A CONVERSATION

With Ericka Ratcliff, Artistic Director and Ensemble Member of Congo Square Theatre, Artistic Associate of Lookingglass Theatre Company, and co-director of What to Send Up When It Goes Down and Heidi Stillman, Artistic Director and Ensemble Member of Lookingglass Theatre Company

Ericka and Heidi have known each other a long time. Though they wouldn’t say how long.

Ericka: I remember when I first became an Ensemble Member with Congo Square, I was always inspired by what was happening at Lookingglass. I was always taking goodness and rituals from my experience at Lookingglass and infusing them in all the places I was working.

Ericka’s first play with Lookingglass Theatre Company was Black Diamond, written by Lookingglass Ensemble Member and Mellon Playwright in Residence, J. Nicole Brooks.

Heidi: [What to Send Up When It Goes Down] is very free in its form. I love that about this play; it’s not a play. And how much Aleshea [Harris, playwright] is messing with the form and kind of inventing something new.

E: What to Send Up is a show that we, Congo Square and Lookingglass, are collaborating on to bring to audiences. We’re really excited about the partnership. We’ve talked about how we could work together. We share Ensemble Members and collaborators all the time, so this play felt ideal for that.

H: It really offers a space for community healing and to come together.

E: That’s the most valuable thing that I take away. This is the remount of the production. Because it is a ritual, we want the space intimate. The space has to be intimate for the experience to work, for it to be effective.

H: It is a limited audience for each show so there can be that communal feeling.

E: That’s really important to us. We took it to the Southside, we took it to the Westside, now we're in downtown. Who in this community needs this healing? How do we get it to them through this really important and effective work? In this remount, we have new cast members. We’re watching it work on them and we are being even more free in our healing.

H: It is always so interesting to remount a show. If you try to capture exactly what you had 1, you will fail, 2 you’re kind of squashing it, and smothering it a little bit.

E: That’s another reason I love Lookingglass. The structure is there, the framework is there, but how do you keep discovering things? New things. How does it grow. It starts here but it’s going to grow.

H: And depending on who is in it, it’s going to change. There has to be space for the new energy, the new ideas.

E: That’s the most exciting thing about this for me. What are you offering that’s different but still valuable?

H: How are you liking directing? You’ve been a longtime actor, are you enjoying directing? You are starting to do that quite a bit now.

E: The thing I really love about it is leading the collaboration. I love collaborating, I love new works. This play feels like new a work. Discovering new works in a new way because of collaboration. Directing is really just facilitating.

H: Our companies share that idea of the best idea in the room. Nobody’s ego has to control. It’s about collaboration and how can we all make this the best it can be.

E: Come get your healing. Know that this play is for everyone. Yes, it is specifically focused on tools for Black folks to heal, but these are tools that are universal, that we all can use we are all affected by this issue, and we all can learn from what is to offer in WTSU.

H: It’s theatre that makes you think, it’s theatre that makes you feel, it’s theatre that lets you heal.

Congo Square Theatre Company is an ensemble dedicated to producing transformative work rooted in the African Diaspora. We are a haven for artists of color to challenge and redefine the theatrical canon by amplifying and creating stories that reflect the reach and complexities of Black Culture.

Transformative, African-Diaspora, amplifying, complexities, Black Culture are all words that anchor the artistic mission of Congo Square Theatre Company. At a time when anti-black violence continues to rise and the denial of the right to ‘BE’ as Black people is under attack, there was no question. We had to produce Aleshea Harris’s, What to Send Up When It Goes Down.

Too many of us have been taken–murdered by the violent actions of racist police practices and white supremacist ideas. We are continually bombarded by the hashtags of our loved ones senseless deaths, without ever having an intentional moment to mourn our collective loss.

We matter–in life and in death.

What to Send Up When It Goes Down celebrates this fact by forging a space for Black folk to come together as community to mourn, heal and celebrate our love and our strength.

We are living in unique times. The recent pandemic has shaken the foundation of this country, revealing the deep inequities among its citizens that we as African- Americans already knew existed. Social unrest around police violence on Black bodies and the conversation of institutionalized racism and white privilege are all flashpoints in the mainstream news.

We must not let these conversations fade. We must insist on action.

The clarion call is inevitably for peace, equity and freedom for us all, but not by sacrificing our right and responsibility to speak truth to power, by standing in our own. This theatrical ritual home-going celebration is our offering to the Chicago community written,created and produced specifically for Black people to remember our power, our love and our light.

