“Red Summer” Debut Illuminates A Black Mark On History By Sydney Milligan with Wes Hessel
“Red Summer” Debut Illuminates A Black Mark On History
By Sydney Milligan with Wes Hessel
“Red Summer”, playing through September 25th at Governors State University’s Center for Performing Arts, is a world premiere musical bringing to light another buried racial relations debacle of the past, the 1919 race riots in Chicago. Occurring not just here but also in at least 25 other cities and an Arkansas rural county, the persecution was fired up by racist white soldiers and sailors returning from World War I. The authenticity is clear, owing to the play being written by a Lookingglass Theatre Company co-founder, Andrew White, and MPAACT co-creators Shawn Wallace and Shepsu Aakhu.
The cast of this auspicious new work is up to the challenge – all were a cohesive unit of movement and song, each well invested in their character. The music and lyrics are fresh and the story new. The male leads Nathaniel Andrew and Ryan Huemmer (portraying D.L. Winters and Connor Weir, respectively) have beautiful tenor voices and command the stage with grace. Some other standout performers included J. Xavier in his smooth depiction of the bartender
Dixon, Marlene’s empathetic characterization of D.L.’s put-upon wife Marlene, and Michaelyn Oby and Brian Healy’s heartbreaking turns as Eugene Williams and Casmero Lazeroni, respectively. Alexander Slade’s incredible performance is as younger brother Declan Weir, who chews up the scenery anytime he is on stage and makes the entire house resonate with his incredible vocal performance.
The set is thoughtfully and well-constructed, evoking the essence of 1919 Chicago with brick buildings and houses – very authentic, period-appropriate architecture. The costuming is most intriguing – all beautiful to look at and still right for the verge of the Roaring 20’s. The projection work is stunning to watch and one of the best designed elements of this production. All in all, this new work is impressive, moving, eerily relevant, and has so much to teach us about our past, present, and future through it’s in-depth look at such an important but heretofore little-known chapter of our Chicago history. The last performance is Sunday, September 25th, so move swiftly to be a part of the awakening this show is bringing – for tickets or more information, please see their website at www.govst.edu/RedSummer.
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