“Red Summer” may be set during the Chicago race riot of 1919 but the issues covered in the new musical are still relevant to current times.
Governors State University’s Center for Performing Arts begins its 2022-23 season in University Park from Sept. 16 to 25 with the world premiere of this show about a Black solder and a white soldier who return from World War I to the violence of a segregated Chicago that is torn apart by ethnic tensions.
Showtimes are at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 16, 17 and 24; 2 p.m. Sept. 18 and 25.
“Svetlana (Rogachevskaya) has been incredibly supportive of the work that we’ve done over the years,” said Reggie Lawrence, executive director of Ma’at Production Association of Afrikan Centered Theatre, which is more commonly known as MPAACT, about Center for Performing Arts’ executive director.
“They actually approached us while we were doing some development work at Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. They said, ‘We can accommodate the show.’ The world had just entered the pandemic. It was particularly risky to make the offer. I couldn’t have thought of a better partner.”
MPAACT has partnered with Governors State University on several productions including streaming the podcast plays “Black and Blue” and “Feral” in 2020 and staging the play “Starting Over” in 2017 at the Center for Performing Arts.
A co-founder of MPAACT, Lawrence under his pen name Shepsu Aakhu cowrote “Red Summer” with Andrew White, a founding ensemble member of Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company, where he served two terms as artistic director and is now director of community engagement.
“He’s of Jewish American heritage and he’s hearing the world differently than I am hearing it as an African American with deep Southern connections. Together you create a play that neither one of you could create yourself,” said Aakhu about the synergy of working with White.
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Aakhu of Chicago’s Rogers Park community and White of Evanston collaborated with composer Shawn Wallace, a native of Chicago’s Beverly community who now lives in Chicago’s South Shore community, to craft “Red Summer,” which was conceived in 2017 prior to racial divisions being discussed more widely.
“That is the single most brilliant creative mind I think I’ve ever been around in my entire life,” said Aakhu about Wallace, who is another co-founder of MPAACT.
“There is the incredible shorthand that comes from working with somebody for 30 years. It’s very effective. You finish each other’s sentences and you can lean into those relationships with the full trust that you are all listening to each other and that you’ve all figured out how to complement and build.”
The run of “Red Summer” begins with a Sept. 16 preview performance followed by a postshow discussion with the cast and crew.
Sept. 17 is the official opening night of the musical, and the Sept. 24 performance of “Red Summer” includes a panel with local church leaders.
“When we started writing it there was no pandemic so that wasn’t a part of it. The death of Black youth and quite frankly Black people, period, at the hands of both vigilantes and by police departments was certainly an issue,” said Aakhu, who is a playwright in residence with MPAACT.
“We did not expect the world to come to a grinding, screeching halt in almost exactly the same way as it had 100 years before. ‘Red Summer’ is the summer of 2020, just the 1.0 version.
“You’ve got the pandemic. You’ve got the murder of Black youth. You’ve got rioting and violence in the streets. You’ve got an ongoing global conflict. I could not have planned it this way.”
Chicago resident Andrea J. Dymond, who directed MPAACT’s “Speaking in Tongues: The Chronicles of Babel” in 2012 at Governors State University’s Center for Performing Arts, directs “Red Summer,” which features a cast of approximately 20 performers.
“We’ve been working with this cast for a year. We started in August of 2021. This was back before people felt like COVID was a thing that they could manage. This particular group of people absolutely rose to the challenge,” Aakhu said.
“For many of them it was an opportunity for them to be creative when that communal nature of what we do in theater just evaporated. We are indebted to them.”
“Red Summer” contains explicit language and is not recommended for ages younger than 14.
‘Red Summer’
When: Sept. 16-25
Where: Governors State University’s Center for Performing Arts, 1 University Parkway, University Park
Tickets: $29-$54 general public; $10 students
Information: 708-235-2222; govst.edu/redsummer
Jessi Virtusio is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.