Welcome,
There are stories you feel in your body. Nearly 30 years ago, one such story unfolded on The Goodman stage when we produced Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Directed by Chuck Smith, that production featured a wholly combustible performance by Harry J. Lennix in the role of Levee. I was working at The Goodman at the time, and it was a show I kept returning to again and again because it did a rare thing: it overrode my brain and lived in my body. It did what only vividly live theater can do; it scrambled the senses and made you feel.
There are few legacies in American theater that rival Chuck’s. Actor, educator, theater founder, director—Chuck has spent decades enriching the theater scene in Chicago and beyond. And while his repertoire as a director is wide, it is when he takes on the work of another legend—August Wilson—that the measure of his impact is most deeply felt.
To have him revisit this seminal Chicago work in our theater’s Centennial Season feels right in every way.
I have a feeling you’re in for a powerful ride.
Susan V. Booth
Walter Artistic Director
