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Incognito at Milton |
| March 2007 |
Imagine
discovering you are not the person you thought you were. That you
have a family, a history, an ethnicity you never knew. How would
this discovery impact your life, the lives of those around you;
your vision of yourself and society?
Michael Fosberg strives to answer this question in his solo-show
Incognito, which he performed for Classes I and II in King
Theatre on March 28. Mr. Fosberg grew up just north of Chicago,
raised “white” by his mother and adoptive stepfather.
When he was 32 years old, he met his biological father and learned
that half of his heritage was African-American.
The show explores Mr. Fosberg’s feelings of joy, anger and
confusion as he attempts to reconcile his white, middle-class upbringing
with his newfound African-American legacy, which includes a distant
relation to abolitionist John Brown and a great-grandfather who
was an all-star pitcher in the Negro baseball leagues.
“Incognito is the story of my journey to uncover
and discover my self, my roots, my family, and the difficult history
behind the tragic American complexity of ‘race,’”
Mr. Fosberg explains on the show’s Web site. “However,
Incognito is not only about race. It speaks to all people
who struggle with identity, family, self-awareness and acceptance.”
Mr. Fosberg studied acting, directing and writing at the University
of Minnesota where he earned his BFA, and has since been involved
in several drama programs including Northwestern University’s
National High School Institute’s Theater Arts Program and
the Sundance Institute. He has directed and performed for theatre
and television for over 25 years, touring Incognito for
the last seven.

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