McKenzie Chinn News

The nonprofit Black Arts & Culture Alliance of Chicago has announced the winners of its 23rd Annual Black Excellence Awards, honored Monday night in a festive celebration at Black Ensemble Theater. Learn more about the winners here!

Discover the cast and creative team behind the highly anticipated world premiere of THE SALVAGERS by Harrison David Rivers. Get all the details on this exciting new production.

Discover the Black Arts & Culture Alliance of Chicago, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and showcasing Black artists. Learn about their 26-year legacy and their mission to advance excellence in the vibrant Black arts and culture sector in Chicago. Join them in celebrating Black Arts Month in October with a lineup of events and exhibitions.

Celebrate Black Arts Month with a series of free public events across Chicago from October 9-23. Presented by the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago, this programming showcases the richness and diversity of African American arts.

'A Real One' a compelling drama about testing the bonds of friendship, will compete at this year's Dances With Films (DWF) Festival, June 22-July 2, 2023 at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood.

The League of Chicago Theatres, in partnership with Choose Chicago, will present a celebratory evening of food, drinks, mingling, and performances to launch Chicago Theatre Week 2023. 

The Board of Directors of the African American Arts Alliance, and the Black Excellence Awards Committee have announced the nominations for the 22nd Annual Black Excellence Awards. The Awards were established in 2002 to honor the outstanding works of art by African Americans in Theater, Dance, Music, Film, Literature, Visual Arts and Digital Media.

Single tickets are now on sale for Congo Square Theatre Company and Lookingglass Theatre Company's remount of Congo Square’s production of What to Send Up When It Goes Down in residence at Lookingglass Theatre Company’s historic Water Tower Water Works theater. Get a first look at photos below!

Congo Square Theatre Company, GRAY, and Theaster Gates's Rebuild Foundation are proud to announce that the Chicago Premiere of What to Send Up When It Goes Down, by award-winning playwright Aleshea Harris, has been extended by popular demand with three additional performances at the Rebuild Foundation's Stony Island Arts Bank.

GRAY, Congo Square Theatre Company, and Theaster Gates's Rebuild Foundation will jointly present the Chicago premiere of What to Send Up When It Goes Down, the critically acclaimed play by award-winning playwright, Aleshea B. Harris.

Congo Square Theatre Company, GRAY, and Theaster Gates’s Rebuild Foundation jointly present the Chicago premiere of What to Send Up When It Goes Down, the critically acclaimed play by award-winning playwright Aleshea B. Harris. The performance will be presented at GRAY Chicago (2044 West Carroll Ave) from March 31 through April 16 and Rebuild Foundation’s Stony Island Arts Bank from April 21 through May 1, 2022.

Victory Gardens Theater has announced New Plays for a New Year, a one-night-only online reading of new ten-minute plays on February 12, 2021 from 7pm to 8pm Central. Featured artists include playwrights McKenzie Chinn, Preston Choi, and York Walker, with directors Brian Balcom, Lili-Anne Brown, and Devon de Mayo.

Fifteen emerging storytellers from Chile, India, Kenya, Tunisia and the U.S. will convene digitally for Sundance Institute’s January Screenwriters Lab, taking place online via Sundance Co//ab from January 11 -15, 2021. The Fellows will work to further develop twelve original projects, in collaboration with an experienced group of Creative Advisors.

Victory Gardens Theater has announced the further postponement of the 2021 Season, which included the Chicago premieres of cullud wattah by Erika Dickerson-Despenza and Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery.

Court Theatre, under the continuing leadership of Charles Newell, Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director, and Executive Director Angel Ysaguirre, continues its Theatre & Thought series with Euripides' The Bacchae + Contemporary Adaptations.

As the national call for social justice increases, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis is honored to support BIPOC artists and stories.

Free programming for participants a?oeaged eight to 80a?? is underway online, as Goodman Theatre's popular Education and Engagement summer offerings for multigenerational learners go virtual. Nearly 150 studentsa?"35% of whom are new to the Goodmana?"participate in summer programs, which gather online each week on varying days and times.

The Fly Honey's extend the Hive through various online streaming events and classes that are sure to lift spirits during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Casting is complete for the two a?oedevelopmental productionsa?? featured in Goodman Theatre's 16th annual New Stages Festivala?"a free celebration of new works by some of the country's finest established and emerging playwrights.

Goodman Theatre's summer programsa?"PlayBuild Youth Intensive and Musical Theater Intensivea?"culminate with two final showcases performed by 100 students (aged 14-18) on August 9 and 10 at 7pm. Under the leadership of Walter Director of Education and Engagement Willa J. Taylor, both programs were offered free of charge and taught over the course of six-to-seven weeks in the Alice Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement (a?oethe Alicea??). Each performance will be themed to Summer Love to celebrate the various iterations of love.