Víctor Hugo is a freelance theatre collaborator who has worked with companies like Chicago Opera Theater, and The Lyric Repertory in Logan Utah. Earlier this year, he had the pleasure of stage managing a production of Hit the Wall by Ike Holter at his alma mater Northern Illinois University. His previous roles have ranged from properties designer, assistant scenic designer, scenic painter and assistant director. He is grateful he gets to be a part of this powerful production, and work with this group of talented artists.

Estrellita Beatriz, who uses the pronouns starr, e, bea, or anything non-gendered offered gingerly, is a poly-disciplinary artistic facilitator, doula, educator, and change shaper. E started stage managing storefront theatres in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as a junior in high school. Twelve years later, starr has facilitated over 200 theatrical productions as production manager, stage manager, designer, educator, producer, and fellow at theatres across the nation, including The Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, New Orleans Shakespeare Company, and Tricklock Theatre Company. bea’s work as an artistic facilitator mixed with starr’s ancestral healing practice lead e to become a death doula and ritual writer. Working at the praxis of grief, ritual, and theatre, starr hopes to help guide folks back to their bodies through boundaries, intentional conversations, and plant medicine.

IG: @twinkle_twinkle_estrellita

Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Sarah Goldman is a playwright, screenwriter, and actor. Sarah grew up in the theater, performing her first play in the 2nd and attending The Alabama School of Fine Arts from 7th grade to her senior year of high school. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie BFA Actor Training Program Company of 2021 and is a current MFA student in Northwestern University’s Writing for the Screen + Stage Program. Sarah’s writing touches on subjects of blackness through the lens of beauty, black femininity, and family. Her ultimate goal is to diversify the cannon bringing a new definition to “black stories.” Sarah is honored to return to Congo Square as the dramaturg. Previously, she was the Young Playwright winner of the 10 minute Play Festival.

IG: @sarahgracegoldman

Yaw Agyeman is an interdisciplinary performing artist born in Chicago. He works primarily as a musician/sound designer but also has an extensive theater background (actor) and makes photos. He’s currently a lead vocalist of the band, The Black Monks, headed up by the internationally acclaimed artist Theaster Gates.

IG: @thursdayboy // Facebook: Yaw Agyeman // Twitter: yawagyemanmusic

Alexis Carrie is a LA based theater and film costume designer and social justice warrior. Some of her credits include Sorority of the Damned (A Blood Brothers Film), Mrs. Harrison (Indiana Repertory Theater), Hoodoo Love (Raven Theater), Good Grief (Point Park University), Man of God (East West Players), Yen (Raven Theater), Curve of Departure (Northlight Theater). She has a MFA in Costume Design from Carnegie Mellon University and is a proud founding member of First Floor Theater in Chicago. You can find her work at alexiscarrie.com

IG: @notalexus

Bio coming soon

Born and raised on the southwest side of Chicago, Lighting Designer, Levi J. Wilkins has been a member of the Chicago Theater community since the age of 6. Spending 4 years in the After School Matters Advanced Arts apprenticeship program at Gallery 37 in Chicago’s downtown. After high school, Levi Studied Theatre and Production at Lincoln College in Lincoln, Illinois. Since college, Levi has had the privilege of being the resident lighting designer for multiple churches and event Venues in Chicago. Currently the lighting director at The Faith Community of St. Sabina. In addition, Levi is the go-to for many of Chicago’s gospel music artist for stage lighting and stage design. Levi is excited to be returning to Congo Square for his second production with the company. His other past theater credits include A Raisin In The Sun with Indiana University Northwest, The Real Life Adventures Of Jimmy De Las Rosas and Good Grief with Free Street Theater, The Encounter Festival (2018, 2019 and 2020) and the Peacebook Festival (2018 & 2019) with Collaboraction Social Justice Theater, White with Definition Theater, The Mountaintop at Cardinal Stage. Along with many other concert and dance performance design credits. In addition Levi also owns and operates a luxury event design and decor company. For more on Levi visit www.fresherlight.com

