Fountain Square in downtown Evanston. Photo: SecretName101 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre put tickets on sale in mid-May 2013 for a summer season of four main stage plays, two concerts and three dramatic readings. Everything except the readings was scheduled for the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes St.
The plays
The season opened June 8 with Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, a sequence of 20 choreopoems set to live, original music, running through June 23. It was followed June 29 to July 14 by Woza Albert!, written by Percy Mtwa, Mbongeni Ngema and Barney Simon, a play set against apartheid-era South Africa.
Lee Blessing’s Going to St. Ives ran July 20 to Aug. 4. It pairs a European eye surgeon with the mother of an African dictator, two women drawn together by personal matters and pulled apart by political ones. The main stage run closed Aug. 10 to 25 with Big Butt Girls and Other Fantasies — The Remix!, a solo show written and performed by Marsha Estell.
Main stage performances were set for Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tim Rhoze, the theatre’s artistic director, directed the productions.
Concerts and readings
The theatre repeated its summer concert series after audience demand. Blues performer Chainsaw Dupont headlined the Summer Blues Set on Aug. 30, and a gospel program, The Women of Gospel Music, led by the Rev. Kenneth Cherry, followed on Aug. 31.
The reading series took the theme of African American comedy. The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe, an 11-vignette satire of elements of African American culture, was scheduled for 3 p.m. on June 1, July 13 and Aug. 3 at the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave. Admission was free under the city’s Mayor’s Summer Recreation Program.
Prices
Main stage tickets cost $10 in advance and $12 at the door. The blues and gospel concerts were $12 in advance and $15 at the door. A limited number of $40 Premium Season Discount Cards covered four plays and two concerts, a savings of $38 over full-price tickets. The Noyes Center box office was open 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, and opened for same-day sales at 6 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Advance tickets could also be bought by phone at 847-448-8260.
About the company
The city of Evanston describes Fleetwood-Jourdain as a theatre founded in 1979 under the name Foster Community Theatre, with a focus on African American and African diaspora storytelling. The city credits Gloria Bond Clunie as its founder. The company is sponsored by the city and funded in part by the Illinois Arts Council.
Source: City of Evanston.
Rachel Lindqvist covers community life, the lakefront, dining and the arts for The Evanston Edge.
