Neighborhood News: During Black History Month, experience Collaboraction Theatre Company’s “art with a social conscience”
“One conversation at a time toward a more perfect union.”
CBS News Chicago
For 30 years, Collaboraction Theater Company has been blending arts with a social conscience, raising issues relating to social justice and social change through theatric performances, improvisation, performance art, podcasts, and other multimedia presentations.
They also host workshops and other events to explore the creativity and issues surrounding Chicago and the community.
During February’s Black History Month, Humboldt Park ‘s Kimball Arts Center, 1757 N. Kimball Avenue, is home to their latest production, ‘Trial in the Delta: the Murder of Emmett Till.’
After every performance, a short ‘Crucial Conversation’ follows. And on February 28, a reception celebrating the Company’s 30th Anniversary will follow the performance.
Experience Interactive History
As Artistic Director Anthony Moseley told Block Club Chicago, the show takes audience members inside the courtroom during the murder trial that followed Emmett Till’s 1955 racially motivated killing, with a theater-in-the-round setting that positions the audience as jurors — “kind of the best seat in the house,” Moseley said.
According to its website, the Emmy Award-winning Trial in the Delta reenacts the court proceedings that took place in Sumner, Mississippi in 1955, using the actual court transcripts. Actors portraying witnesses for the defense and prosecution, including Emmett Till’s mother, Mamie Till and uncle Moses Wright, deliver deeply emotional and biting testimonies. Other key characters, based on real life, include presiding judge Curtis Swango, defense attorney J. J. Breeland, district attorney Gerald Chatham, and J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, the two men who were found not guilty of murdering Till, but later admitted to the heinous crime.
The newspaper coverage and murder trial galvanized a generation of young African Americans to join the Civil Rights Movement, out of fear that such an incident could happen to friends, family, or even themselves
Be A Part of the Jury!
Jury seating allows audience members to sit in one of the 12 seats in the Jury Box and experience the trial from the perspective of the Jury. These seats are immersive, and interactive (no lines), and are considered the best seats in the theater. There are 12 seats available per show.
Note: If you choose a jury seat, please check in with the box office at least 30 minutes before the show. If you are not present when seating opens, your seat may be released and you will offered general admission seating.
For tickets, click here.
Kimball Arts Center is the new ‘House of Belonging’
A 2024 article in New City Stage described the renovated factory that is theKimball Arts Center, at the corner of Kimball and Bloomingdale, (where Logan Square meets Humboldt Park,) as being painted dark gray, another wall holds an abstract mural—white and orange and yellow and two shades of blue.
Inside, there’s a world of exploration and creativity!
The theatre operates in its House of Belonging space, which features a 99-seat flexible studio theater and a 50-seat cabaret with a café and bar. Their fully equipped, black box–style theater space is designed for professional productions and performances, with flexibility for a wide range of staging and audience configurations.
The company’s CEO and executive director, Darlene Jackson, said that the space is designed for “intimate staging.”
“You Belong Here”
As their website says, they are looking to program work that shows the true artistic breadth and spirit of our city. Programming will take place in their 40-person lounge/cabaret or 85-person flexible studio. The curation process will be led by Company Member Sandra Delgado. For more information, click here.
Alison Moran-Powers and Dean’s Team Chicago
