Shepsu Aakhu

The Abesha Conspiracy follows the story of Joseph and his Ethiopian wife Sosena as they journey to her homeland. It is a journey of the soul that connects a husband to a wife, parent to their child, and an individual to their culture. Based on the playwright’s perceptual experiences on a post nuptial pilgrimage to Ethiopia. The Abesha Conspiracy is a layered exploration of the emotional and cultural conflicts that exist between continental Africans and the Diaspora. It is an invasive, sometimes satirical, exploration of a collective unconscious. It is a fearless examination of self, the vaunted “African Mythos,” and the realities of contemporary African and African American society.

Beneath a Dark Sky is a touching memory play of African-American life in rural southeast Texas. Willamena has an enduring relationship with an otherwise ostracized grandfather, all the while struggling to come of age with a transient father of her own. Not so much a play in the traditional sense, “Beneath A Dark Sky” is storytelling in it’s most ancient and powerful form. We are invited into the world of Willamena Levy, where we share the events which shape her world and perceptions.

Davoe Sexton and Jayson Rabedeau patrol the notorious neighborhood on Chicago’s long-neglected south-east side. The area is known to locals as “Terror Town.” As veteran cops who “happen to be Black,” these men must navigate the streets, the policies of policing, and the deeply conflicted roles that they play in the lives of those that they are supposed to “serve and protect.” Set in 2016, these officers find themselves at ground zero when long-suppressed evidence surfaces (via the media) illuminating an officer involved shooting on the very streets that they patrol. Over the course of a single day Sexton and Rabedeau must confront the most corrosive questions that face African American officers… Are they Black? Are they Blue? Or are they a volatile mix of Black and Blue?

Chicago has been rocked by a terror attach. In a downtown subway an immigrant teenage boy (Omar) with a backpack has been recorded entering the train just moments before the attack. As the government scrambles to respond... everyone connected to that youth comes under suspicion. By Association follows Abdi, a first generation African American teen, who because of his relationship with Omar is now the subject of a federal manhunt. His parents, one from America and the other from Ethiopia, must decide what to do to protect their child. The unanswered question... Is he a terrorist, or simply guilty By ASSOCIATION?

Fascia is a blend of Yoruba belief systems grafted onto a contemporary African-American family. Fascia is the struggle to understand a singular moment in the life of an entire family. The baggage that makes the seemingly simple ....so damn complicated. We follow the story of cousins who though once inseparable, now find themselves distant and detached. The concept of time is folded in upon itself allowing four generations of the family to interact, and influence each other. In the end we a are left with a concept of family which stretches far beyond the western nuclear family to accommodate those whose once lived, and those who are yet to come.

The word FERAL has been tagged on buildings across the city. FX (Francis Xavier), is behind this politically motivated campaign. He is young, Black and full to bursting with ideas about himself and the world around him. On a warm night in late July, FX and the local police share a moment of violence. The city and country respond...but what about FX, his family, friends, and the complex ideas that he hoped to communicate? In the national conversation "Black Lives Matter," FERAL looks at youth, idealism, and desperation. It all starts with a word spray- painted on a wall.

Underneath a great wood and autumn tinged canopy, encased in the façade of red brick and creeping ivy, is the Atwood Military School for Boys. Two Black boys navigate the dangerous world of damaged spirits that haunt the hallways of a historic Wisconsin boarding school. Based upon events as experienced by Shepsu Aakhu, The Ghosts of Atwood promises to explore “toy soldiers” on the battleground of spiritual warfare.

The Glow of Reflected Light is loosely based upon the Canadian communities founded by William King, Hiram Wilson, and Josiah Henson. It is an exploration of the historical context which ushered such communities into being, and the myriad paths which brought about their inevitable decline. The Glow of Reflected Light provides some rare and enormously valuable glimpses into the interior lives of American slaves, freemen and women, fugitives, freedom fighters, and nation builders. This provocative drama has been exhaustively researched, sampling a wide variety of manuscripts and archival materials in the United States and Canada. The result is a story which resonates with the authentic voices of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. At it’s core The Glow of Reflected Light is an examination of the self, community, history, and progress.

