Artist Bio

(Bio as of November 1)

Definition Theatre is a culturally diverse theater dedicated to telling language-driven, relationship-oriented, socially relevant stories about and created with underrepresented communities in Chicago. Our ensemble is a collective of artists, art administrators, educators, and designers who prioritize working towards and representing a more equitable theater industry.

Definition Theatre has built its reputation on bold, distinctive work. It brought the powerful words of Academy Award-winner Tarell Alvin McCraney to life in The Brothers Size and set the stage for Amiri Baraka’s intense Dutchman. Partnering with The New Colony, it premiered Byhalia, Mississippi, featuring ensemble member Kiki Layne. In collaboration with the Goodman Theatre, it brought Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ subversive An Octoroon to Chicago. Definition also launched us into space with James Ijames’s Moon Man Walk, tackled America’s public school struggles in Nilaja Sun’s No Child…, and highlighted the first-generation experience in Sam Kebede’s ETHIOPIANAMERICA. The company took on white privilege and racial politics in Ijames’s White, explored Black identity with the choreopoem Alaiyo, and examined family and white supremacy in Fairview. Last year, the company transformed a storefront theater in Hyde Park, debuting the space with two world premieres: Judy’s Life’s Work and An Educated Guess. definitiontheatre.org | @definitiontheatre

definitiontheatre.org