OBAMA-OLOGY

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Director's Notes:

Welcome to the first production of Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre's Summertime Season! OBAMA-OLOGY is the perfect production to open the season with. It's a show that is fast, funny, and full of heart. It takes us back to the 2008 presidential race. For many people 2008 was a time of excitement, anticipation, and hope for the future. No matter your politics or your feelings about Obama's political platform, you can't deny that he represented change and presented an alternative way for many people to look at and consider what it is to be Black/African-American in America. He was (and is) proof that Blackness can be expressed in many different ways and that we as Blacks/African-Americans come in all different shades. We are not a monolith. We are a myriad of elements that make up a beautiful complex masterpiece. As one character in the show states, "If we're going to work together, we have to embrace as many different shades of us as possible." Ain't that the truth!

Enjoy the show!

-Bria Walker

Cast

Creative Team

Meet the Company

David Guiden

Warren

David is returning to the stage after a seven-year absence. He graduated with a BFA in Acting from Ball State University and has worked with Chicago companies such as Lifeline Theatre, UrbanTheater Company, Victory Gardens, and eta Creative Arts Foundation, where he was the recipient of a Black Theatre Alliance Award for Most Promising Actor, alongside being nominated for Best Featured Actor. This performance is dedicated to his late mother, Barbara Guiden, and his high school drama teacher and life friend, Kimberly Ruse Roberts, who both succumbed to cancer. He never thought he’d perform again. He truly hopes to make you both proud. "Theatre is magic and magic is theatre and blessed are we who get to create that magic."

Tuesdai B. Perry

Actor 2

Tuesdai is overjoyed to return to Fleetwood-Jourdain! You may have previously seen her here in HOME, CROWNS, and THE NUTCRACKER(ISH). Hailing from Gary, Indiana, she holds a BA in Directing and Writing from Western Illinois University. In addition to being a performer, she is an active director and choreographer in the Chicagoland area. "This show is dedicated to making a change, being a change, and embracing change. And to all: love, light, and solidarity." #RepresentationMatters

Chris Jensen

Actor 3

Chris received his theatrical education from the University of Michigan and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. His educational credits encompass roles such as Nathan 1/2/3 in Nora: a Doll’s House and Tartuffe in Tartuffe. Previous regional credits include Bert (u/s) in All My Sons (Pacific Conservatory Theatre), Billy Bunco in Death at Devil’s Cave (Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville), Ralphie in A Christmas Story (SLO Repertory Theatre) and Jonathan Harker in Orson Welles’ Dracula (Glass Apple Theatre). https://seasjensen.com/

Em Demaio

Actor 4

(she/her/hers) Em is so grateful to be a part of this brilliant group of artists. After spending time in New York she made the leap to Chicago in 2022 and has not looked back! Credits: Henry VI Part II (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), Adaptive Radiation (Denizen Theatre), Suffr*ge (Dragonfly Theatre), and Winter’s End (Dragonfly Theatre). emdemaio.com

Bria Walker

Director

is a multidisciplinary artist and educator based out of Pittsburgh, PA. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Acting at Carnegie Mellon University. Selected directing credits: co-director Crowns (FJT); Emilia, Miss You Like Hell (University of Pittsburgh); for colored girls... (SUNY New Paltz), Avenue Q (SUNY New Paltz & Pitt). Selected acting credits: The Royale (St. Louis Rep & City Theatre); Fires in the Mirror, Romeo & Juliet (Pgh Public Theatre Playtime Series); The Garbologists, Pop!, Marcus or the Secret of Sweet (City Theatre); From the Mississippi Delta (Triad Stage); By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (The Rep at Point Park); Saints Tour (Bricolage Production Company). MFA - Denver Center for the Performing Arts/National Theatre Conservatory; BFA - Wright State University. www.briawalker-rhoze.com

Barbara Reeder

Production Stage Manager

is thrilled to be working on Obama-ology with Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre. Barbara has worked in Chicago professional theatre for over 4 decades, most of those as a lighting designer. For seven years, Barbara traveled the world as the lighting designer for Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme and did the Diamond Jubilee tour for Frank Sinatra. Barbara currently resides in Skokie and serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts.

Lexx Dyer

Front of House Manager; Assistant Stage Manager

Since her graduation from Illinois State University in 2022, Lexx is returning to the theater for the first time post-grad by serving as the Assistant Stage Manager for the Fleetwood-Jourdain Theater this summer. She will be working on Obama-ology and The Light. Favorite credits as an actress include Sweat (Illinois State), Pipeline (Illinois State), Bulrusher (Illinois State), Every 28 hours (The Goodman), and Sweet (Fleetwood-Jourdain Theater). Although Stage Management is a new lane for her, she is grateful to have had the opportunity to learn in such a nurturing environment as FJT. She has a personality but struggles to show it in bio writing.

