Photo Flash: Goodman Theatre Presents FATHER COMES HOME FROM THE WARS

Goodman Theatre presents the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith. Parks, in her "finest work yet" (New York Times), serves up "an American story as much about our present as it is about our past" (Los Angeles Times).

Filled with wit, poetry and original music composed by Grammy Award winner Justin Ellington and performed on stage nightly by Chicago native blues musician Melody Angel, the production follows Hero (Kamal Angelo Bolden), a Texas slave, who faces a simple yet monumental choice: join his master in the Confederate army to win his freedom-or remain enslaved at the plantation.

Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) runs through June 24, 2018 (opening night is June 4 at 7pm) in Goodman Theatre's 350-seat flexible Owen Theatre. The estimated run time is 2 hours and 30 minutes. Tickets ($10 - $40; subject to change) are available at GoodmanTheatre.org/Father , by phone at 312.443.3800 or at the box office (170 N. Dearborn). The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation is the Major Production Sponsor and American Airlines is the Contributing Sponsor.

"The Goodman has brought together a stellar cast to interpret Suzan-Lori Parks' masterwork," said Director Niegel Smith, Artistic Director of New York's The Flea Theaterand a former fellow at The Public Theater during the play's development and 2014 world premiere production. "I'm excited to create, with these actors, a panoply of enslaved folks-joyful, fearful, nurturing, overwhelmed and yet resilient. This is a necessary work, one of black love, black joy and black pain. We need plays like this that look deeply at our history, and how we continue to perpetuate it. I am thrilled by artists like Suzan-Lori who make it part of their work to give us these stories in which we investigate truthfully."

Smith's cast also features William Dick as Colonel; Aimé Donna Kelly as Penny, Hero's devoted love; Jaime Lincoln Smith as Homer, whose rivalry with Hero is defined by a betrayal. Rounding out the cast are Sydney Charles (Second), Ronald L. Conner (Third), Bernard Gilbert (Runaway), Nicole Michelle Haskins as (Runaway), Ernest Perry Jr. (The Oldest Old Man), Tyrone Phillips (Runaway), Michael Aaron Pogue (Fourth), BrittneyLove Smith (Odyssey Dog), Demetrios Troy (Smith) and Jacqueline Williams (Leader). The creative team also includes Courtney O'Neill (set), Linda Cho (costumes) and Keith Parham (lighting).

In addition, Chicago-based blues musician Angel makes her Goodman Theatre debut as a contemporary narrator who comments on the circumstances and setting to direct the audience's focus.

Photos by Liz Lauren