Updated January 30, 2018
Each February, Chicago Theatre Week offers over 100 Chicago theatre productions at discounted prices. This year, Chicago Theatre Week 2018 runs from February 8-18, 2018.
Of the more than 120 productions showing during Chicago Theatre Week this year, only eight either have Black playwrights, directors and/or majority Black casts. (Let's hope that next year there will be more!)
Click on the links below to learn more about Theatre Week performance dates and ticket pricing for each show. There are a limited number of discounted tickets for each show and are sure to sell out—tickets are on sale now!
Listed descriptions are from the official Chicago Theatre Week website.
Breach: A Manifesto on Race in America Through the Eyes of a Black Girl Recovering from Self-Hate by Victory Gardens Theatre
Discounted Price: $15
Location: Victory Gardens Theatre, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL 60614
"What happens when a woman trapped in a dead-end job and a fizzling relationship accidentally gets pregnant by a man that she’s not dating? A coming-of-age story about race, class and motherhood, Breach by Antoinette Nwandu and directed by Lisa Portes, examines how hard it is to love others when it’s you that you loathe most of all."
Jitney by Congo Square Theatre
Discounted Price: $15
Location: Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave., Chicago, IL 60657
"Join Congo Square as they honor August Wilson with their production of Jitney. This Tony Award-winning play is set in Jim Becker’s unlicensed cab station. Delve into the lives of jitney cab drivers in the Pittsburgh Hill District during the 1970s. As the eighth play in August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle, these dynamic characters are challenged with life’s difficulties, gaining enlightenment about the importance of family and community."
View my post on Jitney by Congo Square Theatre here.
HAIL, HAIL CHUCK: THE STORY OF CHUCK BERRY By Black Ensable Theatre
Discounted Price: $30
Location: Black Ensamble Theatre, 4450 N. Clark St., 2nd Fl., Chicago, IL 60640
"Hail, Hail Chuck pays tribute to a man that revolutionized the music industry in an era of overt racism enforced by Jim Crow laws. With songs like “Maybellene,” “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Johnny B. Goode,” the Black Ensemble pays tribute to one of the greatest rock and roll artists of our lifetime."
A Moon for the Misbegotten by Writers Theatre
Discounted Price: $15 & $30
Location: Writers Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe, IL 60022
"In 1920s rural Connecticut, Phil Hogan cobbles together a living on rented farmland that he hopes to someday own outright, when his landlord Jim Tyrone comes into his inheritance. Hogan has driven away his three sons, but his towering daughter Josie understands her father and can hold her own. When the two learn that the land may be sold out from under them, they concoct a plan to save it that ultimately reveals the secret desires that two lonely souls have kept hidden for years.
"This bittersweet elegy from four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Nobel laureate Eugene O’Neill offers a moving and powerful exploration of humanity at its basest and most beautiful. Directed by WT Resident Director William Brown, this soaring powerhouse of a play touches on themes of desire, family and the things we sacrifice for those we love."
Insurrection: Holding History by Stage Left Theatre
Discounted Price: $15
Location: Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave., Chicago, IL 60657
"Ron, a young, gay African-American graduate student, trying to complete his thesis on Nat Turner’s slave rebellion, is feeling lost in his life and alienated from his family. When his 189-year-old great, great grandfather TJ takes him back in time to meet Turner in the flesh, both men find answers they never expected. The play deals with themes of racial identity and sexuality, as Ron comes to face his ancestors’ history, and his own personal identity. A raucous, wrenching story, part Roots, part The Wizard of Oz, part In Living Color, and all Robert O’Hara, Insurrection: Holding History will change how you see the past, and just maybe yourself as well."
Moon Man Walk by Definition Theatre Company
Discounted Price: $15
Location: Victory Gardens Theatre, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL 60614
"Monarch must return to Philadelphia following the sudden death of his mother. On the journey back to his boyhood home to plan for her funeral, Monarch mourns, falls in love, and discovers that sometimes, the truth lies someplace between the surface of the moon and wherever you are. Moon Man Walk is a moving and enthralling new play exploring the enduring connection between a mother and her son, and the space required to recognize a past that is becoming ever more present."
Native Son by The Theatre School at DePaul University
Discounted Price: $10
Location: The Theatre School at DePaul University, 2350 N. Racine Ave., Chicago, IL 60614
"In 1930s South Side Chicago, Bigger Thomas lands a job with a wealthy white family but his fate is sealed when a violent act unleashes a chain of events that cannot be undone. This adaption of Richard Wright’s groundbreaking novel Native Son by Theatre School alumna Nambi E. Kelley explores the systemic racism and poverty that oppressed Bigger Thomas from birth. Recommended for mature audiences."
Skeleton Crew by Northlight Theatre
Discounted Price: $30
Location: Northlight Theatre at the North Shore Center, 9501 Skokie Blvd, Skokie, IL 60077
"At the start of the Great Recession, rumors of impending closure surround one of the last auto plants in Detroit. The nation’s financial crisis gets personal as each of the workers confronts the life-altering choices they must make if their plant goes under, while the supervisor is torn between allegiances to his makeshift family of co-workers and management’s “cost-saving” demands. When pushed to the limits of survival, how far over the lines are people willing to cross?"
“If the playwright knew every little thing about his play, why bother? There must be discovery all the time, otherwise why bother to do it?”