Evan Sposato

Technical Director/Co-Scenic Designer

has spent the last two decades in and around the theatre as an actor, director, stage manager, technical director, and production manager. He spent eight years at the Waterville Opera House in Waterville, Maine, working both onstage and behind the scenes. During the Opera House's centennial renovation, he was the technical advisor to the building team and wrote grants totaling more than $2 million. While in Maine, Evan also served as the longtime president of the board of directors of Aqua City Actor's Theatre and worked with Bossov Ballet Theatre and Everyman Repertory Theatre. Since moving to the Chicago area, Evan has worked as the Technical Director and Production Manager at Drury Lane and has built shows for Steep, Jackalope, Rivendell, Interrobang, City Lit, New Colony (company member), and others.  When Evan isn't in a theater, he works with political campaigns on voter contact and digital outreach.

David Etti-Williams

Sound Designer

(They/he) is an up-and-coming Sound Designer and Engineer local to Chicago. After Studying Acting at Oklahoma City University, they moved to Chicago to participate in Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s Apprenticeship Program. Since then, they have had the opportunity to work all over Chicago making theatre and telling stories and expressing their passion through design. Chicago design credits include Run The Beast Down (Strawdog Theatre Company); Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins (Strawdog Theatre Company); Beatrix Potter’s Holiday Tea Party (Chicago Children’s Theatre); Haus of Atreus (Mudlark Theater); Peerless (Northwestern University Graduate Directing Program); On The Greenbelt (Strawdog Theatre Company); At The Vanishing Point (The Gift Theatre); Paris (Steep Theatre); Light Falls (Steep Theatre); Private Lives (Raven Theatre); The Island (Court Theatre)

Lynn Baber

Casting Director/Costume Designer

has been a Casting Director for many theatres in Chicago, but currently casts exclusively for Fleetwood-Jourdain. She was the Casting Director for the Broadway-produced, Chicago production of Be More Chill (which sadly never opened at the Apollo Theatre due to the pandemic). Currently, she is a consultant/acting coach, and works on-camera every now and then; most recently in CHICAGO MED and episodes 1 and 11 of THE BIG LEAP. www.lynn-baber.com She is a member of the Casting Society of America, Actors Equity and SAG/AFTRA. She also has a thriving business selling small estates for Chicago actors on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/str/sugarbaber

Michael Rourke

Lighting Designer

is pleased to be joining FJT for the first time. Mr. Rourke has been designing lighting for theatre, events, concerts, and corporate shows for over 40 years. He received a Chicago Joseph Jefferson Award for Kabuki Lady Macbeth on his third nomination. He has received a Jeff Citation (Now Then Again), an After Dark Award (M. Butterfly), and a Dean Goodman Drama Logue Award, and Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award (Michael, Margaret, Pat & Kate).

Amanda Blatt

Production Electrician

is thrilled to be working on Obama-ology at Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre. Amanda is a rising sophomore at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor pursuing a BFA in Theatre: Design & Production with concentrations in stage management and lighting design. U-M credits include Rent (sound asst.), Everybody (2ASM), Sonnets & Soul (SM), and Bernarda Alba (LBO). Thank you to Michael Rourke for the opportunity and support. Go blue!

John Olson

Public Relations

provides marketing and public relations services to a variety of theaters and arts organizations in the Chicago area. He followed a career as an account manager and media planner in Chicago and Milwaukee advertising agencies by moving into arts marketing and publicity in 2010. He worked at ComedySportz Chicago as Marketing Director and Raven Theatre as Director of Marketing and Press before founding John Olson Communications in 2017. Additionally. John has served as Associate Editor for The Sondheim Review and Chicago reviewer for TalkinBroadway.com.

Tim Rhoze

Producing Artistic Director; Co-Scenic Designer

has been the Producing Artistic Director of Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre since 2010. His directing credits include: American Son, Home, Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, The Meeting, Fires In The Mirror, Black Ballerina (co-writer), Nutcracker(ish), Crowns, Having Our Say, From the Mississippi Delta, Home, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, Woza Albert!, Going to St. Ives, Single Black Female, A Song For Coretta, Yellowman, Sweet, Lady Day At Emerson Bar & Grill, Bear Country, Nobody, Fences, Piano Lesson, Ain't Misbehavin, K2, The Glass Menagerie, et. al (FJT); Passing Strange (Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre.) Tim is also the writer/director of Why Not Me? A Sammy Davis Jr. Story, and Maya’s Last Poem (both produced at FJT.) He was co-writer and director of A Home On The Lake (co-produced with the Piven Theatre Workshop.)

Sarah Kaiser-Amaral

Scenic Painter

Chicago-based visual artist, Sarah Kaiser-Amaral has been driven at an early age by an inexplicable force to make art. Honing her painting and drawing technique since her childhood, she has blended her passion for painting with her teaching career, and inspires her students. She runs her own business, the Figurative Art League, out of her studio at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center in Evanston, IL. She has also been on the faculty of the Evanston Art Center since 2010. Sarah’s evolution as an artist began after earning an MFA at the University of Chicago in 2003. Ever since, she has been exploring and pushing the boundaries of painting in her work.

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