ISHMAEL REED’S

the haunting of lin-manuel miranda

Presented by LOOKOUT LIVE

in collaboration with

NEXT EXIT PRODUCTIONS, CHATTANOOGA FESTIVALS OF BLACK ARTS & IDEAS, and SCENIC CITY SHAKESPEARE

CAST

AMIR ANDALIB / Lin-Manuel Miranda

ARCHE TWITTY / Agent

RODNEY STRONG / George Washington

ELIJAH BROOKS-DAVIS / Alexander Hamilton

MARVIN PARKS / Ben

ASHLEY NOEL / Negro Woman & Harriet Tubman

ANGEL ESTRADA / Native American

MIXY MIXON / Indentured Servant

MARCUS PRICE / Ron Chernow

TANESSA McRAE / Venus & Diana

CREW

KASHUN PARKS - Co-director (Next Exit Productions)

RIC MORRIS - Co-director (Chattanooga Festivals of Black Arts & Ideas)

RYAN LASKOWSKI - Technical Director (Scenic City Shakespeare)

COURTENAY CHOLOVICH - Producer (Lookout Live/Lookout Comedy)

MARVIN PARKS - Assistant Director

KARLEE MING - Stage Manager

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

Bringing this production to life has been an extraordinary journey—one fueled by collaboration, courage, and creativity. It’s rare to witness so many theatre companies come together in such unity, and I hope this show serves as a testament to the strength we hold when we choose partnership.

This piece gave us the opportunity to honor real-life individuals whose stories have often been overlooked. It was a privilege to work with both fresh faces and seasoned actors—each lending their voice to bring dignity, depth, and truth to these characters.

We also made a deliberate choice to reimagine traditional casting. In the spirit of works like Hamilton, we cast Black actors in roles historically portrayed as white—not to erase, but to reclaim space and spark new conversations. It’s a choice rooted in vision, purpose, and power.

Thank you for joining us.

—Kashun Parks, Co- Director

PRODUCER’S NOTE

I know how theatre happens. I don’t know WHY it happens.

There is absolutely no reason why it should. People should not spend hours of every day learning to say words that aren’t theirs to repeat ad nauseum in front of a live crowd. People should not take time out of their daily, hectic lives to conjure up costumes, sets, lights, sound cues, projections, and props to tell a story that could probably be summed up in about 30 seconds over the course of an hour and a half night after night (following countless nights of rehearsing that recounting over and over and over). There is no magic spell that forces actors to say the right lines or sing on pitch or that causes the lights to go up and down at the correct times. It’s very difficult to make all of those things happen. Like…stupid difficult. And then you do it, and then…it’s done. That’s it. Poof. Nothing to show for it but maybe some fun pictures and definitely some weird inside jokes.

Doing it makes no sense. None. At all.

And yet, here we are. Doing a play, and not ONLY a play, but a play that was written IN RESPONSE TO ANOTHER PLAY. That’s so…odd.

It’s also odd thinking of myself as this show’s “producer” when, in truth, it was a trajectory of events and a happenstance of incredible fortune/folx, mostly outside of my control, that ultimately led us here. Perhaps it can best be illustrated in a (truncated) timeline:

2017: I move to Chattanooga and start getting involved in the local theatre scene as an actor

2018: I start doing stand-up comedy at JJ’s Bohemia and meet Donnie Marsh, founder of Lookout Comedy; I also direct my first local show and meet Ric Morris through Chattanooga Theater Centre

2019: I meet Ryan Laskowski and Emma Collins of Scenic City Shakespeare and Kashun Parks, actress extraordinaire

2020: Some insane thing happens and I end up trapped in my apartment for a really long time, and during this time I discover Chattanooga-born author (and then some) Ishmael Reed via an online book club with some local comics and do some RIDICULOUSLY elaborate e-theatre with aforementioned SCS folx and also with Kashun through Muse of Fire

2021: I see HAMILTON for the first time, on Disney+. I think it’s okay. I continue digging into the works of Ishmael Reed…

2022: …including his play, THE HAUNTING OF LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA. Woah. I continue working with Ryan and Kashun on various productions and become a producer of the Lookout Comedy Festival.

2023: I meet Jason Tinney and Holly Morse-Ellington of Next Exit Productions, for whom Kashun would become Creative Director. Around this same time, I have a meeting with Fallon Clark of Noogavision. Her work inspires me to dig up HAUNTING and puts me to percolating.

2024: I’m part of the River City Company’s Emerging Producers program (for which Ric Morris was a mentor) for the Lookout Festival, leading to us incorporating as a 501(c)3 - Lookout Live. It is also then that I learn the Broadway tour of HAMILTON is coming to Chattanooga the following spring. I reach out to Ishmael Reed’s agent for rights and am granted them, free of charge. Mr. Reed himself gets in touch and tells me he is going to be named Chattanooga’s poet laureate emeritus that March. I run into Ric at the Emerging Producers finale event and ask his thoughts. He says, “It has to happen.” I have a phone call with James McKissic of Arts Build and Shane Morrow of RISE and ask their thoughts. They say, “It has to happen.”

And it does have to happen. But I can’t do it. No way. Noooooo. Way. No. Nope. No. I can’t.

But - because I have been lucky enough to meet and work with some of Chattanooga theatre’s finest - I know who can.

2025: The DREAM TEAM comes together - Ric, Kashun, and Ryan come on board as co-directors and technical director, respectively. Fallon Clark once again plays an instrumental role in jump-starting our collaborative juices. Ric suggests the auditorium at Howard High - where ISHMAEL REED’S MOTHER WENT TO SCHOOL Y’ALL - as our performance space. A fantastic cast is casted - pulled from local regulars on various stages to new-and-newish-comers from our collective circles. Kashun’s husband, Marvin, is taken with the work and becomes both assistant director AND actor. Grant support from Arts Build and The Unfoundation build up our budget. We manage to snag Karlee Ming as our stage manager (THANK GOODNESS). I get in touch with Carmen Davis, the city’s Director of Arts, Culture, and Creative Economy, who facilitates a cast and crew sit down with ISHMAEL REED HIMSELF at Howard. They block the movement. They learn the lines. We have meetings. We post posts. We do interviews. We put together all the things that make the thing. People (you!) ACTUALLY BUY TICKETS to this madness.

And here we are.

I still don’t know why it happens. I have no idea why all these wonderful people said “yes” to this absolutely insane idea from an upstart producer with a fledging nonprofit and a loud mouth and a propensity to overshare (see all of the above). I know at least, now, that I will never really know why, and that is part of the magic of it all - of theatre, of stories, of life. It isn’t about the answers; it’s about the conversation.

Thank you for being part of the conversation with us. Your voice, your presence - it could just be that you are the very thing that is holding this all together.

Courtenay Cholovich - Producer (Lookout Live)

This production was brought to life with support from