Collaboraction announces Moonset Sunrise, its 25 year anniversary production, with live performances June 8-18, 2022 at Beat Kitchen’s new Bar Sol on Navy Pier, 700 E. Grand Ave., Chicago.
Through healing ritual, storytelling, song and dance, Moonset Sunrise honors the sacred moment between the setting full moon and the rising sun...reconciling the past and celebrating our new NOW on the banks of Lake Michigan.
“As we come out of the isolation and emotional toll of the past two years, we conceived Moonset Sunrise as an experience of self care and wellness, and a communal first step to solidarity and racial healing,” said Collaboraction Artistic Director Anthony Moseley. “This 25 year production is really a gift to ourselves and our audience and, so, we have brought together an ensemble of incredible healer-artists to light up the vibration of love and care.”
Moonset Sunrise is co-created by Pilar Audain, Anthony Moseley and Carla Stillwell, and features a six-piece live band and an all-star ensemble of poets/dancers/performers.
First, the artists and audience will meet outdoors, on the south side of Navy Pier, to join an opening performance by Susana Ollin Kuikatl Tekpatzin Banuelos of Aztec Dance Chicago and a land acknowledgment from Jose Rico of TRTH Chicago followed by an African ancestral libation.
Next, the artists and audience will come together for an inclusive, immersive experience rooted in healing, self-care and collective transformation. Act I will center a moon ritual in which everybody can release all that does not serve them. Act II will celebrate the sunrise.
Pilar Audain, lead writer/performer/guide for Moonset Sunrise, is founder and CEO of the Wrap Your beYOUty Movement and associate director for Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Greater Chicago. Audain said, "I am both grateful and super excited to co-create this deeply spirit-U-well theatrical journey that will engage our audiences in a Sankofa-esque experience where we remember our past, affirm our present and set intentions for our future."
Collaboraction company member and Chicago's Example Setter, Sir Taylor, will perform African dance as part of Moonset Sunrise, June 8-18 at Bar Sol on Navy Pier. Photo credit: Joel Maisonet
Audain will lead the experience which will feature an ensemble including Collaboraction company members Sandra Delgado and Sir Taylor, as well as AACM President Coco Elysses, and Ugochi Nwaogwugwu. Music Director is Dr. Marcus Robinson, who will lead a live band including Sam Thousand. The design team includes Dorian Slyvain (scenic design), Warren Levon (sound design), Phoenix Ballentine (lighting design) and Razor Wintercastle (production manager).
Moonset Sunrise will also feature local vendors selling self-care healing merchandise and products. Bonus: Wednesday and Saturday performances will be followed by free fireworks, courtesy of Navy Pier.
Regular performances are Wednesday through Saturday, June 8-11, and Thursday through Saturday, June 16-18, at 7:30 p.m. Moonset Sunrise is a suggested contribution event: $50 for the general public, or $15 for artists, activists, students, seniors and veterans. Or, join Collaboraction’s Collaboractivist membership program for $25/month for complimentary admission. Reservations are recommended. Register online at collaboraction.org or email info@collaboraction.org.
Moonset Sunrise is the inaugural event at Beat Kitchen’s new Bar Sol, a 14,000-square-foot restaurant/bar and event space on Navy Pier (700 E. Grand St.) opened by Robert Gomez, longtime Chicago music venue owner/operator (Subterranean, Beat Kitchen, Beat Kitchen Riverwalk).
“As a Chicago native Latino, I started Subterranean 28 years ago and I am honored and excited to bring this Latin-infused location to Navy Pier," said Gomez. We’ll have our first floor space open seven days a week with a food menu and bar. One of the most spectacular views of the lake and the city is from our second floor event space, which will be available for weddings, corporate outings and unique artistic events like Moonset Sunrise.”
Collaboraction’s 25 year anniversary Moonset Sunrise performances are June 8-18, 2022 at Beat Kitchen’s new Bar Sol on Navy Pier.
Collaboraction’s Anthony Moseley and Carla Stillwell are co-directors. Stillwell said, “To have the opportunity to create an immersive theatrical event centered around harmony and self-care that uses song, dance, poetry and music as its bridge to our souls is truly a gift. Weaving Moonset Sunrise with this group of artists/activists into this unique performance experience has brought me not only joy, but a renewed sense of purpose as we the human collective work to come into equitable alignment.”
