The Black Ensemble Theater has long been a reliable destination for original, larger-than-life biographical musicals about larger-than-life artistic icons. Next year, upon the completion of a 150-seat studio theater space in its building in Uptown, members of the company’s Black Playwrights Initiative will have a new outlet for experimental and dramatic works intended to resonate on a more intimate and more personal scale.
“It’s going to be hot,” she says with a laugh. “We want for people to come from all over the city of Chicago, break down these barriers that we have about the north side and the south side, and come out and join in and participate and learn and understand so that we can grow together as human beings and get out of this concept of inequity.”
