Court-Martial at Fort Devens

Court-Martial at Fort Devens, a riveting new drama about U.S. military race relations during World War II by Victory Gardens ensemble playwright Jeffrey Sweet, will continue the theater's 2006/07 all-world premiere inaugural season in its beautiful new Biograph Theater mainstage, February 2-March 11, 2007.

Court-Martial at Fort Devens tells of a confrontation during WWII between privates who happened to be black women, a white colonel determined to keep them in their place, and the heroic black lawyer who took their case with a little help from Eleanor Roosevelt.   Big news in the black press at the time, Court-Martial at Fort Devens resurrects a moment in US history, which today is unfamiliar to most.

Court-Martial at Fort Devens is the twelfth production of Jeffrey Sweet's 25+ year association with Victory Gardens.  A long-running production of Porch started it all in 1979, followed over the years with highly regarded productions of Ties, The Value of Names, Flyovers, Bluff, The Action Against Sol Schumann, Immoral Imperatives and Berlin '45.   Scores of productions of these works have been performed around the country, in New York and around the world as well as on radio and TV.  Most recently, The Value Of Names was revived to widespread critical acclaim at New Jersey's George Street Playhouse featuring Jack Klugman opposite Dan Lauria, The Action Against Sol Schumann opened Minnesota Jewish Theatre's season, and With And Without was optioned for a production in London's West End featuring BBC star Catherine Tate.   Sweet's other works include the musicals What About Luv? (written with Susan Birkenhead and Howard Marren, based on a play by Murray Schisgal) and I Sent a Letter To My Love (written with Melissa Manchester, based on the novel by Bernice Rubens) and a play with music called American Enterprise.  Between them, his plays have won the Jefferson Award (and three Jefferson nominations), two American Theatre Critics Association playwriting awards (and several nominations), a "Best Plays" citation, the Outer Critics Circle Award and a Kennedy Center-American Express honor.  His book on Second City, Something Wonderful Right Away, and his books on playwriting, The Dramatist's Toolkit and Solving Your Script, are in wide use.  Sweet co-edited 11 editions of the Best Plays annual with the late Otis L. Guernsey Jr., and now sits on that book's editorial board.  He writes for publications including Dramatics, The Dramatist, and for a blog sponsored by Back Stage called Cues. He has also written hundreds of hours of television, including TV movies, episodic and pilots, winning a WGA Award and Emmy nomination along the way.  Sweet teaches at Chicago Dramatists, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and at the O'Neill Center.  He is a member of the Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble, and the Council of the Dramatists Guild's.  For more information, visit www.jeffreysweet.com.

Court-Martial at Fort Devens will be directed by Andrea J. Dymond.  Dymond is Literary Manager/Resident Director at Victory Gardens.  Her most recent credits include MPAACT's Panther Burn, Next Theatre's Helen and last season's Victory Gardens hit Chicago debut of Sonja Linden's I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given To Me By a Young Lady From Rwanda.  Dymond also directed Victory Gardens' premieres of Gloria Bond Clunie's Shoes (Best Director nomination, Black Theatre Alliance), Charles Smith's Free Man of Color (both productions received Jeff nominations for Best New Work. Free Man of Color earned the win), and Pearl Cleage's Bourbon at the Border.   She joined Victory Gardens as assistant to the artistic director in 2000, and was subsequently named TCG Artistic Fellow for two years. Before Victory Gardens, Dymond worked in Chicago theater for nearly 15 years, including company member for 10 years with American Blues Theater, where she started as Production Stage Manager and served a two-year stint as Co-Artistic Director.  She later worked for more than eight years with City Lit Theatre Company, where she adapted and directed numerous staged readings and four fully staged productions; was the administrator of the Black Collective of Theatre Artists for two years, and served six years as an Artistic Associate.  Her other directing credits include MPAACT's Notes from the Bottle Tree; musical workshop productions of St. Heaven for Stages 2003, and The Arresting Dilemma of Mister K for Stages 2004, both at Theatre Building Chicago; Sundown Names and Night-gone Things at Chicago Theatre Company; Triptych and Chameleon at Pegasus Players' Young Playwrights' Festival; Blind Faith for Acme Arts Society; Monsters II (in which she directed the world premiere of a short play by David Mamet) and Monsters III at American Blues Theater; Late Bus to Mecca for Onyx Theatre Company; Three Ways Home for Chicago Actors Ensemble; an adaptation of Alice Walker's novel Meridian; and a hit production of the adaptation of April Sinclair's novel, Coffee Will Make You Black, both for City Lit Theatre.  Dymond also served three years as President of the Board of Directors of Independent Feature Project/Midwest.  She is a screenwriter and essayist, and for two years, wrote a column about film and filmmaking for PerformInk, a Chicago arts and entertainment trade paper.  Dymond grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio and studied Political Science at Cleveland State University.

Following Court-Martial at Fort Devens, Victory Gardens' inaugural Biograph season continues with Douglas Post's Cynical Weathers, directed by Dennis Zacek (April 6-May 13), and Claudia Allen's new adaptation of I Sailed with Magellan, based on Stuart Dybek's short story collection, directed by Sandy Shinner (June 8-July 15). Three-play subscriptions start at $64.  Also, next spring, Victory Gardens will co-present with Gilyard Productions LLC Athol Fugard's My Children, My Africa, starring stage, TV and film actor Clarence Gilyard, directed by Victory Gardens founder Cecil O'Neal, May 3-June 10 at the Victory Gardens Greenhouse. Only subscribers can purchase tickets to My Children, My Africa at the special subscriber price of $20.   For information, call  (773) 871-3000 or visit www.victorygardens.org