Black History Month at the Theater
Several Chicago theater companies are presenting plays related to the Black experience. Here are just a few of them.
Relentless
Performance on Friday, February 18, 7 pm
Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave.
Developed through TimeLine’s Playwrights Collective, this world premiere weaves a mother’s past with her daughters’ present in a complicated tale of family, legacy, and progress.
After the death of their mother, two sisters return home to Philadelphia in 1919 to settle her estate. Annelle is a happy socialite desperate to return to the safe illusion of a perfect life with her husband in Boston. Janet is a single, professional nurse, determined to change history and propel Black women to a place of prominence and respect. Upon discovering a series of diaries left by their late mother, they find themselves confronted with a woman they never really knew, exposing buried truths from the past that are chillingly, explosively Relentless.
Discounted tickets are available for this performance through Chicago Theatre Week. Get tickets using the promo code CTW22.
Blues in the Night
Performances on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, February 17-27
Porchlight Music Theatre, The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St.
Set in a history-filled hotel on Chicago’s south side one fateful night in the late 1930s, this Tony Award-nominated celebration interweaves the stories of three women who share their highs and lows of romance through the iconic songs of Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Alberta Hunter, Jimmy Cox, Ida Cox and others.
Get tickets using promo code CTW22.
Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till
Play reading, Saturday, February 26, 7 pm
Illinois Black Legislators Auditorium, 740 East 56th Place
Collaboraction and The DuSable Museum of African American History are partnering to present a theatrical reading of Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till, a new adaption of the trial transcript of the State of Mississippi vs. Milam and Bryant, the men who were found not guilty of murdering Emmett Till in Sumner, Mississipppi, in 1955. Discounted tickets are available through Chicago Theatre Week. Get tickets using the promo code CTW22.