Aaron Reese Boseman (Photo: Manuel Martinez/WBEZ)
Columbia College Chicago alum Aaron Reese Boseman ‘12, a graduate of the Columbia College Theatre Program’s Theatre Directing program, is featured in an interview published September 23, 2024, on WBEZ Chicago’s website. Headlined “For Pulse Theatre Company, the Art of Drama is a Family Affair,” the article focuses on Boseman’s journey as a theatre director – a path that led him to Columbia College as a student and then as a faculty member.
Boseman is the director of Beneath the Willow Tree, a new drama by Isis Elizabeth that follows three generations of Black women in a Louisiana bayou. The world premiere September 29 at the Den Theatre, located at 1331 N. Milwaukee in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Student discounts are available. For tickets, click here.
As previously reported in this blog, the show is produced by Pulse Theatre Chicago, a company founded in 2014 by Boseman and his fellow Columbia College Theatre alum Chris Jackson ’14, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BFA Program in Musical Theatre Performance. The show’s production team under Boseman’s direction includes Columbia College alum Kevin Rolfs ’17, a graduate of the Theatre Program’s BA Program in Theatre Design, and Columbia College Theatre Program faculty member Susan Gosdick. Rolfs and Gosdick are the show’s scenic designer and dialect coach respectively.
The WBEZ article notes that small, nonprofit storefront theatres like Pulse face continual challenges. “Audiences may never grasp how thin the margins are to keep the company going. But for Boseman, . . . the constant grind is worth it to build a Black-founded, Black-run non-equity theatre company that stages shows that challenge the conventions of American theatre,” the article says. To read the full article, click here.
(L-R): Aaron Reese Boseman, Isis Elizabeth, Dawn Renee Jones, and Michael Pogue at Black Theatre Day panel discussion Sept. 17, 2024, at the Columbia College Getz Theatre Center.
Boseman, a native Chicagoan, is the nephew of the late actor Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), whose financial support helped launch Pulse Theatre Chicago. Boseman and Elizabeth recently participated in a Black Theatre Day event at the historic Getz Theatre Center of Columbia College – a September 17 panel discussion at which Columbia College Theatre students heard Boseman and other Columbia faculty and alumni discuss their artistic journeys as Black theatre artists.
