We strive to tell the American story through the resources given to us. We are dedicated to folk theatre, music, and stories that shine a new light on today%u2019s American pop culture.
%u200BAfter working together on children%u2019s musical theatre on the Chicago Southside, collaborators Anthony Whitaker and Jamal Howard decided it was time to bring their efforts to a wider audience. In the fall of 2011, Anthony Whitaker and Jamal Howard founded the New American Folk Theatre (NAFT). The company began with a staged reading of an original adaptation of Oscar Wilde%u2019s Salome, called Salome Goes All the Way! in November 2011. With music as a mainstay and focus of the company, NAFT produced a singer/songwriter series in the summer of 2012, Sweet Tea and Me, which featured Shelley Miller and The Fruit Flies among other local Chicago artists.
%uFEFF
In October of 2012 NAFT produced two original one act musicals, Two from the Trailer Court: Dirty Girl and Salome Goes All the Way!, written by Anthony Whitaker. These world premiere musicals opened NAFT%u2019s first season and marked the company%u2019s first full production. NAFT put together a benefit Christmas concert, Christmas by the Fake Fireside, in December 2012 modeled after Judy Garland%u2019s Christmas special.
NAFT will continue its first season with an original musical, The Marvelous Land of Oz. Written by Anthony Whitaker and based on the second book in the famed Oz series, NAFT will follow the continuing adventures of The Scarecrow and The Tinman in Oz.
