The ensemble of the 25-year-old Congo Square Theatre Company, one of Chicago’s most venerable and important Black theaters and a company the playwright August Wilson said should be supported in his memory, has told the Tribune it has “unanimously decided to not participate in any production, artistic curating and programming for the upcoming 2025 season until the current board president has been removed from the board.” The ensemble, though members declined to speak individually, said that it had made “several requests for neutral mediation with the entire board of directors, to no avail.” In the meantime, it said, its non-involvement would include “full productions, staged readings, auditions, courses, internships and artistic programming of any kind.” Named after the 19th century New Orleans gathering place for enslaved Africans and free people of color, Congo Square Theatre was co-founded in 1999 by Derrick Sanders and Reginald Nelson. It was the first theater to produce Lydia Diamond’s play “Stick Fly,” which moved to Broadway, and in 2004 it premiered a new play about police brutality titled “Deep Azure,” penned by Chadwick Boseman, then an unknown. Both Wilson and the actor Harry Lennix have sat on the theater company’s board of directors and Lennix has listed the company as the future resident company at the new theater complex he plans to build on Chicago’s South Side. The currently listed ensemble members are Tracey N. Bonner, Aimee K. Bryant, Daniel Bryant, Ronald Conner, Monifa Days, Aaron Todd Douglas, Ann Joseph-Douglas, Allen Gilmore, Anthony Irons, Javon Johnson, Bakesta King, Victor Musoni, TaRon Patton, Ericka Ratcliff, Alexis J. Roston, Kelvin Roston Jr., Derrick Sanders, Will Sims II and Malkia Stampley. Dawn Frances Reese is the current board chair. Ratcliff is now the former artistic director of the company following her resignation in October. Charlique C. Rolle, the former Congo Square executive director, also left the company at the end of February; the current interim executive director is Charles Montorio-Archer. “We respect the ensemble’s desire to professional pivot,” said Montorio-Archer in a phone interview. “This moment of transformation is not a departure from our mission but a natural extension of it. We’re embracing our opportunity to broaden our creative reach. We want to continue to work with the ensemble.” Montorio-Archer said the question of who will be board chair going forward is a board-level decision and that the board has engaged around the issue. Through a spokesperson, Reese declined to comment. “We’ve been doing this work together for 25 years,” Montorio-Archer said. “We are looking to expand what we do and we would like to be able to be do so with the ensemble, if they are willing to work with us.” Congo Square has yet to announce its 2025 season although ensemble members say that plans were underway. Every past Congo Square production has featured at least one ensemble member, who frequently have made up entire casts. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. [email protected]