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
Carla Stillwell is an art maker, and she makes no apologies for it. She holds that personal excavation should be central to our craft – we have to dig.
She finds no subject or medium of expression off limits. Equally at home in drama, sketch, musicals, satire or seriousness, Carla has but the one goal – DIG until you find the truth. Then show the truth to the audience.
She is an award-winning actor, a two-time Emmy Award winning director, and the founder of the Stillwell Institute.
In Part 2 Carla pulls back the veil on her upbringing, and the double-edged sword that was coming of age in this city and in stepping into creative spaces in this industry.
The monologue has long been thought of as an actor’s tool, but it is so much more than that…
A well-crafted monologue is an extended view into the inner-most life of a character. From this solo voice comes a chance to view a multiplicity of experiences.
BlaQ Market Monologues is drawn from the book of the same name. Through this collection of monologues, we get an opportunity to witness how we as individuals and as a community – grapple with the most basic issues of our humanity.
All of these plays were introduced to the world through MPAACT. Voiced here by a stellar complement of actors. You have an opportunity to discover what we have long understood – These artists should be celebrated because these characters are transcendent.
Chicago is a city packed with history and there is no neighborhood within its boundaries that is move storied and more nuanced than Bronzeville. From the historic red-lining, and restrictive covenants on property as chronicled in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, or the music hot spots of jazz era, Bronzeville has always been a place where Black life was lived deeply passionate and densely packed.
Join us as we unpack Dandelions – a love story to a neighborhood and the families that live there.
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