For Maurice Proffit, the arts were always an itch that he had to scratch. As a child, he wanted to be a cartoonist. As a teen, he wanted to enter the music industry, with aspirations of owning a record label and managing artists. Little did he know that his trajectory would be forever changed when his mother, Valerie Proffit, moved the family from Chicago to Schaumburg in 1981.
There wasn’t a big Black population in the northwest suburb at that time, so his mom would have to take Maurice and his older brother into Chicago to see any type of Black theater. With more Black residents coming to the suburbs by the mid-to-late ‘90s, Valerie Proffit was asking the question: How come there isn’t a Black arts presence in the Schaumburg area? By 1999, she founded Powerhouse Productions, a theater company that brought that missing piece of Black artistry to the Al Larson Prairie Center for the Arts in Schaumburg in the form of plays every February, in celebration of Black History Month.As a youth, his mom brought him into the theatrical fold to help fill whatever gaps needed to be filled for the annual productions — whether that was as an emcee, helping with ticket sales or stage management. With no formal training in theater, he wore all the hats, including directing, producing and writing (he wrote original plays for the Black history event in Schaumburg for 12 years). When his mom passed the Powerhouse Productions baton to him (she died in 2019), he folded its legacy into his Chicago-based B-Side Studios, an entertainment and media company that specializes in film, TV, podcasting and theater. The last play he directed was 2023’s “And Then There Was Hip Hop” to commemorate the 50th anniversary of hip hop.
Decades of the Proffit presence in the northwest suburbs continued in 2025 with the creation of the nonprofit Dreamscape Theatre. Their first work, a production of “School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play,” is scheduled for Feb. 27 at the Al Larson Prairie Center for the Arts.
“What sparked the birth of B-Side and Dreamscape is to give non-traditional artists an opportunity to be able to shine, an opportunity to be able to grow,” Proffit said. “The artists who didn’t necessarily go to art school, the people who knew they had it in them, but they didn’t have the traditional schooling for it. That’s what we’re all about — giving them opportunity.”
Dreamscape specializes in providing inclusive, accessible opportunities for non-traditional and emerging artists to express their creativity on stage because in doing so, Proffit says, “we can all grow together and go further together.”
Aspiring directors, actors and those with an idea, a spark, a vision of what they want to see on stage now have a platform in which Proffit will work with them to bring it to fruition. That includes teaching young people how to code and offering a safe space for young artists. He calls it “a platinum opportunity that aims to boost artists to the next level.”
That growth doesn’t just encompass theatrical performances, but includes educational workshops that move past entertainment and lean toward empowerment — whether you are a comedian (606 MANIA is a stand-up comedy event), hosting a podcast on mental health, or hosting a show on nerd and geek culture that airs on CAN TV. “We’re always producing something.b… we’re always busy,” Proffit said.
With 26 years of work on the Schaumburg stage and the majority of the projects centering the Black experience, Proffit is excited to add to the foundation and legacy of the Proffit name when it comes to the arts — regardless of the current presidential administration.
“We’re looking down the barrel right now of a threat on an everyday basis, when it comes to what’s happening with us personally, artistically, psychologically, emotionally, but you have to continue to be persistent, resilient,” Proffit said. “That’s what I exude when it comes to these productions. There’s a lot of fire around this, but it’s not going to stop us. We know we are sitting on our own truth, and our truth can never be defeated.
We ensure that you are going to get Black representation in the northwest suburbs when it was originally lacking, but now it’s embedded out there, and we’re absolutely proud of being able to continue that tradition.”
“School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play” is 7 p.m. Feb. 27 at the Al Larson Prairie Center for the Arts, 201 Schaumburg Court, Schaumburg; tickets from $25 at dreamscapetheatre.com/schoolgirls and prairiecenter.org
