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Digital Program

Welcome

Welcome to Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s 40th Anniversary Season and to this joyous production of Play On! We are so delighted to have you with us as we mark four decades of bold storytelling, unforgettable performances, and the extraordinary power of live theater. From our very first performance on the roof of the Red Lion Pub, Chicago Shakespeare has been driven by the belief that the sky is the limit and anything is possible. Today, that adventurous spirit fills our three-theater campus, where we create vivid, entertaining theatrical experiences for everyone. We are incredibly proud of this legacy and thrilled to share a bold, ambitious anniversary season that celebrates the spirit of both Shakespeare and Chicago.

We begin the season with the exhilarating alchemy of two giants: William Shakespeare and Duke Ellington. One was a defining voice of the English Renaissance; the other, a central pillar of the Harlem Renaissance. They have been brought together brilliantly by playwright Cheryl L. West and director and conceiver Sheldon Epps, and their artistry gives us a fresh and deeply moving story set to some of the most glorious American music ever written.

Live theater offers a rare opportunity to connect our hearts, minds, and emotions with the performers, with one another, and with ourselves. It’s a moment that will never happen in quite the same way again. How an actor speaks a line, a singer interprets a song, or a musician plays a note belongs only to this performance. Your presence is part of that magic, shaping the experience for everyone in the room. Theater brings us together and reminds us of the extraordinary impact we have on one another.

Thank you for being such an important part of Chicago Shakespeare and for joining us today. We hope you will return again and again to discover all that this celebratory season has to offer. We can’t wait to welcome you back. Enjoy the show!

Play On Program Title Page

The performance runs 2 hours, 30 minutes (including intermission)

Audience Notice: As a courtesy to the artists and your fellow theatergoers, please turn off your cell phones and all other electronic devices. Photography, video, and audio recording are strictly prohibited during the show. For your safety, we ask that you keep aisles and doorways clear. Please take a moment to check the nearest exit in case of an emergency. If you need to step out while the show is in progress, theater staff may ask you to wait in the lobby before re-entering, and it may not be to your original seat. If we can help accommodate you during your visit, please speak with our House Manager.

 

Artists

Band

Kevin King

Reeds

David Spencer

Trumpet

Norman Palm

Trombone

Rafe Bradford

Bass

Charles Heath

Drumset / Percussion

Nathanael Wilkerson

Associate Music Director

Creative Team

Trey Brazeal

Associate Lighting Designer

John Blane

Music Preparation

Nathanael Wilkerson

Rehearsal Pianist

Charles Heath

Rehearsal Drummer

Heather Boehm

Musicians Contractor

Trey Brazeal

Associate Lighting Designer

John Blane

Music Preparation

Nathanael Wilkerson

Rehearsal Pianist

Charles Heath

Rehearsal Drummer

Heather Boehm

Musicians Contractor

Chicago Shakespeare Theater wishes to thank Goodspeed Musicals Costume Collection & Rental for its assistance in this production.

Play On! Full Staff Listing

Edward Hall  Artistic Director, Carl and Marilynn Thoma Chair
Kimberly Motes  Executive Director 

ARTISTIC & EXECUTIVE 

Ericka Ratcliff  Literary Manager
Daniel J. Hess Artistic Administrator
Bob Mason   Artistic Associate/Casting Director
Brian Haas   Company Manager
Rose Kalef   Executive Assistant  

EDUCATION 

Nora Carroll  Director of Lifelong Learning & Education, Ray and Judy McCaskey Education Chair
Rick Lostutter  Associate Director of Education
Manu Alvarez  Education Programs Associate 

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS 

Brad Boron   Chief Marketing Officer 

MARKETING 

Mackenzie Schleyer  Associate Director of Marketing
Olivia George   Graphic Designer
Shelly Binkley   Tessitura Administrator
Allie DiSanto   Digital Marketing Manager 
Ali Khan   Marketing Associate 

COMMUNICATIONS 

Hannah Kennedy   Director of Communications
Emma Perrin   Associate Director of Communications
Tiffany Mullins   Digital Content Specialist 

 

BOX OFFICE
Sonja Pardee    Manager of Ticketing Services
Al Duffy  Box Office Associate
Jaz Fowlkes   Box Office Associate
Micah Hazel   Box Office Associate
Aurthur King   Box Office Associate
Eric Perrine  Box Office Associate
Ash Pierce   Box Office Associate
Kir Westrick  Box Office Associate   

