CHICAGO -- Goodman Theatre will end its 1997-98 Studio Series with OyamO's drama Let Me Live, which was hailed by the New York Times as "an impassioned new work."

The truth-based play, which opens April 20 and is co-produced with Onyx Theatre Ensemble (an up-and-coming North Side black theater), tells how a young political activist trapped in a 1932 Georgia prison discovers that his world of brute intimidation distills the essence of the African American experience in this century.

Onyx artistic director Ron O.J. Parson directs Goodman's second production of a play by OyamO (his I Am A Man played the Mainstage in 1994).

OyamO's plays have been presented at such theatres as Yale Rep, Arena Stage, and New York's Public Theatre. He is an associate professor of theatre at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Let Me Live runs through May 10. For information, call (312) 443-4940. -- By Lawrence Bommer
Chicago Correspondent
and Robert Simonson