For more information, visit collaboraction.org, or follow the company on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or YouTube.
Wednesday, June 15 marks the next full moon: Howl at it at Strawberry Moon Affair, a benefit performance for Collaboraction
Celebrate the next full moon with Collaboraction at its special benefit performance, Strawberry Moon Affair. The evening will feature a live performance of Moonset Sunrise, along with delicious food and drink by Bar Sol and special guest performers.
Tickets to Strawberry Moon Affair are $150. Or, join Collaboraction’s Collaboractivist membership program for $50 per month for complimentary admission.
Moonset Sunrise is supported by funding from the Bayless Foundation, the Feinberg Family Foundation and Paul M. Angel Foundation. AV Chicago is the official production sponsor.
About Collaboraction: Changing the map and removing barriers within the theater industry
Collaboraction is an ethno-diverse social justice organization that uses theater and performance to incite social change on Chicago’s most critical issues. Collaboraction is a 24-year-old company that produces live and digital performances, anti-racism workshops, and youth programs that incite change and grow equity in Chicago.
Since its founding in 1996, Collaboraction has pushed artistic boundaries working with more than 4,000 artists to bring over 100 productions and events to more than 150,000 unique audience members, and has inspired measurable positive change on social justice in Chicago and beyond. Collaboraction’s work includes Sketchbook, Peacebook, Crime Scene, Forgotten Future and Gender Breakdown.
In addition to live performances, community building and video production, the company centers and presents its work in Chicago neighborhoods historically overlooked like Englewood, Austin and Lawndale.
Live, virtual programs that began during the pandemic and continue online include Becoming, a live web show, RSVP only, for anyone looking to be active anti-racists (first Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. CT), and Crucial Connections, a live, interactive talk show that brings social justice warriors, artists and community residents together for crucial conversations (third Thursday of every month, 7 p.m. CT).
Collaboraction has been acknowledged for innovation and inclusivity by using theater as a tool for social change with numerous awards including, most recently, a 2020 Foster Innovation Award from Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the 2020 Multi-Racial Unity Award from the First Unitarian Church-Chicago, a 2018 Stand For the Arts Award from Comcast & OvationTV, and an Otto Award from New York’s Castillo Theatre.
Collaboraction is supported by The Chicago Community Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts, Illinois Humanities, Paul M. Angell Foundation, Marc and Jeanne Malnati Family Foundation, Joseph and Bessie Feinberg Foundation, the Bayless Family Foundation, Spreading Hearts, AV Chicago, and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. Collaboraction is supported by a grant of U.S. Department of Treasury funds through the City of Chicago. (The opinions, findings, conclusions and recommendations expressed by Collaboraction are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Treasury or the City of Chicago.)
Moonset Sunrise lead artist bios
Pilar Audain (co-creator) is associate director for Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Greater Chicago, housed at The Chicago Community Trust. When asked how she sees herself within the context of the community, Audain will immediately respond, “I am a mother, a sister…a soldier on the front lines who creates safe spaces for my people to heal.” As a Veteran of the United States Navy where she served as an Operations Specialist on the USS Haleakala and the USS Mount Hood, her love of details, process, systems and strategy led her to the social service aspect of the health/human sciences.
For seven years, Audain worked for the Chicago Department of Public Health/CDC as an Infectious Disease Community Epidemiologist. Desiring to have a more hands on healing impact within the community, the next decade took Audain on a magical journey through entrepreneurship; opening a healing shop featured on ABC7’s 190 North and HGTV which led to her being selected to represent Dove-Unilever in the internationally acclaimed “Real Women, Real Beauty” Campaign.
Her signature Gele, or headwrap, was so inspiring to women across the globe that a movement was formed launching Gele Day, an annual celebration of healing for women of color, which led to the launch of Audain’s Chicago-based non-profit organization, Wrap Your beYOUty Movement (WYBM) in 2015.
Through her agency, Audain served as Chief Planner for the Third World Press 50th Anniversary celebration week pushing literacy in the Black community, working with Haki Madhubuti, Nora Brooks, Cornel West, Sonia Sanchez, Haile Gerima, Maulana Karenga and many members of the original Black Arts Movement. In 2018, Audain served as Operations Director for the Amara Enyia mayoral campaign and appeared in the historic Chicago Mayoral Documentary, City So Real.
