Nina Metz

"Um, I'm seeing this for the first time, because I just rewrote it last night," says David Schwimmer with a familiar self-deprecating laugh as he glances around the Lookingglass Theatre's rehearsal room. The twelve-member cast settles down to read aloud the beginning pages of the Schwimmer-directed play "Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession," based on Studs Terkel's 1992 book of the same name.

The Northwestern alum of "Friends" fame acknowledges that for he and co-adaptor Joy Gregory, "it was a challenge turning this book into a theatrical event that can sustain itself and keep audiences' attention for two hours." (And, one would assume, avoid sounding like a sensitivity-training seminar.) The production, set to begin performances in June in the newly remodeled Water Tower Works on Michigan Avenue, also includes material based on the ensemble's own experiences with race and its seemingly inevitable "ism."

"When we all first got together," says cast member Anthony Fleming, "I was like, I ain't tellin' these people nothing." Fleming recently portrayed a militant black intellectual in the comedy "Cut Flowers" at the Noble Fool. "So yeah, I was very uncomfortable, initially. And it took some time for us to create a sense of trust, where you would feel safe revealing this personal stuff."

Schwimmer says that he himself has a "firsthand view of institutionalized racism in the entertainment industry," also to be addressed in the play. And he's not even talking about the white-bread factor on "Friends."

(2003-05-14)

Also by Nina Metz

Tip of the Week
Each time the Steppenwolf tackles a work by Richard Greenberg, the results are extraordinary.
(2003-05-07)

Tip of the Week
There is a character in August Wilson's newest work--the ninth in his ten-play cycle tracking the African American experience through each decade of the twentieth century--named Solly Two Kings, who walks around in an old mud-splattered coat.
(2003-04-30)

Tip of the Week
It's probably unfair to describe Gavin Lawrence's play as a variation on the hit comedy "Barbershop," but the similarities are indisputable--and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
(2003-04-22)

Tip of the Week
For its double bill of lesser-known Shakespeare plays, "Cymbeline" and "Pericles," Court Theatre has revamped its space. It's all part of director Charles Newell's blank-canvas aesthetic (the actors, too, are dressed in white).
(2003-04-15)

Tip of the Week
(2003-04-09)

Tip of the Week
(2003-04-02)

Tip of the Week
(2003-03-26)

Tip of the Week
(2003-03-19)

Tip of the Week
(2003-03-12)

Tip of the Week
(2003-02-26)

Tip of the Week
(2003-02-19)

Acting out
(2003-02-19)

about Newcitychicago | about Newcity magazine | advertising | privacy policy | FAQ | employment