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Updated August 2006

Upcoming Productions:

Denmark    


What is our commitment to fulfill our personal hopes and dreams, versus our obligation to a greater public good, at the time when the need for that greater public good is dire? With his distinctive flair, Charles Smith explores these provocative questions in his searing historical drama about freed slave Denmark Vesey, who in 1822, used his new earnings as a carpenter, not to free the woman he loved but to plan an extensive slave uprising in Charleston, South Carolina.

 

The Sara Lee Foundation is the Exclusive Sponsor of the World Premiere of Charles Smith’s Denmark, Victory Gardens Theater’s Inaugural Production at the Biograph Theater.

 

Denmark will be directed by Victory Gardens Theater Artistic Director Dennis Zacek. It will feature Velma Austin, Anthony Fleming III, Kenny Head, and A.C. Smith.

 

Victory Gardens Theater at the Biograph

2433 N. Lincoln Avenue

Chicago , Il 60614

 

September 29 – November 12, 2006

 

For tickets and information about Denmark, call the Victory Gardens Box Office, (773) 871-3000, or visit http://www.victorygardens.org/default.asp.

 

Joyce Award

 

In January 2006, Charles Smith was one of four artists to receive a 2006 Joyce Award. These grants of $50,000 were designed to support the commissioning of work by artists of color by Midwest cultural organizations. The award to Smith and the Indiana Repertory Theatre is to support the commission a new play by Smith which will explore one of the darkest days in Indiana history: the 1930 Marion lynching.

 

Smith will relate the story of two teenage black boys who were brutally lynched, and the triumphant escape of another, James Cameron, who was known to be the only living survivor of a lynching attempt. In a unique approach, Smith will conduct a thorough process of research and interviews with historians, survivors, and activists; The IRT will simultaneously launch a series of public awareness events to engage local and national organizations involved with civil and human rights.

 

For more information go to                                             http://www.joycefdn.org/programs/culture/culturemain-fs.html

 

Northwestern Press

 

Charles Smith has also been commissioned by Northwestern Press to write a play about the innovative African American scientist Percy Julian.

 

 


 

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