Sydney Charles 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!

Congo Square Theatre Company presents WELCOME TO MATTESON!, a dark comedy by Chicago born playwright Inda Craig-Galván that examines relevant issues like housing injustice and classism.

 Steppenwolf Theatre Company continues its 47th season with the Chicago premiere of Donnetta Lavinia Grays’ Last Night and the Night Before, a moving exploration of love – Black, queer, familial – and what must be sacrificed to raise a child. Check out photos from opening night here!

Tune into our Instagram story as Ayanna Bria Bakari and Sydney Charles of Last Night And The Night Before at Steppenwolf Theatre take you behind the scenes of their day!

Get a first look at footage of Donnetta Lavinia Grays’ Last Night and the Night Before at Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

LAST NIGHT AND THE NIGHT BEFORE explores the in-between, the murkiness of transitioning life stages and fraught family relationships.

Check out rehearsal photos for Steppenwolf Theatre Company's Last Night and the Night Before.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is continuing its 47th season with the Chicago premiere of Donnetta Lavinia Grays’ Last Night and the Night Before, a moving exploration of love – Black, queer, familial – and what must be sacrificed to raise a child.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is continuing its 47th season with the Chicago premiere of Donnetta Lavinia Grays’ Last Night and the Night Before, a powerful, poetic exploration of what it takes to create a future from a past you long to forget.

What did our critic think of THE MOST SPECTACULARLY LAMENTABLE TRIAL OF MIZ MARTHA WASHINGTON at Steppenwolf Theatre Company? Steppenwolf’s season opener THE MOST SPECTACULARLY LAMENTABLE TRIAL OF MIZ MARTHA WASHINGTON is a wild fever dream of a play. James Ijames’s play asks audiences to grapple with the question of who is truly free in America and at what cost do we perpetuate cycles of oppression and abuse, even though they may fall under the guise of forward movement.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is opening its 47th season with the Chicago premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames’ fantastical play The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington, in Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater, now through October 9, 2022. Get a first look at photos here!

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is opening its 47th season with the Chicago premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames’ fantastical play The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington September 1 – October 9, 2022. Check out rehearsal photos here!

Steppenwolf Theatre Company will open its 47th season with the Chicago premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames’ fantastical play The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington, playing September 1 – October 9, 2022.

Victory Gardens Theater preesents the final show in its 2021/22 Mainstage Season, the regional premiere of cullud wattah, written by Erika Dickerson-Despenza and directed by Lili-Anne Brown. 

On June 19, 2022, Victory Gardens Theater opened the regional premiere of cullud wattah, written by Erika Dickerson-Despenza and directed by Lili-Anne Brown. 

In cullud wattah, Erika Dickerson-Despenza compellingly weaves the personal and political. The play is ultimately a narrative of resilience as the women in the play struggle with environmental racism and to econcile with the tension between their desire for justice (especially in ainee’s case) and the will to survive and make enough money to pay their bills.

Out of the 330 total Chicagoland high school students who entered the 13th annual August Wilson Monologue and Design Competitions, Demi Davis from Senn High School prevailed, taking the first-place prize at the Chicago finals earlier this month for her 2-3-minute monologue performance.

Victory Gardens Theater has announced the cast for the final show in its 2021/22 Mainstage Season, the regional premiere of cullud wattah, written by Erika Dickerson-Despenza and directed by Lili-Anne Brown. cullud wattah runs June 11 – July 17, 2022 at Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue.

ABC7 recently profiled Goodman Theatre's Gem Of The Ocean. 'It's teaming with good Black history because it tells the story of coming over from Africa, living in slavery,' Smith said. 'You're talking about individuals who experienced slavery.' Check out the video.

In celebration of Black History Month, Goodman Theatre presents its first-ever on-site art expo—Hidden Gems: A Celebration of African American Artists & Art—in conjunction with the major revival of Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson, directed by Chuck Smith.