Sandra Delgado (musician/perfomer) is a Colombian-American writer, actor, singer and producer born and raised in Chicago. She is best known for her play La Havana Madrid, which enjoyed sold-out runs at Steppenwolf and Goodman Theatre, and most recently in a co-production with Teatro Vista and Collaboraction. It was featured in the New York Times and CNN, received recognition as one of the best plays of 2017 by New City Chicago and Time Out Chicago, the Time Out Audience Award for Best New Work, and the Alliance of Latinx Theatre Artists (ALTA) Award for Best Production.
Delgado is also a respected veteran of the stage, with a career spanning two decades. In addition to her work at artistic homes, Teatro Vista and Collaboraction, she has been seen on stages across Chicago including The Goodman Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Victory Gardens and About Face. Recent highlights include the titular role in La Havana Madrid, La Ruta at Steppenwolf and starring off-Broadway in the Public Theatre’s production of Oedipus el Rey as Jocasta.
Delgado is a 2021 United States Artists Fellow, serves on the board of the Chicago Public Library, served on the City of Chicago’s Cultural Advisory Council (2019-2021) and is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists. She is an Illinois Arts Council Fellow in Literature, a recipient of the 3Arts Award, the Joyce Award, The Theater Communications Group (TCG) Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship in the Extraordinary Potential Category, a three-time Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events grantee, and a 3Arts 3AP Project Grantee, and received the 2017 Latina Professional of the Year Award from the Chicago Latino Network. Delgado is Goodman's Playwrights Unit and a TCG Young Leader of Color Alum. She is one of the twenty women of Chicago arts and culture honored in Kerry James Marshall's mural RUSH MORE on the facade of the Chicago Cultural Center. Her latest project, The Sandra Delgado Experience, a fusion of music and storytelling, premiered on May 1, 2002 with a sold-out show at Joe’s on Weed St.
Coco Elysses (musician/performer) is a modern day renaissance woman from Robbins, Illinois and a producer, musician, actress, voice-over artist, screenwriter and poet. She is the second woman Chair of the 56-year-old venerable AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). During their second season, she was a featured musician in the critically acclaimed FOX drama Empire.
In 2014, Elysses was a semifinalist in the Lifetime Television Unscripted Development Pipeline. Her voice can be heard at the Adler Planetarium in the installation, Skywatchers of Africa. Her voice can also be heard in Saints Row video games EverQuest II and Watchdogs. In 2018 she won the ALTA Award for Best Original Music in a Play and the 2019 non-equity Jeff Award for Best Original Music in a Play for Tilikum, the first for an African American woman. She recently appeared in the Midwest premier of Detroit ‘67 at Northlight Theatre, directed by Ron O.J. Parsons. She also composed music and performed in Baltimore Center Stage’s touring mobile unit in Antigone as Tiresias.
In 2015 Elysses was a featured actress in George E. Lewis’ film, Afterword and in the opera of the same name at The Museum of Contemporary Art. She was also in two exhibits celebrating the 50th anniversary of the AACM (The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) at The DuSable Museum of African American History and the Museum of Contemporary Art. She performed at the Frankfurt, Germany Jazz Festival with Generation Now of the AACM and at the Made in Chicago Jazz Festival in Poznan, Poland with Voice Heard - a collective of women musicians of the AACM. Coco was a featured actress on Chicago PD and a featured musician on Chicago Med.
Elysses was also a featured musician in the book, “Black Women and Music: More than The Blues,” documenting historical female musicians. She performed with the Great Black Music Ensemble of the AACM in Pisa, Italy, for The Insolent Noise Festival, at Millennium Park Chicago, the Chicago Blues Festival and for the Chicago Jazz Festival. She has performed with Renee Baker’s Chicago Modern Orchestra Project and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. She was a featured artist in Taiko Legacy 8, 10 & 11 at the Museum of Contemporary Art with Tatsu Aoki, and Tsukasa Taiko, Miyumi Project at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. Her poetry is featured in “99 New Poems: A Contemporary Anthology.” A few of her noted recordings were in Chile, South America, with Raiza, on their CD, Latin Soul-EMI and Nicole Mitchell’s Africa Rising, Skylanding-The music of Yoko Ono by the Miyumi Project, Raw and Alive 1 & 2- Miyumi Project 2018, The Best of Miyumi Project 2020, and Resurrection Suite with Carlos Pride and Ben Lamar Gay.
