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IS YOU IS: A New Musical
by L.C. Bernadine, Erik Olsen & Nik Whitcomb 
Show Image by Dan Ryan
"Who's the teacher here and who gets taught?
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Chicago DCASE Studio Theater Residency, Winter 2023
"[IS YOU IS] excited me and made me feel vulnerable. Such an informative piece. I loved it." |
"Sometimes to restore can mean RE-STORY..."
An image from the Field Museum's infamous "Races of Mankind" exhibit.
On display for more than 30 years, the false racial science promoted in The Field Museum’s famous exhibit
“The Races of Mankind” shaped how race was understood by millions of people, not only visitors but schoolchildren “educated” via its widely circulated materials.
This is a musical about the ‘science education’ we all were given, and a history that we share. Featuring a jazz-meets-musical theatre score,
IS YOU IS follows two sets of characters in two different eras whose stories connect through their relationship to the exhibit, and through it, to each other as they struggle to triumph over ideas they’ve inherited and to reshape the institutions that shape their lives.
IS YOU IS illuminates the role that art, anthropology and an internationally recognized natural history museum played in promoting false racial science in the past, and the efforts of the Museum to come to terms with that past today.
“The Races of Mankind” shaped how race was understood by millions of people, not only visitors but schoolchildren “educated” via its widely circulated materials.
This is a musical about the ‘science education’ we all were given, and a history that we share. Featuring a jazz-meets-musical theatre score,
IS YOU IS follows two sets of characters in two different eras whose stories connect through their relationship to the exhibit, and through it, to each other as they struggle to triumph over ideas they’ve inherited and to reshape the institutions that shape their lives.
IS YOU IS illuminates the role that art, anthropology and an internationally recognized natural history museum played in promoting false racial science in the past, and the efforts of the Museum to come to terms with that past today.
DCASE Workshop Recordings
Workshops & Performances
Underscore Theatre - January 2020
Chicago Musical Theatre Festival (Staged Reading)
New Musicals, Inc (NMI) - July 2020
National Pitch Conference
The Dramatists Guild Institute for Dramatic Writing - January 2021
Plays in Progress Zoom Reading with Cheryl Coons
Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events - December 2023
Studio Theater Residency Pilot
presented in partnership with The Stillwell Institute for Contemporary Black Art
Bag&Baggage Productions - October 2024
A Workshop Concert Production in partnership with Broadway Rose Theatre Company
Commissioned by the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project
Chicago Musical Theatre Festival (Staged Reading)
New Musicals, Inc (NMI) - July 2020
National Pitch Conference
The Dramatists Guild Institute for Dramatic Writing - January 2021
Plays in Progress Zoom Reading with Cheryl Coons
Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events - December 2023
Studio Theater Residency Pilot
presented in partnership with The Stillwell Institute for Contemporary Black Art
Bag&Baggage Productions - October 2024
A Workshop Concert Production in partnership with Broadway Rose Theatre Company
Commissioned by the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project
Meet the Writing Team
L.C. Bernadine (Book & Lyrics) is a Chicago-based playwright whose most recent play was an adaptation of the legendary Western, THE VIRGINIAN, commissioned by City Lit Theatre. Other plays include REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS, developed with support from The New Coordinates Theater; and THE WHOLE SEAMUS THING, recently staged at Chicago’s new Bramble Theater. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild; co-founder of Broken Bell Reads; and a frequent judge for the Pegasus Theatre's Young Chicago Playwrights competition. L.C. began her research for
IS YOU IS in 2017 inspired by a connection to the Field Museum's restoration project and her own familial ties to the Chicago Public school system in the 1930's.
Erik Olsen (Music) is a Seattle based composer and pianist who has written hundreds of compositions spanning jazz, pop, rock and musical theater, and has collaborated on multiple projects with lyricist and playwright L.C. Bernadine. He performs with other jazz musicians in a variety of bands and Seattle venues. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin, and serves in his ‘day job’ as a professor at Seattle University.
Nik Whitcomb (Director & Book) is a lifelong theatre artist who has worked in various capacities with nonprofit arts institutions across the nation such as Oregon Children's Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Hennepin Theatre Trust, Goodman Theatre, Northlight Theatre, and Omaha Performing Arts among others. Nik has also worked on Broadway with producers, general managers, and other industry leaders as Program Director of the Black Theatre Coalition. Currently Nik is the Producing Artistic Director of Bag&Baggage Productions in Hillsboro, OR where he most recently directed and adapted Tartuffe by Moliere.
IS YOU IS in 2017 inspired by a connection to the Field Museum's restoration project and her own familial ties to the Chicago Public school system in the 1930's.
Erik Olsen (Music) is a Seattle based composer and pianist who has written hundreds of compositions spanning jazz, pop, rock and musical theater, and has collaborated on multiple projects with lyricist and playwright L.C. Bernadine. He performs with other jazz musicians in a variety of bands and Seattle venues. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin, and serves in his ‘day job’ as a professor at Seattle University.
Nik Whitcomb (Director & Book) is a lifelong theatre artist who has worked in various capacities with nonprofit arts institutions across the nation such as Oregon Children's Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Hennepin Theatre Trust, Goodman Theatre, Northlight Theatre, and Omaha Performing Arts among others. Nik has also worked on Broadway with producers, general managers, and other industry leaders as Program Director of the Black Theatre Coalition. Currently Nik is the Producing Artistic Director of Bag&Baggage Productions in Hillsboro, OR where he most recently directed and adapted Tartuffe by Moliere.