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-showIncognito, 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.
