Cyrus Colter Trilogy: A Staged Reading

Cyrus Colter's Short Stories Come to the Stage

Director Tim Rhoze and author Sandra Seaton bring to life the frustrations and triumphs of 1960s Black life on Chicago’s South Side, in a powerful adaptation of Cyrus  Colter’s prize-winning short stories.

The trilogy begins with A Chance Meeting, a two-person play about an accidental meeting between two African Americans who worked for the same wealthy white Chicago family. Their conflicting reminiscences reveal contrasting attitudes about race, class, sexuality and art. The trilogy continues with The Lookout, a solo play that takes place on a snowy Saturday afternoon on Woodlawn Avenue, where Mildred’s determination to spy on her friend’s exclusive bridge luncheon reveals attitudes about marriage, social status, envy, and interracial divisions. Finally, in Black For Dinner, Anita Hill’s obsession with her dinner party attire contrast with her husband’s worries over his health. In the process, the play explores mortality and the pettiness of surface realities.

This event is cosponsored by the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, the Guild Literary Complex, and Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, and is held in conjunction with the Evanston Literary Festival.