Displaying items by tag: Chicago Dramatists

Pegasus Theatre’s “Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea” is a family drama with plenty of comedic overtones. Director ILesa Duncan relies on very strong performances by Maya Abram as Mom, the whirling core of the family, along with David Goodloe as a deadpan Dad, to center the show in the Jones household dynamics. These have been thrown askew by Dontrell Jones III, a 18 year old dreamer who has always followed his own direction.

Written by Nathan Alan Davis, the play gives us a dramatic shift early in the opening scenes. In a vivid dream, beautifully staged with the company of players forming a chorus, Dontrell is visited by ancestral figures, and directed to seek out the remains of his great great great grandfather, who died in transit by jumping from a slave ship—the Middle Passage from Africa. Now Dontrell is to dive to the seabed where the Chesapeake River meets the Atlantic, to find his ancestor’s remains.

On awakening, this becomes Dontrell’s mission. Never mind that his parents have other plans for him. Or that he is to enter Johns Hopkins as a freshman in the fall. Or that he cannot swim. With an innocent single mindedness he embarks on this mission, Dontrell begins keeping a tape recorded log of his quest, dictating similarly to the Star Trek captain’s log, tracking his progress.

Immersed in this electrifying dream vision, Dontrell’s family senses he is estranged. His good buddy Robby (Zay Williams) reaches out to him, but while the old bond is there, Dontrell is not there with it.

Soon he heads to the public pool and diving into the deep end, and sinks, only to be. And then rescued by the lifeguard on duty, Erika (Emma Wineman). The two bond, and she becomes his confidant and comes home to meet the family, including younger sister Danielle (Aundria TraNay).

The play then follows the dynamics of the family conflict, filled with humor, angst, anger, and love. While working from the same script as a 2018 version of “Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea,” it is remarkable to how differently this production interprets the author’s work. The earlier version was more dreamlike, centering on Dontrell’s vision and quest. Pegasus’ production centers on the conflict between a young Black man compelled to reckon with his heritage, and his family’s goals to keep him headed to college. Both are satisfying shows, but call me a dreamer, I lean toward the First Floor Theatre interpretation, which is why I returned five years later to see this play once more.
“Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea” plays through August 18 at Chcago Dramatists theater, 798 N. Aberdeen.

“We make the most money and take the most shit.” I’m sure most of us can relate to this line. We've all been there, working a minimum-wage job and getting nothing in return. Written by Ken Green and directed by Rachel Van, In the Back/On the Floor accurately portrays the hardships minimum wage workers endure in a workplace.

The show takes place sometime around the 2010s in a corporate retail store called “HomeBase''. HomeBase is pretty much the fictional equivalent to our present-day Costco or Walmart. The HomeBase branch in this play is located in the South Loop neighborhood of Chicago and is the workplace of the main characters in this story. Around this time, minimum wage was about $9/hour, barely enough to survive. You see this major pain point impacts the lives of the adult workers who are supporting families and just trying to get by.

The setting of the show transpires during the stocking hours for the HomeBase store. The stage is set with shelves, product boxes, and a break room with folding chairs and a crappy coffee machine. The stage was modest and the perfect setting to display the HomeBase store.

The diverse nine-member cast is extremely talented and each of them truly own their characters. They feel like real people or friends in your life. You grow close to them during the show as you learn more about their struggles at home. The cast consists of old, middle-aged, and young characters from a variety of backgrounds. Their working relationships create an interesting dynamic with growing racial tension and tough conversations.

“In the Back/On the Floor'' has a clever contrast of well-written comedy and the painful realities many working class Americans face. This play puts the toxic corporation work culture under the microscope and rightly criticizes the poor treatment of its workers. The show hilariously mocks cringey workplace phrases we all hate, like “We are more than just colleagues, we are a family.”

The show begins with an over-the-top scene from a HomeBase training video with two characters outlining the unrealistic expectations of its workers. Then it cuts to the break room filled with HomeBase stock team employees complaining about their jobs. The show continues to flip-flop between the ridiculous training video and the dialogue amongst the HomeBase employees. Giving you a taste of good hardworking people versus evil money-grabbing companies.