Kiwi Black is a piercing take on class, the American work ethic, and the non-traditional family, as experienced by two complex and conflicted characters. With gritty realism, abstract humor, and blurred boundaries Joe and Lennox (father and son) serve up the challenges of their evolving relationship, and the tumult of their interior lives. Lennox as described by his father is "...trying to turn the corner on being a man". Joe as described by his son is "...willing to do anything to survive". Aspirations of a college education come into conflict with the realities of collection agencies and the daily hustle to make ends meet, leaving Joe and Lennox to navigate their relationship through uncharted territory.

Kiwi Black blends monologue, ensemble work, live music, and surrealist staging to explore the many faces of love and devotion that exist between a father and his son.

A magical landscape of myth, ritual, and folklore await in Shepsu Aakhu's Kosi Dasa. "Stories are passed from mouth to mouth, with the supple caress of secret words wrapped inside a full kiss." No Eyes and Diata are a young couple, flirting with love as they await their passage into adulthood. Their lives are changed forever as each must accept sacrifice in the name of community, family, and spiritual beliefs. Told using elements of traditional African storytelling, African and Indian Dance, Brazillian and Asian combat styles, and live musical accompaniment, Dasa examines the beliefs which bind one spirit to another, individuals to community, and community to its divine aspects.

The world was supposed to come to an end. For Alger, a man of deep faith (and his family), it did not. ...perhaps for them- that actually IS the apocalypse. There are covenants that bind people together- man and woman, pastor and flock, humanity and divinity. Never the Milk and Honey explores the fall-out when those covenants are broken. Can faith ever be rebuilt?

Otherworld Lovers takes us to the cultural landscape of the Cote d'Ivoire to trace the story of a newlywed couple plagued by a gentle, yet jealous spirit. The wife returns to the village of her ancestral roots in order to unlock the mystery of her infertility and the increasing visitations she has from an Otherworld Lover. Otherworld Lovers, a romantic drama, explores the themes of gender roles, traditional values, and religion in modern day west Africa.

Piece-Meal Clan centers around Desmond and the family of mostly unrelated individuals which has been pieced together for him, or by him to provide stability. Tensions arise when Desmond’s long absent father attempts to claim a place for himself inside the clan. We have an opportunity to view the internal dynamics of the clan, and the relationships that maintain it both as a social institution in African-American life, and as a volatile backdrop for a boy coming of age.

“At fifty years of age Shirley Carney began to write short stories. Her stories reflect the journey of a black woman nearing a half century of living. Ms. Carney's voice is distinctive and her characters capture the complexity of her varied experiences. She was born in rural Mississippi, transplanted to Chicago by her teens, served in the Navy during the Vietnam era, and became an unwed mother, all before her 21st birthday. Now living in Texas she continues to straddle the fence between urban sensibilities and rural practicality.”

Four years after this was written for Relevant Hearsay... Stories from 57, we once again visit the works of Shirley Carney. With Radical Hearsay… Stories at Sixty One, we rediscover just how blurry the boundary is between the purely fictional and profoundly personal.

Chicago, the summer of 1919, experience seven of the bloodiest days in America’s history with boiling heat, sweltering racial tensions, cold politics, a housing crisis, an immigrant crisis, and an employment crisis. What could possibly go wrong? Red Summer takes a look at the toxic stew that Chicago has been simmering for more than a century.

At fifty years of age Shirley Carney began to write short stories. Her stories reflect the journey of a black woman nearing a half century of living. Ms. Carney's voice is distinctive and her characters capture the complexity of her varied experiences. She was born in rural Mississippi, transplanted to Chicago by her teens, served in the Navy during the Vietnam era, and became an unwed mother, all before her 21st birthday. Now living in Texas she continues to straddle the fence between urban sensibilities and rural practicality. She says of her stories; Some are true. Some mostly true. Some "Dragnet". The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Relevant Hearsay... Stories from 57 is an adaptation culled from Ms. Carney's as yet unpublished body work. It is not so much a staging as it is a sharing of that which should be spoken, and that which needs to be heard. Episodic in nature Relevant Hearsay... is true to the tradition of storytelling; each of the stories presented is crafted as an examination of language and community.

