In a small auditorium at the Greenhouse Theater in Lincoln Park, a wooden house dominates the stage. On one side, two rocking chairs are separated by a table with a pile of books. To the right sits a large plush armchair. The floorboards creak just as an old wooden framed house might. Overhead, acoustic music plays under dim lights. Audience members chat with their neighbors and leaf through the program just as the lights begin to further dim.

On stage, two women enter– RjW Mays, who plays the 111 year old Mama Bea, and Monette McLin, who plays Mama Bea’s niece Theresa Slater. The two characters are preparing for the arrival of a news reporter named Loren. A minute after, the doorbell rings and in walks the reporter, her purple sweater brightly contrasting with her black outfit. The reporter seems anxious to finish her interview with Mama Bea, yet her face looks familiar as she faces the audience. While the rest of the audience only knows her as Loren, here at Parker she is known as Emily Radke, a teacher in the Parker PM program.

The 2016 play “Leavings” which opened October 21 and closes November 20 follows the last days in the life of Mama Bea, an African American woman who lives on the South Side of Chicago, as she tries to unite with Governor Skinner, the white governor of Mississippi.

As it turns out, Mama Bea and Governor Skinner are both descendents of a 19th century slave owner. The family has since been haunted by spirits, and Mama Bea would like to reconcile with her past before she dies. Radke’s Loren meets Mama Bea for a story about her 111th birthday.  

“Leavings” is far from Radke’s first experience in the theater world. “I actually remember being three years old and figuring out that the people on TV weren’t actually those people,” Radke said. “I remember thinking that was so cool and that was something I wanted to do.” Since then, Radke has been pursuing a career in theater.

For Radke, this is one of the most important pieces she’s worked on. “Usually the theater I do is not so topical and not so charged with what’s happening now in the country,” Radke said.  “When I first saw the posting for it I got really excited because it’s an opportunity to tell a story about all Americans’ lives. It’s not my story, but rather it’s the story of African Americans in this country.”

Much of “Leavings” explores what life is like for characters who know of their ties to both white and black communities. Governor Skinner learns that his connection to Mama Bea is through his slave owning great-grandfather, who raped Mama Bea’s mother. Skinner finds their reconciliation difficult.

Even though the play is about fictional characters, this racial reconciliation between two sides of a family is based on a true story. Chicago playwright Gail Parrish, who wrote “Leavings,” based the play off of her own family. “These are actual people in her family who were the children of her ancestor, who was a slave, and a slave holder,” Radke said. “In the show we have props that are slave schedules and tallies, and they are her actual slave schedules that she found with her actual family.”

For Radke, having “Leavings” based so closely on Parrish’s family meant she could dive into the story more than some of the other plays she has worked on. “Going into it was fascinating,” Radke said, “because already you have this whole bed that you can draw from real people.”

Even at Parker, Radke is able to explore theater in the Parker PM program. “We often put on plays,” Head of the Parker PM program, Stacie Newmark said. “So she does certainly help with character development and story lines and things like that.”

In the Parker Plus program, students in grades first through fifth can take a variety of after-school classes with Radke. Currently she is teaching a Parker Plus class on music videos, and in the next session will be leading a class on drama games and making props.

It’s not uncommon to see Newmark incorporating theater with Radke into the Parker PM program. “I often have actors working in Parker PM because it’s a nice combination of both skill, and because being an actor is often very much a part of working in front of kinds and being comfortable doing that,” Newmark said. “Her confidence and being comfortable with families all portray and work very well in Parker PM.”