DEVELOPMENT 

Stacy Shafer Peterson     Chief Development Officer
Jamie Boller     Associate Director of Institutional Giving
Claire Fassnacht     Associate Director of Major Gifts
Cami Wallace     Associate Director of Individual Giving
Finley Jones     Manager of Development Operations and Events
Bea Lemaster     Donor Services Associate 

FINANCE & OPERATIONS  

FINANCE 

Dan Thomas   Director of Finance
Jane Dominowski   Controller
Jessica Lotz   Accounting Manager 

TECHNOLOGY 

Jeanne DeVore   Technology Manager 

OPERATIONS 

Daniel Lopez   Facilities Manager 

Mike Atkins  Custodian
Dwayne Brewer  Custodian
Anthony Davis   Custodian
Cano Hernandez  Custodian
Ferris Robertson  Custodian  

GUEST SERVICES 

Devin Faught   Front of House Manager 

Julia Ravenscroft   Show Supervisor
Erika Wilson   Show Supervisor 

Will Adams   Guest Services Associate
Sam Castillo   Guest Services Associate
Madalyn Cruz   Guest Services Associate
Jennifer Hinojosa   Guest Services Associate
Amanda Farmer   Guest Services Associate
Cayla Joy   Guest Services Associate
Nat Martinez-White  Guest Services Associate
Adiyah Parham   Guest Services Associate
Jessica Plummer   Guest Services Associate
Jack Porter Guest Services Associate
Nora Rumery   Guest Services Associate
Lisa Townes   Guest Services Associate
Samantha Waitkus   Guest Services Associate
Philip Macaluso   Lead Concessioner
Jack Saunders   Lead Concessioner
Dani Brown  Concessioner
Christian Helem   Concessioner
Sophia Jovanovic   Concessioner
Zoe Maxwell   Concessioner
Robbie Matthew   Concessioner
Leaf McCastle   Concessioner
Lily Mulcahy   Concessioner
Dalton Smith  Concessioner
Prenae Thomas   Concessioner 

HUMAN RESOURCES 

Laurel Legler  Director of Human Resources
Mohad Zahid  HR Generalist 

PRODUCTION
Wendy Stark Prey   Director of Production
Mac Vaughey   Production Manager  

SCENERY 

Tyler Metoxen   Technical Director
Jack Birdwell   Stage Rigging Crew Head
Nicolas Cabrera   House Technician
Mitchel Statler    House Technician
Wrench Steinlage   House Technician
Amber Hahn   House Technician
Danny Carraher Carpenter
Scott Gerwitz Scenic Charge
Meghan Erxleben Scenic Painter   

RUN CREW 

Tobi Osibodu   Stage Crew Head
Bradley Buri   Stage Crew Carpenter Head
Dan Nurczyk Properties Crew Head 

 

COSTUMES

Melissa Perkins    Costume Department Manager
Cathy Tantillo   Costume Design Assistant 
Jenn Giangola   Wardrobe Supervisor
Tyler Phillips  Draper/Workroom Supervisor
Teagan Anderson   First Hand
Yas Maple   Stitcher
Melissa Bochat Costume Crafts
Laura Holt Dresser
Naomi Arroyo Dresser

LIGHTING AND VIDEO 

Alec Thorne  Lighting and Video Department Manager
Arianna Brown  Assistant Lighting and Video Department Manager
Joan E. Claussen   Lighting Crew Head
Meike Schmidt Lightboard Programmer
Elliot Hubiak  Followspot Operator
Emma Lipson  Followspot Operator  

SOUND 

Nicholas Pope  Sound Department Manager
Sarah Ortiz   Sound Technician 

HAIR AND MAKE-UP 

Ashley Adams   Hair and Make-up Department Manager
Sarah Collins   Hair and Make-up Attendant
Anna Gorsuch – Hair and Make-up Attendant Cover 

PROPERTIES 

Jesse Gaffney  Interim Properties Department Manager
Meghan Savagian Assistant Properties Department Manager
Sara Grose Properties Artisan
Katie Novak Properties Artisan 

SONG LIST

Act 1 

Take the “A” Train 

Drop Me off in Harlem 

I’ve Got to Be a Rug Cutter 

I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart 

C Jam Blues 

Mood Indigo 

Don’t Get Around Much Anymore 

Don’t You Know I Care 

It Don’t Mean a Thing 

I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good) 

Hit Me With a Hot Note (And Watch Me Bounce) 

I’m Just a Lucky So and So 

Everything But You 

Solitude 

Act 2 

Black Butterfly 

I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But the Blues 

I’m Beginning to See the Light 

I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good (Reprise) 

I Didn’t Know About You 

Rocks in My Bed 

Something to Live For 

Love You Madly 

Prelude to a Kiss 

In a Mellow Tone 

The Bard of Avon meets the Duke of Ellington
with Creator and Director Sheldon Epps

What inspired you to bring Ellington’s music in conversation with Shakespeare’s story?  

