Wiggerlover [white boy+black dad=grey areas] April 20, 2012

It’s the totally too-good-to-be-true story of one boy’s life in an interracial family in Chicagoland, 1979: part memoir, part editorial, all comedy. Actor/author James Anthony Zoccoli [JAZ] gives a retrospective account of his life growing up as Little Jimmy: a half-Italian, half-Polish kid who wants to be all Black when his White mother gets remarried to an African-American man. Hilarity ensues!

Then, after devoting his youth to crossing racial boundaries and trying to overcome the cultural divide in his personal life, he encounters the irony of all ironies in his adult professional life: having to play a racist character in a major motion picture. More hilarity ensues!

With the election of our first African-American president and the surprising (or revelatory) backlash, the United States has begun a whole new phase of growing pains in its relatively short history. WIGGERLOVER [white boy+black dad=grey areas] is a creative experiment aimed at proving that laughter is the best medicine…even when it comes to social ills.

The one-man show is accompanied by a live deejay and includes family pictures along with other visual aids. The result is a three-dimensional illustration of the point that investigating our identity as people and as a nation can actually be a little bit fun if you take the time to think about it from another perspective. A post-show discussion is conducted after every performance to allow the audience a chance to ask their questions and, more importantly, tell their own stories and share their perspectives too.

For more information including a video preview, visit www.jamesanthonyzoccoli.com.

April 20-21, April 27-28 and May 4-5; all shows at 8:30 p.m.
Raven Theatre’s West Stage, 6157 N. Clark
Tickets are $20 ($15 for Students, Seniors & Raven Subscribers)

Official Website: http://www.raventheatre.com