ANNUAL 17 REPORT 18 MISSION VISION • We will educate enterprising artists, thinkers, innovators, leaders, and globally conscious citizens who transform The Theatre School trains students communities across DePaul, Chicago, the nation, and the world. • We will support an expert, passionate faculty and staff to the highest level of professional committed to advancing the vibrancy of live theatre and performance while continually adapting to a broadening and changing profession. skill and artistry in an inclusive • We will become a model of diversity and inclusion for the University and the field. and diverse conservatory setting. • We will produce public programs and performances that challenge, entertain, and stimulate the imagination. • We will foster cross-disciplinary collaboration to further student understanding and appreciation of every aspect of theatre work. VALUES EDUCATION We advance intellectual development and ethical consciousness. We foster moral, spiritual, social, political, and artistic growth. We promote participation in civic life. RESPECT We inspire respect for self, for others, for the profession, and for humanity. We embrace the Vincentian model of service. FREEDOM We build a community founded on the principles of creativity and freedom of expression. We value initiative, innovation, exploration, and risk-taking. IMAGINATION We celebrate the primacy of imagination in our work. SPIRITUALITY We believe theatre is a place for reflection, awakening, and the development of moral awareness. Welcome to The Theatre School’s (TTS) 2017-18 Annual Report. It was a year of “firsts” for TTS. For the first time, we held our annual fundraising event, now titled LIGHTS UP!, at TTS, offering guests behind-the-scenes access to our artistic home. We created our first-ever voice and representation task force with the goal of developing and reporting strategies to support a consistently diverse range of voices and opportunities in productions and classrooms. We also created a season selection taskforce to design a selection process that includes broader-based input and appropriate transparency around how and why we select certain plays for inclusion in our season. And, for the first time, we offered sections of Discover Chicago classes specifically for incoming Theatre School students. The classes focused on exploring Chicago neighborhoods, theatres, and cultural organizations. We continued the exploration of identity and race relations in a number of the plays we produced this season, including Native Son, Augusta and Noble, and Growing Up Blue. Faculty and staff also participated in Equity Quotient’s JOHN CULBERT two-day Undoing Racism workshop designed specifically DEAN AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER to address our needs. The workshop was held in response to our identified continued need to open up a dialogue about race, racism, and gender in relation to the work we engage in and the students we serve. As I look forward to a new year, I am pleased to share some of the accomplishments, activities, and accolades WELCOME from this past year made possible by the hard work of our students, staff, and faculty. FEATURES UNDOING RACISM WORKSHOP On Tuesday, November 28, and Wednesday, November 29, 47 members of The Theatre School (TTS) faculty and staff participated in Equity Quotient’s Undoing Racism Workshop designed specifically to address TTS’s needs. The first day of the workshop, themed “Let’s Talk About It”, featured presentations by facilitators about the history of racism in the United States and offered some small group work with participants. The focus of the second day was “The Way Forward- A Path Toward Equity and Inclusion.” The workshop was held in response to our identified continued need to open up dialogue about race, racism, and gender in relation to Theatre School issues, the work we engage in, and the student we serve. The Vincentian Endowment Fund, the Quality of Instruction Council, and DePaul’s Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity generously provided funding for the 2-day event. FEATURES Actor, writer, and director Roger Guenveur Smith FREDERICK DOUGLASS NOW performed his one-man show, Frederick Douglass Now, in honor of the Frederick Douglass Bicentennial on February 22nd on TTS’s Fullerton Stage. Smith bookends classic 19th century texts by Douglass with original narrative to achieve a stylistic mash-up informed by the present American moment. The event was presented with generous support from DePaul’s Vincentian Endowment Fund, DePaul’s Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity, and University Research Council, and was produced by Theatre School faculty member Rob Adler. Roger Guenveur Smith is an internationally acclaimed actor, writer, and director. He adapted his Obie Award- winning solo performance of A Huey P. Newton Story into a Peabody Award-winning telefilm, directed by his longtime colleague Spike Lee, with whom he continues to collaborate. Also among Smith’s recent credits are The Birth of a Nation and Bitch, which have achieved distinction in three