Softly Blue examines the world of online dating and bodes the questions: How do two people ever find each other in the 21st century America, and when they do find each other how do they ever get to know each other? Or Can you trust the people that you invite into your life and can you trust your own judgment when it comes to finding companionship? In Softly Blue, we meet Dakota and Sloan, both desperate for companionship, and equally desperate to guard their own dark secrets. We witness the delicate truce that exists in managing what we want know and what we prefer to be illusion.

SOST is an Ethiopian story that concerns itself with the African mind and it’s struggles with the mythology and reality of America. SOST reflects the playwrights many years among Ethiopians immigrants. This play reflects the incredible subtlety between the spoken and unspoken. So much of what is communicated exists in what is “not” said, “not” acknowledged, and “not” shared. It is a culture that is both foreign and familiar… grounded in family, tradition, and an often unnerving preoccupation with being polite.

SOST concerns itself with three sisters who have found themselves in America for a variety of reasons. Each must forge new relationships in America and each other while reconciling with the reasons why they each have left their distant h

Culled from hours of interviews Speaking in Tongues: The Chronicles of Babel explores the oral histories of an extended family living in Chicago’s now demolished Washington Park housing project. Three generations come together to chronicle the complex story of their lives, the life of their building, and the impact of this uniquely American social experiment. Speaking in Tongues… is not a fictionalized account of the urban poor. Utilizing a documentary style of staging, this play endeavors to preserve the authentic voices of a population that is seldom allowed to speak for itself in the American conversation.

Young lovers from an intolerant small town reunite years later in a major city. Their difficult past must be reconciled with an even more difficult present. One of them is now transgender. Can love roll with the changes?

A new social contract has been negotiated in America. The reparations movement has led to separate and unequal city states across the country. The city state of South Chicago, ten square miles of real estate, is inhabited by two million “citizens.” There is a wall to protect the state. A wall patrolled by motherland security, and buffered by a one hundred yard kill zone known as the “Japanese Garden.”

It is in this world that we witness the new social order- a stratified community on both sides of the wall. Patriotism, fanaticism, and opportunism all run rampant in the streets. Roosevelt, a “trigga nigga” who patrols the “kill zone” at the border between North Chicago and South, is torn between the needs of his state, his family, and his own sense of self.

Ten Square is a richly drawn world - part social satire, part black comedy, and part historical fiction. It is not so much a world in the making, as it is a world already made… the seeds for a future America that have already been sown. In Ten Square we witness some of what America could be, and much of what America has become.

In a heart-wrenching and haunting drama with music, reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina, a city is lost, its residents floating across America--from sea to shining sea. Trouble the Water addresses questions of faith, family and the legacy of collective trauma.

Everybody has a plan, and Day is no exception. He has a plan for his baby brother Brian. Trouble is - Brian is off plan. He’s taking a break from school and picking up the family business, stripping the Roseland community to the bone. This decaying community is being pillaged by its own inhabitants, its politicians, and its few remaining businesses. As Day and his brother Brian work to find their place in a community that is literally being picked clean, they struggle to come to grips with whether they are hastening the process, or part of the restoration.

The relationship between a mother and her college- age daughter turns as the chronically ill daughter (Lizzie), demands to be released from the hospital against doctor’s orders and the wishes of her mother.

Chicago is in the news- practically everyday. For this father and teenage daughter, the typical ups and downs of their relationship exist with Chicago as a backdrop. It's just a simple morning drop off at school. But there is so much more going on for them.

What if you ran into an old flame 20 years after a difficult break-up? What if the spark was still there? What if you were both unavailable? What if that didn’t matter?