Black Women Directors, Makers, and Leaders on Brilliance, Glass Ceilings and What’s Next
Panelists
Jackie Taylor is the founder and CEO of Black Ensemble Theater, which she started in 1976 on Chicago’s South Side. Born and raised in Cabrini-Green, Taylor built BET out of refusal: frustrated by the stereotypical roles offered to Black actors, she created a company dedicated to telling the truth about Black life and culture through original musicals. Under her leadership, Black Ensemble has produced over 100 original works centering Black entertainers and has opened a permanent home in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. Taylor has received the League of Chicago Theatres Lifetime Achievement Award, Actors’ Equity’s Rosetta LeNoire Award, and was named one of the top 10 in the Arts among the Chicago Sun-Times’ 100 Most Powerful Women. As the theatre approaches its 50th year, she continues to shape what’s possible for the next generation of Black artists and audiences in Chicago.
Ericka Ratcliff is the Artistic Director of Congo Square Theatre Company and the first woman to hold that position in the company’s 22-year history. Originally from Baltimore, she first performed with Congo Square in 2006 in the world premiere of Lydia Diamond’s Stickfly and became an Ensemble member the same year. Before stepping into the top role, she served as Community Engagement and Education Associate, Literary Manager, Casting Director, and Associate Artistic Director. She also serves as Literary Manager at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Coordinating Producer for 100 Free Acts of Theater at Goodman Theatre. With her appointment alongside Executive Director Charlique C. Rolle, Congo Square became a space where women hold both top leadership positions for the first time in the company’s history.
Lili-Anne Brown is a director, actor, and educator whose work across Chicago’s theatres has earned her five Jeff Awards, two Helen Hayes Awards, two BTA Awards, and an African American Arts Alliance Award for excellence in directing. A South Side native and Northwestern University graduate, Brown co-founded Bailiwick Chicago and has directed world premieres at Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf, and theaters across the country. She is an inaugural recipient of the Walder Foundation’s Platform Award and a 2021 3Arts Award recipient. Her recent work includes directing The Color Purple at Drury Lane Theatre, bringing what the Sun-Times called “a who’s who of Black creatives” to the stage. Brown’s career is a study in what intentional Black curation looks like inside institutional spaces.
Nicole Brooks (she/they) is an actor, playwright, director, and Creative Producer at Lookingglass Theatre Company, where she has been an Ensemble Member since 2007. She also serves as Associate Artistic Director at Collaboraction Theatre and holds a Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence position at Lookingglass, where she is developing a series on Chicago mayors. Her original plays include Her Honor Jane Byrne, HeLa, Black Diamond: The Years the Locusts Have Eaten, and 1919. Brooks has received the Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, a TCG Fox Foundation Award, a 3Arts Award, and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. Her television credits include recurring roles on South Side (HBO Max), The Chi (Showtime), Chicago Fire (NBC), and Fargo (FX). Brooks works at the intersection of ensemble practice, Black women’s storytelling, and the city’s unfinished reckonings.
Miranda Gonzalez is a writer, director, producer, and facilitator, and the Producing Artistic Director of UrbanTheater Company in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. Born and raised in Chicago, she was a founding ensemble member of Teatro Luna and has been devising and developing original work since 2000. Gonzalez has spent two decades building theatre that centers Latina and Black communities through interdisciplinary projects blending theatre, music, dance, and oral history. She is a two-time 3Arts nominee, a recipient of the International Centre for Women Playwrights 50/50 Award, and was selected for Disney’s Live Entertainment 2024 Creative Intensive. In 2020 she recorded a TEDx talk, “The Fear of Decolonization.” Her play Mascogos, which traces the history of the Underground Railroad to Mexico, premiered with the Los Angeles Latino Theater Company’s Imaginistas program. Her most recent work, Back In The Day: an 80’s House Music Dancesical, world premiered at UTC as part of the Destinos Festival.
