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(See the Presenter's Tools Page for downloadable information, schedule, and pictures of the following performances)
IN CELEBRATION OF THE 200TH BIRTHDAY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN (February 12, 2009)
Mr. Lincoln’s Office:
A visit with the President
In this timely 50 minute one man performance the audience is asked to go back in time to November, 1863- five short months after the bloody battle of Gettysburg- and meet with President Lincoln in his office in the White House. Portrayed by veteran actor, Peter Holland, with the aid of startlingly realistic make-up designed Michael Meyer, Abraham Lincoln comes vividly to life. He shares with the audience the story of his boyhood, his fight against slavery, the fiery trial of civil war, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the creation of the Gettysburg Address. Throughout the visit President Lincoln relates many of his humorous stories as a relief from the tragedy of war. Audiences from fourth graders to older adults will enjoy this dynamic and historically significant production.
One Noble Journey: A Box Marked Freedom
One Noble Journey is a wonderful one-man play. It is based on the miraculous true lives of three slaves who overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to gain a life free of Southern Shackles. Gripping from start to finish, Wiley becomes Henry "Box" Brown a black slave who sees no alternative but to mail himself in a small crate to freedom. Brown's life unfolds like a Mark Twain adventure, perilous and somber at times while humorous and heroic throughout. Willing students and adults join Wiley on stage quickly and quietly becoming characters propelling the historic action.
Full Length Mixed Audience, Plus Abbreviated Student Version Offered for Grades 3rd+
Brown Vs Board of Education: Over Fifty Years Later
In 1952, the Supreme Court heard a number of school-segregation cases, including Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. It decided unanimously in 1954 that segregation was unconstitutional, overthrowing the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that had set the "separate but equal" precedent. Whether in the classroom, a black history celebration, or as part of a civil rights forum, this entertaining and explaining tour de force encapsulates the high impact ruling for desegregating schools.
Full Length Mixed Audience, Plus Offered for Grades 6th+
Jackie Robinson: A Game Apart
Jackie Robinson: A Game Apart is a powerful lesson of courage through dedication and leadership. African American athletes who pushed the color barrier to its break point. Take an hour to give an ear to the ghost of a bygone era of separate unequal locker rooms, of whites only hotels, and restaurants with only a back door for colored athletes to enter. Role models of the outfield, the backcourt, the track, the ring the blacktop, the mud, the blood the sweat and the years. Allow this play to intrigue you, educate you and set your thirst for success on fire.
Full Length Mixed Audience, Plus Offered for Grades 3rd+
Dar He: The Story of Emmett Till
In 1955 a 14 year old black Chicago youth traveled to the Mississippi Delta with country kinfolk and good southern meals on his mind. He walked off the train and into a world he could never understand. A world of thick color lines, of hard held class systems and unspeakable taboos. Young Emmett crossed the line and stepped into his gruesome fate by whistling at a white woman. This play chronicles the murder, trial and unbelievable confession of the men accused of Till's lynching.
Full Length Mixed Audience, Plus Abbreviated Student Version Offered for Grades 8th+
Tired Souls: The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Fifty years ago a petite black woman tired from a days work rested her weary bones on a segregated Alabama city bus. Rosa Parks refusal to relinquish her seat to a white man sparked a movement among Montgomery's black citizens that would carry their cries for equality around the world and subsequently resound in the halls of the Supreme Court. This play documents the tales of Martin Luther King Jr. and nearly a dozen of the hundreds of men and women who stood up to Jim Crow's segregation, held tight to their bus money and walked for freedom for 381 days.
Full Length Mixed Audience, Plus Offered for Grades 3rd+
Life Is So Good
103-year-old George Dawson, a slave's grandson who learned to read at age 98, reflects on his life and offers valuable lessons in living as well as a fresh, firsthand view of America during the twentieth century. His unlikely friend Richard Glaubman, an elementary school teacher, captures Dawson's irresistible voice and view of the world, offering insights into humanity, history, hardships, and happiness. From segregation and civil rights, to the wars, presidents, and defining moments in history, George Dawson's description and assessment of the last century inspires with the message that-- through it all-- has sustained him: "Life is so good. I do believe it's getting better."
Full Length Mixed Audience, Plus Abbreviated Student Version Offered for Grades 6th+
Blood Done Sign My Name
“Daddy and Roger and ’em shot ’em a nigger.” Those incendiary words, spoken by ten-year-old Gerald Teel in the spring of 1970 were merely a harbinger of the turmoil smoldering on Oxford, North Carolina’s dark horizon. Henry “Dickie” Marrow, a 23-year-old U.S. Army veteran whose wife was pregnant with their third daughter, had been beaten down and shot to death in the street by Robert Teel, his 18-year-old son Larry, and Roger Oakley, Teel’s 21-year-old stepson for allegedly making a remark to Larry Teel’s wife. The men were acquitted of the crime by an all-white jury, despite testimony by two black eyewitnesses. Roger Oakley, Teel’s stepson, actually confessed to shooting the gun but was never indicted. But it was the Teels’ acquittal for their hot-headed hate crime that launched Oxford into a season of violent reprisals. Based on Tim Tyson’s award winning memoir, much like song Blood Done Sign My Name, is meant to acknowledge America’s painful racial history, “that our freedom and dignity, if we still have any, has been paid for in blood, that we have a contract with our ancestors not to let their sacrifices be in vain.”
Full Length Mixed Audience, Plus Abbreviated Student Version Offered for Grades 8th+
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