highly lauded period of time when African-American artists became exposed to and appreciated by mainstream audiences. The Harlem Renaissance introduced Americans and even the world to the soul and heart of African-Americans, showcasing humanity and beginning to dismantle the stigma of animalism, livestock, and even chattel. Most of us are familiar with the celebrated heroes of the movement, like Langston Hughes and W.E.B. Du Bois; yet, we are wholly unfamiliar with W.E.B. Du Bois' daughter, Yolande Du Bois. We are even less cognizant of her marriage to poet Countee Cullen.

The Ensemble Theatre will debut its first production by award winning playwright Charles Smith as its 2012-2013 season continues. The show will be directed by visiting artist Chuck Smith, resident director at Chicago's Goodman Theatre.

Crossroads Theatre Company kicks off its 2012 - 2013 season of insightful, compelling and entertaining plays with Charles Smith's acclaimed KNOCK ME A KISS, a fictionalized look at the drama surrounding the ill-fated marriage of W.E.B. Du Bois' daughter. The production is directed by Chuck Smith (no relation to the author). The play will be on stage at the New Brunswick theatre with a run beginning tonight, October 25 and continuing through November 4. Tickets are on sale now.

Crossroads Theatre Company will take audiences on a journey through the ages during its 2012-2013 season of theatrical presentations that bring drama, poignancy and humor to different chapters of American history, from the 1920s to post-9/11 America.

Crossroads Theatre Company kicks off its 2012 - 2013 season with Charles Smith's acclaimed KNOCK ME A KISS, a fictionalized look at the drama surrounding the ill-fated marriage of W.E.B. Du Bois' daughter. The play will be on stage at the New Brunswick theatre with a run beginning October 25 and continuing through November 4. Tickets are on sale now.

Artistic Director Robert Falls announced today that he will direct a major revival and new adaptation of Measure for Measure, Shakespeare's darkly comic collision of vice and virtue, in Goodman Theatre's 2012/2013 season, March 9 - April 14, 2013. Also, director David Cromer announced partial casting for his production of Sweet Bird of Youth: Oscar, Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award-nominee Diane Lane appears as Princess Kosmonopolis and Finn Wittrock, who recently appeared in Broadway's Death of a Salesman with Philip Seymour Hoffman, is cast as the young-actor-turned-gigolo Chance Wayne. Complete casting to be announced soon. The production opens the Goodman's new season, September 15 - October 21; a September 24 Season Opening Benefit will take place at The Standard Club. Tickets available only on subscription; call 312.443.3800 or visit www.GoodmanTheatre.org. Individual tickets to Sweet Bird of Youth go on sale August 10; Abbott Fund, Fifth Third Bank, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP and PwC LLP are the Corporate Sponsors Partners. Call 312.443.3811, ext. 586 for more information about the Season Opening Benefit.

Over 75 playwrights from across the country participated in the festival this year and many works were submitted.

Artistic Director Robert Falls announced Goodman Theatre's 2012/2013 subscription season today, featuring four world- and two Chicago-premiere productions including a new adaptation of Disney's THE JUNGLE BOOK by Tony Award-winner Mary Zimmerman.

Goodman Theatre has added performances of Race by David Mamet, directed by Resident Director Chuck Smith.

Goodman Theatre has added two performances of Race by David Mamet, directed by Resident Director Chuck Smith.

Goodman Theatre's cast of Race by David Mamet took a break from rehearsal yesterday morning to join more than 200 volunteers from City Year Chicago and One Good Deed Chicago in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Together with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, actors Geoffrey Owens and Tamberla Perry, along with Director Chuck Smith and Executive Director Roche Schulfer, painted a classroom at the North Lawndale YMCA (3449 W. Arthington).

Goodman Theatre Resident Director Chuck Smith announces his cast for the Chicago premiere of Race, David Mamet's 'intellectually salacious' (Chicago Tribune) portrait of prejudice and social injustice within the judicial system (January 14 - February 19, 2012). The ensemble cast includes Patrick Clear (King Lear, The Clean House) as Charles; Marc Grapey (Vigils; Dead Man's Cell Phone at Steppenwolf Theatre Company) as Jack; Geoffrey Owens (Opus at Two River Theater Company, Julius Caesar at Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, DC) as Henry and Tamberla Perry (In the Next Room or the vibrator play at Victory Gardens Theater, Eclipsed at Northlight Theatre) as Susan. Tickets for Race ($25 - $79) go on sale December 2. Mayer Brown is the Corporate Sponsor Partner for Race and WBEZ 91.5 FM is the Media Partner.

A two-time Tony Award nominee, De Shields, whose prolific career spans more than four decades, was a member of the original company of Ain't Misbehavin' which initially opened at the Manhattan Theatre Club's cabaret in February, 1978.

This October, the Off-Air Series will explore how theatre has proven an influential channel for political commentary and protest in countries around the globe; however, Chicago, a city that houses the largest community of grassroots theater, is lacking in politically-themed productions.

This October, the Off-Air Series will explore how theatre has proven an influential channel for political commentary and protest in countries around the globe; however, Chicago, a city that houses the largest community of grassroots theater, is lacking in politically-themed productions.

Welcome to the effervescent, energetic world of Fats Waller, a world of rent parties, hot jazz and the exuberance of the Harlem Renaissance. The 'joint' will definitely be 'jumpin' as Crossroads Theatre Company presents the Tony Award- winning musical, Ain't Misbehavin', directed and choreographed by André De Shields. The season-opening show will run from October 6 through 23. Tickets are on sale now!

This summer is a busy one for award-winning Broadway star André De Shields. He has been nominated as 'Best Leading Actor' for his title role in Charles Smith's new play The Gospel According to James, produced last Spring at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater in Chicago, Dennis Zacek, Artistic Director. Based on the doubling lynching depicted in the infamous Lawrence Beitler photograph, this drama involves the fictional meeting between a witness and a survivor of that seminal moment in Indiana history. The play garnered four Black Theater Alliance Award nods, including Best Direction for director, Chuck Smith and Best Writing for playwright, Charles Smith. The play was originally commissioned by and experienced its world premiere at The Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis.

Woodie King Jr's New Federal Theatre's acclaimed production of Knock Me a Kiss by Charles Smith will be featured at this year's National Black Theater Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Performances will be August 2nd to 4th only.

Goodman Theatre announces the final addition to its 2011/2012 Subscription Season-New Stages Amplified a series of three never-before-seen works in modestly-scaled developmental productions in the intimate Owen Theatre.