Many years back, I saw a brilliant production of Timon of Athens directed by Michael Langham, which used Ellington’s Shakespeare Suite (“Such Sweet Thunder”) as underscore. I was just blown away. I started to think about my favorite Shakespeare play… why not do a new musical inspired by Twelfth Night, but with Ellington’s actual songs? But I knew I couldn’t pull it off unless the songs really worked to move the story forward.  

The remarkable thing was that Ellington’s catalog was inexhaustible. And he wrote in such a vast array of material from classical art songs—“Mood Indigo” is almost like an aria from a great opera—to Low Down Blues, to Jazz. When I found “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart,” I was touched by the lyrics:

“I let a song go out of my heart / Believe me, darling, when I say / I want no sweet music / Until you return someday.” 

It struck me that it’s the same as:

“If music be the food of love, play on / Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, / The appetite may sicken, and so die…”

So if you listen in a deeper way, you do sort of see this creative team from centuries apart coming together in a very dynamic and theatrical way. 

Then I got thinking about the Harlem Renaissance. You had parties that were attended by Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Count Basie, Billie Holiday…and you have to wonder, “Oh my God, what must it have been like in that room?” Talk about a magical kingdom! Where music flows out of the windows and the style was unforgettable. Harlem became my magical kingdom of Illyria.  

Now returning to this musical twenty years later, how has your perspective shifted?  

Over the last couple of years, bookwriter Cheryl L. West and I took a deep dive back into the book of the show. Our credo in all of this has been to enhance and heighten the celebration of Black Excellence, Black Brilliance, and Black JOY. In simple but very effective ways, we have continued to focus on the fact that the show is all about the search for LOVE, and removing the masks that we often wear that keep that hoped-for goal from entering our lives fully.  

At a time when our stories are being taken away, when our heroes are being stripped out of history books… it feels like there is no better moment for a genuine celebration of artists of color and the joy that was captured in that magical kingdom of Harlem. To have an opportunity to put this onstage right now is a gift.  

A New African American Identity: The Harlem Renaissance 

By the turn of the 20th century, the Great Migration was underway as hundreds of thousands of African Americans relocated to cities. The Harlem section of Manhattan, which covers just three square miles, drew nearly 175,000 African Americans, giving the neighborhood the largest concentration of black people in the world. From unskilled laborers to an educated middle-class, they shared common experiences of slavery, emancipation, and racial oppression, as well as a determination to forge a new identity as free people. Between the end of World War I and the mid-1930s, they produced one of the most significant eras of cultural expression in the nation’s history—the Harlem Renaissance.  

The Harlem Renaissance encompassed poetry and prose, painting and sculpture, jazz and swing, opera, and dance. What united these diverse art forms was their realistic presentation of what it meant to be black in America, what writer Langston Hughes called an “expression of our individual dark-skinned selves,” as well as a new militancy in asserting their civil and political rights.  

 At the height of the movement, Harlem was the epicenter of American culture. The neighborhood bustled with African American-owned and run publishing houses and newspapers, music companies, playhouses, nightclubs, and cabarets. The literature, music, and fashion they created defined culture and “cool” for blacks and white alike, in America and around the world. 

As the 1920s came to a close, so did the Harlem Renaissance. However, its impact on America was indelible. The movement brought notice to the great works of African American art, and inspired and influenced future generations of African American artists and intellectuals. The self-portrait of African American life, identity, and culture that emerged from Harlem was transmitted to the world at large, challenging the racist and disparaging stereotypes of the Jim Crow South. Most importantly, the Harlem Renaissance instilled in African Americans across the country a new spirit of self-determination and pride, a new social consciousness, and a new commitment to political activism. 

Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture 

https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/new-african-american-identity-harlem-renaissance 

Ellington in Sweet Home Chicago 

While Duke Ellington legacy is inextricably linked to Harlem, he also had an enduring impact on Chicago’s music scene.  

