Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alums are in the cast and creative team of Lifeline Theatre‘s new production of Native Son, playwright Nambi E. Kelley’s adaptation of the landmark novel by Richard Wright.

The show is directed by Columbia College alum Ilesa Duncan ’99, Lifeline Theatre’s artistic director as well as executive/producing director of Pegasus Theatre.

The lead role of Bigger Thomas is played by former Columbia College Theatre Department Acting Program major Tamarus Harvell. Harvell’s understudy for Bigger Thomas is Columbia College alum Keith Surney ’13, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Acting. Also in the cast is Columbia College alum Mandy Walsh ’99, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Acting.

Columbia College alum Sheryl Williams ’20, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Musical Theatre with a Minor in Stage Combat, is the show’s fight/intimacy designer.

Set on Chicago’s South Side during the 1930s, the play follows 20-year-old Bigger Thomas struggling to realize his dreams in a world that has shut him out. After taking a job in a wealthy white man’s house, Bigger unwittingly unleashes a series of events that violently and irrevocably seal his fate. Native Son opens Monday, May 20, and runs through June 30 at Lifeline Theatre, located at 6912 N. Glenwood in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood. For tickets, click here.