What's Inside?
Full Catalogue
Explore our selection of over 40 uniquely Black stories, vividly performed and expertly crafted.
Backstage
Get a deeper dive into the history and making of some of your favorite stories.
Interviews with Icons
Hear directly from some of the most influential talents in Black culture.
Listen Magazine
Enjoy a monthly magazine that contains sneak peeks, insightful information, and other tidbits.
First Monday Releases
Shawn Wallace and Georges Blaise are the pioneers of the MPAACT sound. Georges Blaise steps into his familiar role of interviewer as he talks with his long-time collaborator and occasional bandmate about Shawn’s journey into music, theater, activism, and personal discovery.
There is a shorthand between these two artists that comes from decades of friendship, occasional rivalry, and plentiful experiences performing and crafting music in the Chicago arts scene.
Shepsu Aakhu and Shawn Wallace have created a uniquely haunting exploration of the life and death of Casmero Lazeroni.
Once as commonplace as newspaper stands, the fruit peddlers of Chicago could be found on most every major street. In the call and response advertising of the day, they filled the street with melodies that announced both their arrival, and the daily offerings carried in their carts.
In Red Summer, a peddler (and Italian immigrant) – who served communities on both sides of the color line – found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Elevated to more than a name on the police blotter, Casmero became central to the world of Red Summer, and central to our understanding of the violence that bloodied the streets of Chicago. Join the artists charged with bringing this ballad, Originally titled Death of an Innocent – to the stage.
Tackling societal issues on stage requires a certain fearlessness. At the heart of Starting Over is the story of two teens wrestling with the small-town dynamics and a fledgling romantic relationship. This story runs side by side with those same characters re-engaging two decades later in a high-stakes corporate environment, wrestling with workplace power dynamics, and the complex emotions that emerge as they rekindle their relationship.
There are no easy answers in this drama – it explores racism, gender identity, sexuality, conservatism, and the limitations of love (for self and others.) This play explores the varied vulnerabilities of two people taking steps to fully own their identities, their bodies, and their choices.
Gathered in the studio to discuss the demands of bringing Starting Over to the stage are the fearless creatives behind this work – Director Lauren “LL” Lundy and writer Shepsu Aakhu.
Newly remastered, we step into a dark comedy from the mind of Idris Goodwin once again…
There’s something strange about this trendy new restaurant. When Ann and Rachelle meet there for dinner, there’s already tension in the friendship they’ve built on their common experience navigating academia as Black women.
At first it’s easy to overlook odd things, but as the hunger sets in, the two professors find themselves the unknowing stars of an absurdist dinner theater performance of Black plight. A sharp, surreal satire about who gets a place at the table.
Returning to Our Roots
From the time of our ancestors, our story and our history has been told orally. The Griot in our villages kept and told the oral history of our people, and passed it down to the next generations. More recently, our transplanted elders gathered the family around the victrola radio in the living room and listened to the news and stories of the world, as well as weekend episodes of the family’s favorite radio serials.
Birthed during the global pandemic which shuttered our theatre doors for a year, we took heart in the ability to return to our elders’ tradition. MPAACT invites you to stream our Podcast Play Series- radio plays presented for your enjoyment. Gather around with family and enjoy dynamically Black stories presented comfortably in your home.
Who We Are
MPAACT exists to develop, nurture, and sustain Afrikan Centered Theatre [ACT], an artistic expression grounded in the many cultures and traditions of the Afrikan continent and its Diaspora. With a vision focused on creating new work and collaborative art, MPAACT produces and educates with the goal of increasing understanding and appreciation of [ACT] and its interrelated disciplines.
MPAACT has grown from a collective of like-minded individuals who shared an artistic vision, to an organization that has produced a formidable body of work. This work includes: main stage productions, a playwright’s laboratory, standing productions, original music, a publishing company [Sakhu Publications], an arts education program, and many workshops and master classes.
It is important to us as a company that we, in everything we do, pull from the disparate cultural elements which unite artists in the Afrikan Diaspora. Drawing from the well that nourished artists such as Wole Soyinka, Charles Mingus, Adrienne Kennedy, Amiri Baraka and Bob Marley among others, we create and perform work, which examines and celebrates the many facets of Afrikan theatre.
Want to learn more? Visit our official website mpaact.org!
Contact
Greenhouse Theatre Center
2257 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60614
information@mpaact.org
661.373.3089
Mail: P.O. Box 10039
Chicago IL, 60610