Black Ensemble Theater Archives

A young Black woman in a white party dress stands smiling center stage. Another Black woman in a Jamaican-style dress and head scarf stands smiling behind her.

The Other Cinderella still has soul and sparkle to spare

by Kerry Reid December 7, 2023December 7, 2023

It’s been a minute since I’ve visited the Kingdom of Other: 13 years, to be precise. The last time I saw Jackie Taylor’s The Other Cinderella was in 2010, before Black Ensemble Theater moved to their spacious Clark Street home. (And it was certainly long before BET planned an expansion across the street that will […]

Thee Ricky Harris stands left with arms upraised, wearing a white cooks apron. An ensemble of five performers in black clothing and aprons stands on the right behind Harris.

Theater Review

Cooking With Soul

by Matt Simonette September 6, 2023October 5, 2023

Near the end of Black Ensemble Theater’s (BET) superb new revue A Taste of Soul, co-emcee Qiana McNary mentions that the show’s creators hope to leave the audience both “full and hungry at the same time.” The show’s central framing device—a television cooking program veering into musical numbers, concurrently leading the audience through the history […]

Four Black women in 70s-style clothing stand in a line onstage singing.

Arts & Culture

Keeping it real about musical marriages

by Cristalle Bowen June 1, 2023August 31, 2023

For better or (probably for) worse, The Real Housewives of (enter location here) reality TV show franchise is an American institution that has infiltrated mainstream society. The show documents the incredibly intimate details of the partners and mostly stay-at-home wives of prominent public figures. Peeling back the layers of the housewives’ professional and personal lives […]

Center is Christian Denzel Bufford as Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire. He is wearing white trousers and a sparkling tank top. He is flanked by two Black women, MIciah Lathan and Keya Trammell, who are singing back-up while wearing black gowns, cut to be off one shoulder.

Theater Review

Sing a song

by Sheri Flanders March 15, 2023March 15, 2023

Black Ensemble Theater has cornered the Chicago market on excellent musical tributes to prominent Black musicians, and their latest show Reasons: A Tribute to Earth, Wind & Fire (EWF) is no exception. The show is a high-octane extravaganza that opens with a set of glowing drumsticks, signaling that something special has arrived. Maurice White, the […]

Agenda

Art markets, Joy to the World, and personal style

by Micco Caporale, Kerry Reid and Salem Collo-Julin December 10, 2022December 10, 2022

Free Street Theater joins up with Plant Chicago for a winter market and storytelling event at Plant Chicago’s building (4459 S. Marshfield). From 11 AM-3 PM, you can enjoy stories (1-2 PM), songs from Orcas Are Dolphins (playing 11:30 AM-1 PM), a clothing swap, and the chance to purchase wares from local vendors, including Zeitlin’s […]

From left: a Black woman in a white sparkly dress, a white man with a guitar wearing a cowboy hat, a Black man in a sparkly jacket, a Black man in a light suit, and a Black man in a dark gray suit stand in a row onstage performing. There is a four-piece band behind them, bar tables and chairs, and a sign behind them on the left reading "Pearly's."

Theater Review

Heavenly blues

by Kerry Reid November 2, 2022November 2, 2022

Black Ensemble Theater’s latest follows the company’s tried-and-true formula with an otherworldly twist. In Blue Heaven, written and directed by Daryl D. Brooks (BET’s producing managing director), a quartet of deceased blues greats—Chester Arthur Burnett, aka Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, McKinley Morganfield, aka Muddy Waters, and Stevie Ray Vaughan (no nickname)—hang out […]

A young Black woman sits on a sofa, wrapped in a purple blanket. A young Black man leans on the sofa on the left, and another young Black man stands behind her. A photo of an older Black woman is on the side table next to the sofa.

Theater Review

New generation, old family stories

by Sheri Flanders June 2, 2022June 2, 2022

Change is afoot at Black Ensemble Theater as it prepares to embark on a new era, leveraging a $5 million grant to implement founder and CEO Jackie Taylor’s longtime vision of a Free To Be corridor, which would expand the footprint of the theater campus and provide housing and support opportunities for artists and community. […]

Black performer in white robe stands with arms outstretched and singing, with three Black singers standing behind

Theater Review

Spiritual healing

by Marissa Oberlander March 24, 2022March 24, 2022

Black Ensemble Theater’s first play back since the pandemic, an original from founder Jackie Taylor (she wrote, produced, directed, and choreographed), is exactly what the title states—an out-of-body, communal experience that creates the physical “togetherness” we’ve missed for so long. It’s an energizing and participatory homage to the Black church experience, which as the cast […]

City Life

Black Harvest Film Festival, reggaetón, and roller skating

by Kerry Reid, Micco Caporale and Salem Collo-Julin November 19, 2021November 19, 2021

It’s getting a wee bit chilly around here but here’s some things to do this week that just might warm you up. Fri 11/19 606 Records and Cleve Carney Museum of Art (CCMA) are teaming up to celebrate Ben LaMar Gay’s new album, Open Arms to Open Us (be sure to read Reader contributor Hannah […]