IG: @leviwilkins_lighting

Click for bio

Ericka Ratcliff - Artistic Director

Charlique C. Rolle - Executive Director

Ronald L. Conner - Program Director

Sarah Grace Goldman - Casting + Literary Associate

Bair Warburton-Brown - Programs & Community Engagement + Education Associate

Kona Burks - Lead Teaching Artist

Víctor Hugo Jaimes - Production Manager

Gertrude Wooten, Chair

Dr. Alvin Goldfarb, Vice-Chair

Dorsey Norman III, Treasurer

Dawn Frances Reese Secretary

Kristopher Anderson

Kristen Evans

Harry Lennix

Dr. Heath Morgan

Naja Morris

Ericka Ratcliff

Charlique C. Rolle

Dacia Vora

Hugh Williams

Artistic Director- Ensemble Member Heidi Stillman

Artistic Producer: Culturalist & Strategy Designer- Arkey Adams

Artistic Producer- Ensemble Member Philip R. Smith

Artistic Producer: New Work- Ensemble Member Kareem Bandealy

Mellon Playwright in Residence- Ensemble Member J. Nicole Brooks

Executive Director- Rachel L. Fink

General Manager- Michele Anderson

People and Culture Director- Jazmin Jones-Oliver

Business Office Associate- Josh Essex

Director of Production- Sarah Burnham

Assistant Production Manager - Nikolaj Sorensen

Technical Director- Chris Winnemann

Costume Director- Melissa Perkins

Sound Supervisor- Brandon Reed

Lighting and Video Supervisor- Lauren Alyssa Skulley IV

Wardrobe Supervisor- Emma Hendren

Assistant Lighting Supervisor- Amber Hahn

Assistant Costume Shop Manager- C.M. Taylor

Interim Scene Shop Foreman- Dylan Marks

Lead Carpenter- Skate Ehling

Carpenters- Connie Bronson, Kenny Faust, Karin Hannermann, Lexi Jameson, Garvin Van Dernoot

Painters- Adrian Luka Oxoa, Lydia Moss, Amanda Herrmann

Electricians- Molly Fryda, Max Gamber, Daniel Moses, Ish Petersen

Director of Marketing - Maggie McNamara

Marketing Manager - Hayley Procacci

Communications and Press Manager - Laura Marsh

Audience Experience Manager - Olivia Evans

Sales and Ticketing Manager - Meg Huntsman

Box Office Associates - Natalie Dennis, Jaz Fowlkes, Avery Smith, Anika Waco

House Management Team - Wyatt McCall, Gabby Ashlin

Director of Community Engagement- Ensemble Member Andy White

Director of Development- Aurélia F. Cohen

Donor Relations Steward: Operations- Megan Mitchell

Donor Relations Steward- Ayanna Smith

Kareem Bandealy

Mara Blumenfeld

Walter Briggs

J. Nicole Brooks

David Catlin

Thomas J. Cox

Lawrence E. Distasi

Kevin Douglas

Christine Mary Dunford

Laura Eason

Anthony Fleming III

Kasey Foster

Raymond Fox

Joy Gregory

Doug Hara

Sylvia Hernandez-Distasi

Anthony Irons

David Kersnar

Louise Lamson

Daniel Ostling

Andre Pluess

David Schwimmer

Joey Slotnick

Philip R. Smith

Heidi Stillman

Tracy Walsh

Andrew White

Temple Williams III

Mary Zimmerman

Atra Asdou

Brian Sidney Bembridge

Christine A. Binder

Cordella Dewdney

Christopher Donahue

Deanna Dunagan

Sara Gmitter

Tony Hernandez

Lauren Hirte

Joshua Horvath

J. Salomé Martinez Jr.

Wendy Mateo

Ericka Ratcliff

Sully Ratke

Scott Silberstein

Rick Sims

Alison Siple

Samuel Taylor

Lisa Tejero

Troy West

Lindsay Noel Whiting

Matthew C. Yee

Diane Whatton - Board Chair

Steven Weiss - Vice President

James A. Raff - Treasurer

Jill Reznick Meier - Secretary

Heidi Stillman - Artistic Director & Ensemble Member

Rachel L. Fink - Executive Director

David Catlin - Ensemble Member

Anthony Fleming III - Ensemble Member

Steve Armstrong

Michael Belsley

Molly Beran

Brenda Langstraat Bui

Richard Chapman

Lester N. Coney

Richard A. Ditton

Charlie Frankel

Lee Golub

Luis Gutierrez

Lisa Naparstek Green

Michael Harrington

Lindsay Hearn

Lindsay Knight

Anita Mauro

Marla Mendelson, M.D

Bob Palffy

Abbie Roth, M.D

Patrick Rule

Jeff Steigelman

Catie Walsh