2006 Fellows

CHERYL LYNN BRUCE
Inaugural Spring 2006 Fellow 

Cheryl Lynn Bruce's career as actor, director, and writer spans nearly 30 years. She has performed on regional stages across the country as well as in Europe, including: Lookingglass Theatre, Missouri Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe, Milwaukee Repertory, Kennedy Center, and Chicago Shakespeare.  She made her professional stage debut in Goodman's production of Death and the King's Horseman directed by its author, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka. 

Ms. Bruce created the role of Elizabeth Sandry for Steppenwolf's Tony-winning production of The Grapes of Wrath and toured with it to Broadway and the National Theatre in Britain.  Her performance as Ain't Baby in From the Mississippi Delta won her a coveted Helen Hayes Award, a Joseph Jefferson Award, and a Connecticut Critics' Circle Award. 

Project
In Spring 2006, as the ESB Institute's Inaugural Fellow, Ms. Bruce began a long-range investigation of the life, work, and times of African-born, American slave poet Phillis Wheatley, which will form the basis of the cross-discipline performance piece she will direct.


New Developments
Earlier this season Ms. Bruce has portrayed Aunt Ester in August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean and Loud Stone in Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice.  Directing assignments include a Bunraku-inspired presentation of Rythm Mastr, an urban comic by Kerry James Marshall, and Drip, the first installment in Gloria Bond Clunie's domestic trilogy, Cora.  Ms. Bruce’s newest script, Amazing Grace, commissioned and workshopped by Blair Thomas & Company, charts the life and conversion of John Newton, 18th century British slaver-turned-minister who penned the famous hymn.  In Winter 2009, Ms. Bruce recorded and co-created with Jane M. Saks and Leslie Thomas an audio collage based on first-person interviews with women rape survivors that accompanies the traveling photography exhibition Congo/Women Portraits of War: The Democratic Republic of Congo, co-produced by the ESB Institute and Art Works Projects.  A new member of Chicago-based Teatro Vista, Chicago’s premier Hispanic theatre company, Ms. Bruce also sits on Chicago Children’s Theatre's Artistic Council.

STEPHANIE SHONEKAN
Winter Faculty 2006 Fellow
Stephanie Shonekan is Assistant Director of the Cultural Studies Program and Faculty in the Department of Humanities, History and Social Sciences at Columbia College Chicago. Dr. Shonekan earned her BA and MA in Nigeria, and her PhD in Ethnomusicology from Indiana University–Bloomington. Her intertwined Nigerian and Trinidadian heritage inspires her research investigations into the literary, musical, and cultural parallels that exist between Africa and the African Diaspora.  Specifically, she researches and teaches classes on the Black Arts Movement in the U.S. and abroad, the Harlem Renaissance, contemporary African life, literature and music, and global hip-hop culture, among other topics.  Dr. Shonekan’s manuscript, Madam Butterfly: The Life of Camilla Williams Soprano, developed from her dissertation, is currently in the review process at press.

Project
The Institute fellowship supported the development of Dr. Shonekan’s screenplay/musical Lioness of Lisabi about the life of women’s rights activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, the mother of Nigerian afrobeat creator and artist, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

Dr. Shonekan and the Lioness of Lisabi crew and cast shot the film in Trinidad, West Indies in March 2008.  Trinidad was chosen as the ideal location because of the ease with which the team was able to recreate a West African marketplace there. The climate, terrain and the people comprise a setting that is strikingly similar to Western Nigeria. The shoot was intense and successful.  The entire team is grateful for the experience they gained working on such a unique project.

New Developments
Dr. Shonekan is continuing with fundraising to assist with post-production of Lioness of Lisabi, including film editing, sound and music.  The film is now in the end of the post-production stages with two sneak previews in June and December 2008 scheduled to raise funds for the final production needs. The film will then be submitted to festivals and other screening opportunities nationally and internationally.