Broadway veteran, Capathia Jenkins, and songwriter and musician, Louis Rosen, bring their concert, "The Ache of Possibility," to Northwestern University's Evanston campus in from June 25th to the 27th. As part of the 2010 Summer Music Theatre Festival at the Theatre and Interpretation Center (TIC) at Northwestern University, their three performances will take place at 8 p.m. Friday, June 25; 8 p.m. Saturday, June 26; and 2 p.m. Sunday, June 27, in the Josephine Louis Theater, 20 Arts Circle Drive. They will be joined by virtuoso bassist Dave Phillips. The ticketed event is open to the public.
A featured guest artist in the 2009 "Centennial Celebration of Johnny Mercer Concert" at Northwestern, Jenkins returns with Rosen to the TIC stage for the 2010 festival to perform songs from their three albums: "The Ache of Possibility" (2009), "One Ounce of Truth: The Nikki Giovanni Songs" (2008) and "South Side Stories" (2006). Jenkins and Rosen appeared in concert at the Steppenwolf Theatre's "Traffic: Festival of Music and Art" in 2005.
"The Ache of Possibility" includes everything from the pulsating jazz of songs such as "How You Gonna Save ‘Em" to the honkey tonk overlay of "The Middle Class (Use To Be) Blues" and the whirling conjure song "The Black Loom." Whether the words are by Rosen or African-American icons Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes or Maya Angelou, their songs feature a blend of jazz, blues, soul, folk and pop styles exploring love, politics, loss, family, memory and the passage of time.
Early in her career Jenkins was cast as Effie White in the national touring company of "Dreamgirls." Other national and European tours soon followed, including "Bubblin' Brown Sugar" and "Sophisticated Rhythms." On Broadway, she has appeared in "Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me," "Caroline, or Change," "The Civil War" and "The Look of Love." Her off-Broadway credits include "Love Loss and What I Wore," "(Mis)understanding Mammy: The Hattie McDaniel Story" and the revival of "Godspell." Recent concert work includes appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Minneapolis Orchestra and Michael Feinstein at Carnegie Hall.
Rosen's scores have been heard at theaters nationally, including New York's Lincoln Center and The Public Theater and Chicago's Goodman Theatre. Winner of a 2005-06 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Music Composition, he is the recipient of the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theater Award, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sloan Foundation's Grand Galileo Prize and a 2006 Puffin Foundation Award. He is the author of the play "The South Side: The Radical Transformation of an American Neighborhood."
Single tickets are $30 for the general public; $27 for seniors 65 and older, Northwestern faculty and staff and area educators and administrators; and $10 for full-time students. Subscription pricing to the 2010 Summer Music Theatre Festival also is available.
Subscriptions and single tickets to all productions may be purchased through the Theatre and Interpretation Center Box Office at (847) 491-7282 or online at http://www.tic.northwestern.edu.
