American Blues Theater, under the continued leadership of Artistic Director Gwendolyn Whiteside, presents a live, online reading of Yes…My Name is LUCY! by Ensemble member Wandachristine, directed by Ensemble member Chuck Smith, as part of “The Room” series. The reading will be live on Friday, September 18th at 7pm, and features Tony Award winner Deanna Dunagan and Artistic Affiliate Camille Robinson.
“The Room” is a new reading series that brings original work, plays in development, and new stories to Chicago audiences. Offering in-depth discussions as well as action steps for patrons that intersect with themes of the plays, “The Room” will run via Zoom monthly for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic with the intent to transition into an in-person experience in the future.
Tickets are pay-what-you-can with a suggested donation of $10, and are currently on sale at www.AmericanBluesTheater.com or (773) 654-3101. Ticket holders will be sent a pre-reading email complete with instructions on joining the virtual reading via Zoom.
Gwendolyn Whiteside notes, “It has long been our desire to host a regular reading series to highlight new work, original commissions, and plays in development. Postponing our in-person work due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic allowed us time to launch the reading series last month. While we anxiously await the day when we can safely gather together in-person again, we’re thrilled to connect with audiences virtually via ‘The Room’.”
Future readings in “The Room” series include:
October 18
- Alma
- Written by Benjamin Benne
- Directed Ana Velazquez
- Winner of 2019 Blue Ink Playwriting Award
November 2
- Days of Decision - the music of Phil Ochs
- Written & performed by Artistic Affiliate Zachary Stevenson
- Songs by Phil Ochs
December 9
Red Bike
- Written by Caridad Svich
About Yes…My Name is LUCY!
Friday, September 18, 2020 at 7pm
A post-show discussion will immediately follow the reading
- Playwright: Ensemble member Wandachristine
- Director: Ensemble member Chuck Smith
- Stage manager: Artistic Affiliate Cara Parrish
- Dramaturg: Simone A. Allen
To earn extra cash, Sarah James (Camille Robinson), a young, struggling Black filmmaker, decorates the set for an upcoming documentary on the life of deceased Chicagoan and Civil Rights activist, Lucy Hassell Montgomery (Deanna Dunagan). While busily making last minute changes, Sarah has an unexpected visitor...Lucy herself.
WANDACHRISTINE (playwright) is a proud Ensemble member of American Blues Theater. She has starred on many stages throughout the country in notable productions as the touring company of Fences, The Vagina Monologues, Gee’s Bend, and Thyestes. For her work in Old Settler, she received a Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Supporting Actress and a Best Actress nomination for the noted Ruby Dee/Black Theater Alliance Award. For her work in American Blues Theater’s production of Beauty’s Daughter, she won the Ruby Dee/Black Theater Alliance Award for her solo performance. She’s toured regionally in Danai Gurira’s (“Black Panther” & “Walking Dead”) production of Familiar as well as the San Diego’s Old Globe production. Other recent productions include A Wonder in My Soul at Baltimore Center Stage and Incendiary at Goodman Theater. In film she’s worked alongside Whoopie Goldberg in “Clara’s Heart” and starred in the hit comedy as Mrs. Jones in “Me and Mrs. Jones” with Kym Fields. She’s appeared in the television series “Chicago PD”, numerous commercials, and voiced the animated characters in “The PJ’s”, “The Justice League”, and “Scarface” the video game. She’s written a fiction novel, “I Love You More…Than Shoes!” about four actresses over 50 years old still trying to make it in Hollywood; she working on a Zoom production of the popular novel. As a playwright, she’s written for American Blues Theater’s Ripped Festival for 3 years. To all her friends, she’s known as…”The Woman Who Can Do It All!”
