Philip Dawkins’ CHARM is a beguiling comic drama revolving around Mama Darleena, an African American trans woman in her 60s teaching an etiquette class to trans youth experiencing homelessness in a LGBTQI Chicago community center. Her students range in sexuality, race, and gender identity from a Latina trans woman, to a cisgender couple, to a member of a local gang, to a gay suburban teen. They fight each other and their instructor in equal measure, struggle through their daily battles with poverty, prejudice, and personal identity, seek solace in each other, succeed and fail separately and together. While loneliness, personal demons, and anti-social reactions dominate much of their lives, ultimately the rules of charm become rules for living. CHARM is a beautifully drawn portrait of pain, kindness, and an LGBTQI community.

Mixed Blood’s production will be directed by NNPN Producer in Residence Addie Gorlin, and feature a cast of trans and cisgender actors including Nathan Barlow, Julienne “Mizz June” Brown, Rehema Mertinez, Ryan Colbert, Jay Eisenberg, Jennifer Weweru, and others. It opens April 22 and performs Wednesdays-Sundays through May 8.