Red Tape Theatre announces the first show in our 15th Season – THE SHIPMENT by Young Jean Lee, directed by Wardell Julius Clark, associate director Sydney Charles.
Opening SEPTEMBER 7th and running through OCTOBER 13th.
Friday’s at 8:00
Saturday’s at 8:00
Sunday’s at 7:00
Monday’s (Industry Night) at 8:00
All performances will be held at Red Tape Theatre’s home, THE READY, located at 4546 N. Western Ave in Lincoln Square. The show will be offered 100% FREE to the public thanks to the FREE THEATRE MOVEMENT.
In THE SHIPMENT, Lee uses her razor-sharp and unsettling humor to upend the surface stereotypes and tropes of African Americans that permeate our media, entertainment industry, and the dominate culture (aka white perceived) narrative. Audiences are confronted with cliches, distortions, and brilliant sleights of hand that force us to go beyond the lampoon and shift the lens through which we perceive race in order to confront our own bias.
Wardell Julius Clark (director) hails from Fairfield, Alabama. Wardell is a actor, director, producer and social justice activist. He is also an Artistic Associate Artist with TimeLine Theatre Company, and serves as a teaching artist in the Living History Program, as well as a teaching artist for Victory Gardens Theatre. Chicago Directing credits include Insurrection: Holding History (Stage Left Theatre), Surely Goodness and Mercy (Redtwist Theatre), Associate Director for Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner (Court Theatre), The One Minute Play Festival, Shola’s Game (National Black Theatre), Assistant Director for The Scottsboro Boys (Porchlight Music Theatre), Satchmo At The Waldorf and Gem Of The Ocean (Court Theatre). Select acting credits include Suddenly Last Summer (Raven Theatre), Silent Sky (First Folio Theatre), Apartment 3a (Windy City Playhouse), Gem Of The Ocean (Court Theatre), A Raisin In the Sun (TimeLine Theatre), The Whipping Man (Northlight Theatre), Invisible Man (Court Theatre), The Beats (16th Street Theatre), We Are Proud to Present … and the Gospel According to James (Victory Gardens Theatre), Ghosts of Atwood (MPAACT), and Topdog/Underdog (American Theatre Company/Congo Square Theatre). Regional credits include Othello, Macbeth, The Learned Ladies (Theatre at Monmouth), The Whipping Man (Cardinal Stage), Cymbeline (Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival), and Fences (Carver Theatre). Wardell has appeared on TV in Chicago Fire Seasons 1 and 4, as well as Shameless on Showtime. He holds a BFA in Acting from The Theatre School, at DePaul University. He is also an Associate Artist with the Black Lives, Black Words theatre collective. Represented by Gray Talent Group.
Sydney Charles (associate director) is an award-winning actress that hails from Chicago, Illinois. Selected theatre credits include: Father Comes Home From the Wars (Goodman Theatre), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Court Theatre), Lottery Day (Goodman Theatre – New Stages), The Fly Honey Show, Spamilton Chicago (Royal George Theatre), An Octoroon (Definition Theatre Company), Dorothy in The Wiz (Kokandy Productions), Zora in the world premiere of Prowess (Jackalope Theatre), and the title role in Dessa Rose (Bailiwick Chicago). Her directing debut was with Wildclaw Theatre with their yearly Deathscribe Festival of Horror Plays. Sydney can also be seen in episodes of The Haven web series, The T web series, and has appeared on Showtime’s Shameless. She is also an artistic associate with Firebrand Theater–the newly formed feminist musical theater company. Sydney thanks God for every opportunity she is given and her circle for supporting her every step of the way. Represented by Stewart Talent.
Young Jean Lee (playwright) is a Korean-American playwright, director, and filmmaker. She is the Artistic Director of Young Jean Lee’e Theatre Company, a not-for-profit company dedicated to producing her work. She has written and directed ten shows for Young Jean Lee’s Theatre Company and toured her work to over thirty cities around the world. Lee was called “the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation” by Charles Isherwood in the New York Times and “one of the best experimental playwrights in America” by David Cote in Time Out New York. With the 2018 production of Straight White Men at the Hayes Theatre, Lee became the first Asian American woman to have a play produced on Broadway.
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