Ugochi Nwaogwugwu (performer) is a multidisciplinary creative, a professional poet and writer, internationally renowned musician, and poetry instructor and founder of Spirit Speaks, Inc. Ugochi has produced, written, and co-arranged three album projects: African Buttafly, A.S.E. and Love Shot. Her poems have been published in “Storm Between Two Fingers” and “Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different,” both international anthologies released in the United Kingdom. She is also featured in “Golden Shovel Anthology,“ released nationally in the U.S. honoring Gwendolyn Brooks. Ugochi has created an original pan African poetry form called #Ikepoem, paying homage to her Igbo family of Nigeria. She has written newsworthy blogs and essays including “Not My President,” published by Third World Press. Ugochi is also a playwright, activist, racial healing practitioner, and a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and the Recording Academy/Grammys Chicago Chapter.
Sir Taylor (performer) is quickly emerging as the voice of power for students, parents and educators. A former “juvenile delinquent” turned U.S. gymnast and Broadway performer now is performing, speaking, writing, and educating for thousands around the world. His message, “Set The Example,” is motivating others to set fire to their dreams and be leaders in the community. As a true Example Setter, Sir Taylor has positioned himself as the commander and chief of his family and an Example Setter for his Chicago community and beyond. Sir Taylor currently tours and performs in African Explosion as the choreographer and principal dancer. If you asked Sir Taylor, he would say dance saved his life. The performing arts allowed him to showcase his skills in 18 different countries including, Japan, Australia, Senegal, and Canada. He developed his performance skills with Chicago's own Najwa Dance Corps, Ballet Africain, Maimouna Keita and various masters from Mali, Guinee and Senegal. He developed his gymnastics and acrobatic skills with the Jesse White Tumblers, and the US National Gymnastics Team.
Sam Thousand (musician, formally known as Sam Trump) is a multi-instrumentalist, singer/writer, producer/composer and a 3Arts Recipient with 15+ years of experience in live performance art, curation, and self management. Since picking up the trumpet at age seven, his artistry has allowed him the opportunity to perform in all corners of North America as well as overseas. From maintaining years of performance residencies, and curating special events throughout the city, Thousand has become a fixture in Chicago’s performing arts scene. He has served as a booking manager at multiple venues to help keep some Chicago’s top musicians working. He is co-founder of multiple Chicago-based organizations, and is a business owner and entrepreneur. Everywhere he goes, he brings a sophistication that engages and uplifts. In the last several years Thousand has gained experience producing soundtracks for theatrical dance and film. His Chicago-based organization Production:COLORS premiered its first 45-minute dance show at the Chicago Cultural Center (2016) and its second show at the Museum of Contemporary Art (2018) to rave reviews. His first official composer credit was for the web series Funny Married Stuff (2016) and a second for Hiplet: Because We Can (2019) which landed him in a panel of film scorers at the SXSW 2020 Film Festival. His first feature-length film composition credit came with the Chicago documentary Unapologetic (2020). In 2021 he composed and performed the theme songs to the daily Chicago podcast show, City Cast Chicago.
Dr. Marcus Robinson (music director) is a transformational leader in the fields of Non-Profit management, Talent Development, Corporate Culture, Diversity with Inclusion, and Anti-Racism. He is a seasoned non-profit executive who is adept at project leadership, strategic planning, fund-raising, and leading change that delivers on the vision, mission and purpose of the enterprise. Dr. Marcus now serves as the Co-Director of Enrich Chicago providing Anti-Racism consulting and training in the Chicago arts and culture sector as a catalyst for social change and community transformation.
Dorian Sylvain (scenic designer) is a painter whose color and texture explore ornamentation, pattern, and design as identifiers of cultural and historical foundations. She is a studio painter and muralist, as well as an art educator, curator, and community planner. Much of her public work addresses issues of beautification inspired by color palettes and patterns found throughout the African diaspora, particularly architecture. Core to her practice is collaborating with children and communities to elevate neighborhood aesthetics and foster shared understanding. In addition to commissioned studio and mural work, Sylvain has led public art projects over the past four decades that empower community and expose children to art making. Partnering with such organizations as the South Side Community Art Center, Hyde Park Art Center, National Museum of Mexican Art, DuSable Museum, Chicago Park District, and the Chicago Public Arts Group, she has devoted her work to building the next generation of “cultural keepers.”
