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Why is Chicago leading the country in productions of work by writers of color?

According to Jamil Khoury, the Founding Artistic Director of Silk Road Rising, “The reality of our lives here in Chicago is that we’re constantly interacting with people who are different from us. From the minute you leave your house you’re engaging in cultural interchanges, consciously or not. I think it’s important for our theatre to reflect the reality of our day-to-day lives, which is a polycultural one. The idea that cultures are regularly intersecting, are in constant conversation with each other, can be challenging, even threatening for some. The good news is that we’re always learning, growing and changing as a result.”

Silk Road Rising is a company that creates live theatre and online videos that tell stories through primarily Asian American and Middle Eastern American lenses. Besides being the company’s Artistic Director, Khoury is a playwright, essayist, film writer, and a member of the Dramatists Guild. His play Mosque Alert premieres at Silk Road Rising this spring. “We’ve been making the case that representation begins at home. There’s something important about playwrights of non-white backgrounds telling their own stories, and owning their representation.”

Sam Roberson, Artistic Director of Congo Square Theatre, inaugurated a conversation series called Owning Our Worth. “These conversations started because African American theatres are closing around the country,” says Roberson. “I was curious about how we can work together as theatres of color to create a new narrative around what we do and why we do it. It’s important to have institutions of color to continue to grow the American canon by playwrights of color.” One panel included three women: Sarah Bellamy, Co-Artistic Director of Penumbra in Minneapolis, Sade Lythcott, CEO of National Black Theatre in New York, and Chicago playwright and Dramatists Guild member Lydia Diamond. “These women spoke so eloquently about the need for theatres of color to give an authentic voice to playwrights of color. When I looked out over the audience, I could see all these young women looking up in admiration. I realized that I had been playing a part in the patriarchal essence of what theatre can be. We decided to dedicate this season to women of color in the theatre.”

Congo Square began its season with Dramatists Guild member Pearl Cleage’s What I Learned in Paris, and continues with a young playwright’s first production: Lekethia Dalcoe’s A Small Oak Tree Runs Red. “Lekethia came to us through our August Wilson New Plays Initiative, where we ask playwrights of color to submit their work for development and possible production. Lorraine Hansberry wasn’t Lorraine Hansberry until she was. There are people who took chances on her, helped her become who she became. I think that Congo Square is that sort of place.”

Isaac Gomez, Literary Manager of Victory Gardens Theater and a playwright, sees community engagement as an opportunity for Chicago theatres. “We have artistic leaders here who are committed that the kind of works they are producing reflect the diverse communities in Chicago. In this country the majority/minority gap is exponentially decreasing. Now is the time to capitalize on that, not just as a moral model, but as a business model.”

Gomez credits Victory Gardens’ commitment to community engagement with expanding its audience. An example of this took place during the theatre’s recent production of John Logan’s Never the Sinner. “The play is about two young white men in Chicago who commit a terrible crime,” says Gomez. “We had an Encuentro, a gathering for the Latino community, where we invited ensemble member Tanya Saracho to discuss her work on the series How to Get Away with Murder. The parallels between the issues she raised in that conversation and Never the Sinner were quite remarkable. We had huge Latino audiences who came to see the show because they wanted to participate in the conversation.”

ccoons@dramatistsguild.com