  • Among his most celebrated live recordings were his two landmark concerts taped in 1946 at Chicago’s Civic Opera House, now home to Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Joffrey Ballet.  
  • The Blue Note—one of Chicago’s premiere jazz clubs and the first fully integrated club downtown—showcased Duke Ellington and his orchestra for month-long engagements throughout the ‘50s.  
  • On July 11, 1973, thousands of unsuspecting commuters were treated to a free Ellington concert in the Loop’s First National Bank Plaza. 
  • In 1974, jazz lovers led by Geraldine de Haas organized a Duke Ellington Tribute in Grant Park soon after the artist’s death. It later evolved into the legendary Chicago Jazz Fest—now in its 47th year. 

SEASON SPONSORS

Chicago Shakespeare Theater is proud to recognize the sustaining partnership of our Season Sponsors,
whose visionary support ensures that we live out our artistic mission for audiences today and for generations to come.

Chicago Shakespeare is a constituent of the Theatre Communications Group, Inc., the national service organization of non-profit theaters; Shakespeare Theatre Association; Arts Alliance Illinois; the League of Chicago Theatres; and Ingenuity, Inc.

This project is partially supported by a CityArts grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.

The Actors and Stage managers employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.

The Director and Choreographer of this production are members of the STAGE AND CHOREORAPHERS’ SOCIETY, a national theatrical labor union.

The set, costume, lighting, sound, and projections designers of this production are represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of IATSE.

All musicians are members of the Chicago Federation of Musicians Local 10-208

Chicago Shakespeare Theater

For forty years, Chicago Shakespeare Theater has brought people together with performances and programs that captivate minds, spark conversation, and invite new perspectives—again and again.

Mission

To create vivid, entertaining theatrical experiences that invigorate and engage people of all ages and identities by illuminating the complexity, ambiguity, and wonder of our world.

Shared humanity and unforgettable stories—now THIS is Chicago Shakespeare.

Vision

We deliver excellent, powerful, life-changing theater that challenges our preconceptions of everything. We are an open and inspiring destination to meet, talk, and share experience through community and live performance that is available to everyone. We build a better future with those who watch, work, create, and participate.

About Us

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) is a leading international theater company and the nation’s largest year-round theater dedicated to the works of Shakespeare. Under the visionary leadership of Artistic Director Edward Hall and Executive Director Kimberly Motes, the Regional Tony Award recipient engages nearly 175,000 people of all ages and identities each year with dynamic performances and innovative programming.

CST exemplifies theatrical excellence. Shakespeare is at the heart of the artistic work, illuminating the 400-year-old playwright as a modern writer for our modern world. CST also produces compelling stories from fresh artistic voices of today. CST brings the world to Chicago and sends Chicago out into the world as a leading producer of North American and world premieres and Chicago’s foremost presenter of international theater. Productions originating from Chicago Shakespeare have gone on to Broadway, national and international tours, garnering three Tony Awards, three Olivier Awards, and two Grammy nominations.

The Theater fosters a lifelong relationship with the arts by providing transformational experiences for multigenerational audiences. Serving more students and teachers than any theater in the city, CST annually welcomes more than 20,000 high school and middle schoolers to attend matinee performances and participate in programs like Chicago Shakespeare SLAM. Professional development opportunities for teachers include the year-long Bard Core intensive for Chicago Public Schools educators. CST’s initiatives support the development of young people’s crucial skills, including social-emotional competencies, critical literacy, and meaningful collaboration. Learners of all ages deepen their engagement through PreAmble talks and post-show discussions.

CST activates its campus with three best-in-class venues: The Yard, a robust 700-seat space with flexible configurations and expansive proscenium; the Jentes Family Courtyard Theater, an intimate 500-seat thrust theater where the audience surrounds the stage on three sides; and the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Upstairs Studio, a 200-seat black box theater. Situated along the picturesque shore of Lake Michigan, CST is the cultural anchor of the iconic Navy Pier, one of the top Midwest tourism destinations attracting 9 million visitors annually. Fueled by the vitality of the city of Chicago, CST contributes significantly to the vibrancy and economic impact of the arts and culture ecosystem.

More About Us

Our Team

The thrilling work on our stages would not be possible without our visionary leadership, talented team of theater professionals, and dedicated Board of Directors.

Our Supporters

Chicago Shakespeare gratefully recognizes the gifts and partnerships provided by our hundreds of individual donors and institutions in our digital donor listing.

Our Education Programs

We are committed to providing access to high quality, culturally responsive arts education, and fostering a love for lifelong learning through innovative programming.