Anthony Moseley (co-creator, co-director) has been the Artistic Director of Collaboraction since 1999, using theater as a tool of knowledge, empathy, dialogue and action. Through this work, Moseley has commissioned and collaborated with thousands of artists to build a more equitable future for Chicago through projects including Sketchbook Festival, Peacebook, Encounter and The Light youth theater festival. His most recent project was co-creating and co-directing Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till, both the live theatrical production and the NBC5 Chicago documentary, The Lost Story of Emmett Till: Trial in the Delta. As a writer/director he also created Crime Scene: a Chicago Anthology and its four sequels, as well as This is Not a Cure For Cancer, Connected and A Blue Island in the Red Sea. Since the pandemic, Anthony has led Collaboraction’s push to create over 70 pieces of digital programming including directing Oh Colonizers by Carla Stillwell, Encounter Englewood and producing and co-hosting Collaboraction’s live web shows Becoming and Crucial Connections. In 2018, Collaboraction was honored with a Comcast/Ovation Stand for the Arts Award and an Otto Award for “ground-breaking political theater and in 2019 Collaboraction won a Multi-racial Unity Award.
Carla Stillwell (co-creator, co-director) has been an award-winning Chicago actor, playwright and director for three decades. She is a producer at Collaboraction, where recent projects include the 2021 online premiere of Oh Colonizers!, her response to the Capitol Insurrection, and producing Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till, both the live theatrical production and the NBC5 Chicago documentary, The Lost Story of Emmett Till: Trial in the Delta.
Stillwell is the former Artistic Director and a Playwright-In-Residence at Chicago’s MPAACT Theatre and is a teaching artist at Victory Gardens. She is also the founder and Executive Director of The Stillwell Institute for Contemporary Black Art, which recruits, develops and supports contemporary Black artists, and teaches art making in the Black community as a healing practice, a vehicle for social change and a viable career opportunity. Stillwell has contributed to the online theater magazine HowlRound writing popular articles including “What do we tell our young Playwrights who are Black,” “Diversity: It’s a Noun” and “What is Your Mission?”
Stillwell began her directorial career with the late-night stage production of the popular 70’s sitcom Good Times. She went on to direct Addae Moon’s critically acclaimed She Calls up the Sun, Kevin Douglas’ No Experience Necessary, Keith Josef Adkins’ The Last Saint on Sugar Hill, Paul Notice’s Leaves, Trees, Forest, Eric Lockley’s Without Trace, MPAACT’s 2015-16 season, and Shepsu Aakhu’s Never the Milk and Honey (2017). She has been a visiting workshop director for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and directed the new play More Than Neighbors for the 2018 Great Plains Theatre Conference.
As a playwright, her credits include Lawd the CVS is Burning: A Gospel Musical Stage Play, The People Who Could Fly and Other Stories of Freedom, Burf of a Nation: Or from Covfefe With Love, Defending Myself, her one-woman show Carla…In Search of My Silky Underthings, The Divine Order of Becoming (Joseph Jefferson Award/Black Theatre Alliance Award nominated), and the Blaxploitation series with co-writers Kevin Douglas and Inda Craig-Galvan (four BTAA Awards). She also adapted and directed work of poet Orron Kenyatta in the Jeff-nominated Tad in 5th City, noted in the “Top 25 Plays of 2010” by Chicago Theatre Blog and featured in the August Wilson Reading Round Table Series at The August Wilson Center for African American Culture. Stillwell’s show Bodies won a Black Theatre Alliance Award for Best Play, was Jeff-nominated for Best New Work and was selected for a reading at the 2012 New Black Play Festival in New York. Her children’s show about healthy eating, When Good Broccoli Goes Bad: The Musical!, was produced by the Chicago Park District. She has been commissioned to create work for Theatre Seven of Chicago and The DuSable Museum of African American History, and was a 2018-19 Artist–in–Residency at The Experimental Station in Chicago.