As the story carries on, the employees face personal difficulties, challenges with their assistant manager, and a tremendous amount of pressure to work harder. As friction builds between the corporate executives and the overworked part-time employees, talks of unionizing naturally arise. You’ll find yourself cheering for the employees, while worrying for their job security. I highly recommend watching this play to see what happens next!

The show is held in the intimate Chicago Dramatists Theatre in the River West neighborhood of Chicago. Opening night was packed full of an excited crowd. We received a warm welcome and were encouraged to contribute a donation to the Stage Left Theatre charity. Masks are required during the show and provided by the staff. Not only do you get to experience a great show, but you also support their charity that supports unheard voices in the theatre community and local artists.

The runtime of the play was around an hour and 45 minutes, with no intermission. Overall, the show was enjoyable and went by quickly. “In the Back/On the Floor” has a showing every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday April 28th-May 28th. Tickets are $25 per person and definitely worth it! Grab a friend, family member, or loved one and have a wonderful night with great acting and some good laughs.

Performances of Stage Left Theatre’s In the Back/On the Floor run through May 28th at Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W Chicago Ave Ste 202.

Purchase your tickets here: https://checkout.square.site/buy/NNMIMR22NVKYZ6VYX7PU3PRQ

“The Shroud Maker” is a look into the world of Hajja Souad, an 84-year-old Palestinian seamstress, plying her artisanal trade amid the rise and fall of violence in Gaza City adjacent to Israel. Her specialty: shrouds used in Islamic funerals to wrap the deceased.

Unfortunately for the world, Souad’s business is good, and demand trends offer a depressing timeline of decades of violence in what had been Palestine. Boiling down a lengthy history, in 1948 the British relinquished control in the region pursuant to a U.N. mandate that partitioned Palestine to create a place for modern-day Israel. Surrounding Arab states launched a war against the U.N. action, and in 1948 the Arab League established a state for Palestine, which along with Israel claimed Jerusalem as its capital. And the rest is more war-striven history.

A businesswoman and expert in crafting finely stitched shrouds, Souad has seen it all over the years, and is played ably by Roxane Assaf-Lynn. The 70-minute monologue by noted Palestinian author Ahmed Masoud is drawn loosely from a real individual. Souad shares the gallows humor that is a familiar companion to those whose lifework is death.

Souad is also a survivor, someone who has suffered personal loss as one by one, over the years, every member of her own family became collateral damage in someone else’s wars. Her non-stop descriptive chatter tells her own epic story—against the backdrop of that of the people of Palestine.

Set in Gaza City, the opening scene finds Souad mid-way through an animated phone conversation, where she is warned yet again that she is in danger and should evacuate her home. This time it’s because of a limited Israeli incursion into Gaza, intended to destroy border tunnels through which contraband flows, some of it the very cotton she uses for shroud making.

“I’m not going anywhere….Besides your bloody tanks are everywhere,” Souad yells into the phone. “Your freaking army will have to kill me first.” Is she just a cranky, unreasonable old woman?

We learn she is much more than this in the course of the play, and Souad voices other characters in her life: her younger self, her father, an adopted son, and his wife, and Ghassan, their child. Two more characters from her past also appear, all of them voiced by Souad, who at 11, was removed from her farm (along with her parents) to make way for a kibbutz.

During the period before Israel was formed, her father Mahmoud was hired by the British High Commissioner Sir Alan Cunningham, as a gardener for his estate—the same Sir Cunningham whose British Army forcibly removed Mahmoud from their farm. Lady Cunningham takes a liking to Little Souad, and enculturates her as a British girl with piano lessons and training in posh British English. Essentially she is wantonly stealing Souad from her parents to replace her own child, now lost. But Lady Cunningham also teaches Souad to sew, and in her later life, Souad applies these skills to producing traditional Palestinian garments, including shrouds.

The production by the International Voices Project is nicely directed by Marina Johnson with set by Jonathan Berg-Einhorn. Ahmed Mousad’s script leans a little more toward literary—something to be read—than to stage delivery, though he generally weaves exposition in effectively. The story comes across, though the emotional side is not fully expressed. Even the best actor would be challenged, especially the demand to voice numerous characters. But the story is so authentic and compelling, coming as it does from those living in Gaza, that is is one the must be heard

“The Shroud Maker” runs through April 8 at Chicago Dramatists, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3:00 p.m.