CHUCK SMITH (director) is a proud Ensemble member of American Blues Theater. At Blues, he directed Leroi Jones’ Dutchman and Pearl Cleage’s Flyin’ West. He is a member of Goodman Theatre’s Board of Trustees and is Goodman Theatre’s Resident Director. He is also a resident director at the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe in Sarasota, Florida. Goodman credits include the Chicago premieres of Pullman Porter Blues; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; Race; The Good Negro; Proof; and The Story; the world premieres of By the Music of the Spheres and The Gift Horse; James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner, which transferred to Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company, where it won the Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Award for Best Direction; A Raisin in the Sun; Blues for an Alabama Sky; August Wilson’s Two Trains Running and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Objects in the Mirror; Having Our Say; Ain’t Misbehavin’; the 1993 to 1995 productions of A Christmas Carol; Crumbs From the Table of Joy; Vivisections from a Blown Mind; and The Meeting. He served as dramaturg for the Goodman’s world-premiere production of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean. He directed the New York premiere of Knock Me a Kiss and The Hooch for the New Federal Theatre and the world premiere of Knock Me a Kiss at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theater, where his other directing credits include Master Harold… and the Boys, Home, Dame Lorraine, and Eden, for which he received a Jeff Award nomination. Regionally, Mr. Smith directed Death and the King’s Horseman (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Birdie Blue (Seattle Repertory Theatre), The Story (Milwaukee Repertory Theater), Blues for an Alabama Sky (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), and The Last Season (Robey Theatre Company). At Columbia College he was facilitator of the Theodore Ward Prize playwriting contest for 20 years and editor of the contest anthologies Seven Black Plays and Best Black Plays. He won a Chicago Emmy Award as associate producer/theatrical director for the NBC teleplay Crime of Innocence and was theatrical director for the Emmy-winning Fast Break to Glory and the Emmy-nominated The Martin Luther King Suite. He was a founding member of the Chicago Theatre Company, where he served as artistic director for four seasons and directed the Jeff-nominated Suspenders and the Jeff-winning musical Po’. His directing credits include productions at Fisk University, Roosevelt University, Eclipse Theatre, ETA, Black Ensemble Theater, Northlight Theatre, MPAACT, Congo Square Theatre, The New Regal Theater, Kuumba Theatre Company, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, Pegasus Players, the Timber Lake Playhouse in Mt. Carroll, Illinois, the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, and the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He is a 2003 inductee into the Chicago State University Gwendolyn Brooks Center’s Literary Hall of Fame and a 2001 Chicago Tribune Chicagoan of the Year. He is the proud recipient of the 1982 Paul Robeson Award and the 1997 Award of Merit presented by the Black Theater Alliance of Chicago.
DEANNA DUNAGAN (Lucy Hassell Montgomery) returns to American Blues Theater where, in 1989, she first appeared as “Abbie” in Desire Under the Elms, (After Dark Award) in the company’s first Equity show. That illustrious cast included current and former ensemble members Dennis Cockrum, James Leaming, Ed Blatchford, and Marty Higginbotham, under the direction of William Payne. She is best known for originating her Tony Award-winning role of “Violet” in Tracy Letts’s August: Osage County which premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and traveled to Broadway (Tony, Drama Desk Awards), the National in London and Sydney, Australia. She most recently appeared in Chicago at Goodman Theatre as “Nancy Reagan” in Blnd Date. Other Chicago credits include: Death Tax (Lookingglass Theatre Company, where she is an artistic associate); Marvin’s Room (Shattered Globe Theatre); A Little Night Music (Writers’ Theatre); A Delicate Balance (Remy Bumppo Theatre, After Dark Award); and James Joyce’s The Dead (Court Theater, Jeff Award). Film credits include: M. Night Shyamalayn’s The Visit (Fright Meter Award); the yet to be released So Cold The River; and Stillwater with Matt Damon. Television credits include: The Exorcist, The Strain, and Chicago Med.
CAMILLE ROBINSON (Sarah James) is a proud Artistic Affiliate of American Blues Theater. She has been with the company since 2016, after making her debut in the critically-acclaimed production of Little Shop of Horrors. She has also appeared in 4 productions of Blues’ smash holiday tradition, It’s a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!. In the 8 years that Camille has been a professional actor, she has been on many stages in greater Chicagoland. Some of her favorites include: Firebrand Theatre, Paramount Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Goodman Theatre, Drury Lane Theatre and American Blues Theater, of course! Camille can also be seen as Nurse Tanya on NBC’s Chicago Med. She is a member of SAG-AFTRA and Actors’ Equity Association and represented by Gray Talent Group. camille-robinson.com
CARA PARRISH (stage manager) is a proud Artistic Affiliate of American Blues Theater where is also the Human Resources Coordinator. Chicago credits: Gem of the Ocean, Electra, Hard Problem, Photograph 51, Five Guys Named Moe, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, & Lady From the Sea (Court Theatre); WITCH, Port Authority, Yellow Moon, The Letters, The Caretaker, Death of a Streetcar Named Virginia Woolf, & The Blond, The Brunette, and the Vengeful Redhead (Writers Theatre); Too Heavy for Your Pocket & The Vibrator Play (TimeLine Theatre Company); James and the Giant Peach (Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook); Jabari Dreams of Freedom (Chicago Children’s Theatre); Romeo and Juliet & Emma (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Beauty’s Daughter & Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (American Blues Theater). Cara is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.
About American Blues Theater
Winner of the American Theatre Wing’s prestigious National Theatre Company Award, American Blues Theater is a premier arts organization with an intimate environment that patrons, artists, and all Chicagoans call home. American Blues Theater explores the American identity through the plays it produces and communities it serves.
The diverse and multi-generational artists have established the second-oldest professional Equity Ensemble theater in Chicago. The 30-member Ensemble has 600+ combined years of collaboration on stage. As of 2020, the theater and artists received 223 Joseph Jefferson Awards and nominations that celebrate excellence in Chicago theater and 40 Black Theatre Alliance Awards. The artists are honored with Pulitzer Prize nominations, Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Emmy Awards and numerous other accolades.