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
Leonard House was a collaborator from the moment podcast plays was created. Lending his rich and nuanced voice to our very first recordings, Leonard anchored the casts of Dandelions, Tad in 5th City, Beneath A Dark Sky, Project Uplift, Ten Square, Black & Blue and so much more.
Leonard also brought in his own plays One 4 the Road and The Book of Me immediately following their world premiere productions on the MPAACT mainstage. Leonard loved that his stories could be captured in the audio multiverse and shared around the world.
Gathered here are three longtime collaborators Carla Stillwell, Shepsu Aakhu, and Lauren “LL” Lundy, highlighting Leonard’s craft as an actor, voiceover talent and playwright.
Dandelions was the very first recording for the platform that would later evolve into “the audio multiverse.” Made in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, in a bio-secure “bubble” long before there was a vaccine for the coronavirus (Covid -19), this version of Dandelions was our testing ground – it was our proof of concept, and it would serve as the foundation of the audio multi-verse.
We retired this recording in 2023 after the post-pandemic World Premiere (full staging) of the play. As our very first recording, its flaws are many, but its value is also profound. This recording features the voice work of the late Leonard House Jr. (Bill Lane), as well as direction by the late Erica Faye Watson and sound design by the late Larry Nance.
We feel compelled to return this play to the platform as a testament to the works of Leonard House Jr., Erica Faye Watson and Larry Nance.
Their gifts were many. They will be forever remembered.
Digging through the MPAACT digital archives, Shepsu Aakhu came across an informal interview conducted during the earliest days of a pandemic experiment that would later become podcast plays. Captured here are the very earliest challenges faced by our boutique theater company, struggling to find purpose during the Covid-19 shut down that shuttered live theater in Chicago indefinitely. This is a frank interview conducted by Abboyé Lawrence looking at the how and why of the founding of the audio multiverse.
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