consecutive Sundance Festivals, and the acclaimed independent films Mooz-Lum, and Better Mus’ Come, in which he plays the Prime Minister of Jamaica. Big budget feature films include the cult classics Deep Cover, King of New York, Eve’s Bayou, Hamlet, All About the Benjamins, and American Gangster, for which he was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award. Photos by DePaul University/Jamie Moncrief FEATURES NATIVE SON RECAP In February, The Theatre School presented Richard Wright’s Native Son adapted by alumna Nambi E. Kelley, and directed by Princess Grace Award winner Mikael Burke (MFA Directing ’18). The story takes place in 1930s South Side Chicago, and explores the systemic racism and poverty that oppressed a young man named Bigger Thomas from birth. Bigger Thomas lands a job with a wealthy white family but his fate is sealed when a violent act unleashes a chain of events that cannot be undone. “Racism is a poison that destroys everything it touches, and people have to recognize and confront their role in it, whether explicit, implicit or complicit,” Burke said. “What is so genius about the novel and the adaptation is that it is asking the hard questions of those in power: Is Bigger born a black rat, or is his monstrous behavior the result of your treatment of him?” Burke said. Burke mentions that dealing with such polarizing issues in a theatrical setting isn’t always easy, but it is useful to investigate the hard topics through art. “Is this difficult to watch? Certainly. Uncomfortable? Absolutely. But it is nonetheless true. And as more Black lives hang in the balance over racist thinking, we should all do what we can to expose and undermine racism, even if that means taking a good hard look in the mirror,” he said. Along with the performances, TTS partnered with several other DePaul departments and offices to host supplemental programming. FEATURES NATIVE SON RECAP On February 8, DePaul University’s Center for Black On February 14, following the performance of Native Fullerton Stage, Juelle Daley hosted a post-show discussion Diaspora and the DePaul University Geography Son on the Fullerton Stage, Ted Anton held a post- on the topic of Richard Wright, The Expat. Daley is the Department co-sponsored a panel discussion on the show talkback. Anton Assistant Director of DePaul University’s Center for Black topic of literary geographies in the Fullerton Stage Lobby is a professor in the Diaspora. at TTS. Rashad Shabazz and Dr. Beryl Satter hosted English department at and facilitated discussion with attendees. Shabazz is DePaul University, and These events facilitated discussion with our audience the author of Spatializing Blackness: Architectures of chair of the Age Studies members, students, staff and DePaul community members Confinement and Black Masculinity in Chicago. Dr. Satter Executive Committee around the themes of Native Son, and welcomed many is the author of Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and of the Modern people from the DePaul and greater Chicago community the Exploitation of Black Urban America, which won Language Association. into our artistic home for the first time. the Liberty Legacy Award in Civil Rights History and TTS looks forward to continuing to develop and forge the National Jewish Book Award in History, and was a On February 16, following community partnership around productions in the future. finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize and the Ron the performance of Ridenhouer Book Prize. Native Son on the On February 12, TTS and DePaul’s Center for Black Diaspora held a screening of Black Boy that was hosted by Dr. David Akbar-Gilliam, Associate Professor and Department Chair Modern Languages, Spanish; Critical Ethnic Studies Faculty DePaul University. On February 13, TTS held a screening of the 1951 film adaptation of Native Son starring Richard Wright facilitated by Diversity Advisor Dexter Zollicoffer. FEATURES FULLERTON STAGE RENAMED DR. JOHN R. AND JOYCE L. WATTS THEATRE The Theatre School renamed the Fullerton Stage in recognition of philanthropists John Ransford Watts, a former dean and artistic director, and his wife, Joyce, a former business consultant and academic administrator, for a generous gift to the school. A ceremony to acknowledge the couple’s philanthropy and unveil the 250-seat theatre as the Dr. John R. and Joyce L. Watts Theatre was held on June 12th at 5:30 p.m. at The Theatre School. Faculty, staff, and friends recognized John and Joyce Watts and their longstanding leadership and financial contributions to the establishment and growth of The Theatre School. In remarks, DePaul President A. Gabriel. Esteban, Ph.D., acknowledged the Watts for their most recent generous gift as well as their 2006 scholarship endowment that supports students in the playwriting program. In 1979, a year after DePaul acquired the ailing Goodman School of Drama, John Watts, a teacher, designer, director and scholar, was recruited as dean and charged with reestablishing the school to restore its proud reputation, appoint a faculty and acquire facilities.