Moments in Black American History

Press Quotes

AN AMERICAN JOURNEY

“The Daniel Bell incident twice was a major story in Milwaukee. In 1958, the 22-year-old black man was shot and killed while running from a pair of uniformed Milwaukee policemen. In the late 1970s, one of the former police officers came forward and admitted the shooting incident was not self-defense and that there was a cover-up that spread from the Milwaukee Police Department to the office of the district attorney. That disclosure launched a criminal trial and subsequent civil suit by the family of the slain man. The Bell incident forms the basis of a compelling and … engrossing play, AN AMERICAN JOURNEY.” —Variety

“Kermit Frazier’s and John Leicht’s AN AMERICAN JOURNEY is a piece of fine playwriting … the play is an effective and moving piece of drama.” —Jay Joslyn, Milwaukee Sentinel

“… authors Kermit Frazier and John Leicht [bring] forth a model of clarity and condensation that is all the more notable for its power to move us.” —Nels Nelson, Philadelphia Daily News

“AN AMERICAN JOURNEY, a provocative play that rings with awareness of American life as people are actually living it today.” —William B Collins, The Philadelphia Inquirer

“The play creates a haunting portrait of a transient country in which many characters, both black and white, seem unable to settle down in one place.” —Bruce Murphy, Milwaukee

“Playwrights Kermit Frazier (who is black) and John Leicht (who is white) have succeed in fashioning a powerhouse play … that is ingenious in structure (moving through time with cinematic grace), passionate in content …” —Charles Lee, WFLN

BLUEPRINTS TO FREEDOM: AN ODE TO BAYARD RUSTIN

“In Michael Benjamin Washington’s absorbing new play about an all-but-forgotten civil rights leader, one of the biggest moments in the fight for racial equality comes off despite ⁠—⁠ or perhaps because of ⁠—⁠ a crisis of faith. Faith, in fact, becomes a key motif coursing through BLUEPRINTS TO FREEDOM: An Ode to Bayard Rustin. There’s the faith that other African-American activists place in Rustin to organize the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, despite plenty of agonized mutual history. There’s the broader faith in the idea that such an action can make a difference, with discrimination and segregation still pervasive in America 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. And then there’s Rustin’s own deep Christian faith, shattered (by his count) 669 days before the play begins, when he was forced to quit the Southern Christian Leadership Council over worries about publicity concerning his private life. Rustin, a pillar of the civil-rights movement who died in 1987, was a gay man (more or less openly so) in a time when that was difficult even for someone not already facing bigotry. That aspect of his identity helps explain why his name has faded from our nation’s roll call of those who led the movement in the 1960s. The play … is an often lyrical, dialogue-rich piece of work whose political sweep and sense of building momentum is reminiscent of ALL THE WAY, Robert Schenkkan’s 2014 Tony Award-winner about President Johnson’s push to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 … [There is] humor, too. When Rustin’s bright young assistant, Miriam Caldwell, asks Rustin and his mentor, A Philip Randolph, why they speak so formally, Randolph replies that it’s a nod of respect to their ancestors. Rustin’s response: ‘I do it to confuse white people.’ (After a pause, he adds: ‘I speak this way aloud because I speak this way to God.’) Despite the triumphant notes around the march, which drew a quarter-million people, there’s a storm yet to come in BLUEPRINTS. There’s always another storm to come, as the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement can attest today. BLUEPRINTS bears witness that history matters, too.” ⁠—⁠James Hebert, The San Diego Union-Tribune

HIT THE WALL

“The words ‘I was there,’ intoned repeatedly by the characters in HIT THE WALL, give Ike Holter’s play about the 1969 Stonewall riots the self-consecrated holiness of solemn testimony. But the crucial refrain is: ‘The reports of what happened next are not exactly clear.’ Given the extent to which urban legend and documented research of the events have blurred together over the decades, any dramatic consideration of Stonewall must embrace the mythology. So Mr Holter’s impassioned evocation of the sparks that ignited the gay rights movement … are strongest when stylized interpretation eclipses conventional realism … Watching the characters strut through a liberating dance that erupts into chaos and violence when police lights pierce the smoky haze gives the sense of being caught up in that momentous clash … Among the most fully realized figures are Carson, a black drag queen as fearful as he is imperious; Peg, a ‘stone butch’ lesbian ostracized by her family; and the ‘Snap Queen Team’ of Tano and Mika, throwing shade at passers-by from their perch on a Christopher Street stoop. The play is deeply affecting at times, notably when Carson is bitterly rebuked during a rare foray outside in daylight to pay his respects at the funeral of Judy Garland. Or when Peg’s uptight sister insensitively suggests how much better off she would be if she could just ‘hold it in.’ … [We] feel the unendurable pain of self-denial … What’s perhaps more significant is that Mr Holter is working in a vernacular that speaks sincerely and directly to today’s gay youth. His freewheeling play invites them to honor the earlier generation that broke the chains of marginalization and invisibility.” ⁠—⁠David Rooney, The New York Times

MEXICAN DAY

“Water is a vivid metaphor in Los Angeles. We live in a desert beside an ocean, an existence of simultaneous want and plenitude. Another, lesser-known water source inspires The Ballad of Bimini Baths, a trio of plays by local playwright Tom Jacobson. Bimini was a popular swimming and spa complex at the site of hot springs one block east of Vermont Avenue between 1st and 2nd streets, operated from 1903 to 1951. Jacobson makes this the nexus of a wide-ranging tale that pulls together events in LA history, some of which occurred at the baths, others not. His theme is sins in need of being washed away⁠—⁠racism as well as other moral failings. The intriguing result is being staged by three small theaters, all running different plays ranging from 55 minutes to 1½ hours. The final play is an inspiring tale of people working together to try to redeem the past and re-chart the future … Bimini, like many places in the early 20th century, was racially exclusive. People of color were admitted just one day a month, the day before the pools were drained and cleaned.” ⁠—⁠Daryl H Miller, Los Angeles Times

“Only a playwright as daring and talented as Tom Jacobson could imagine and achieve a project as mind-blowing as his fascinating, informative Ballad of Bimini Baths trilogy. MEXICAN DAY is the most accessibly crowd-pleasing of the bunch.” ⁠—⁠Stage Scene LA

“Highly effective. This is a thought-provoking and powerful play … humor alternates with seriousness.” ⁠—⁠LA Splash

“Tom Jacobson’s insightful script intimately, intricately interweaves ethnicity, class, sexuality and more in his story depicting a landmark Civil Rights struggle in late 1940s Los Angeles.” ⁠—⁠Hollywood Progressive

MISSISSIPPI GODDAMN

“Some shows have warnings for strobe lights. Some have them for loud gunshots. Some for smoke. MISSISSIPPI GODDAMN, a new play by Jonathan Norton, should have one for intensity. Granted, anyone attending a play about civil rights pioneer Medgar Evers set in 1963 Jackson, Mississippi, should expect some strife. Blood in the battle for racial equality is no surprise, but friendly fire is. Playwright Norton sets expectations on edge by focusing on the fight from the living room of the black neighbors next door to the Evers’ home … playwright Norton’s novel take in an unflinching pressure cooker … Considering the intensity, can you handle it? Considering the history, how can you not? Playwright Norton takes this historical kernel and creates a world in which only [an] adolescent youth pursues [an] idealistic aim and she does it with reckless abandon. Everyone else has the more measured concerns that come with growing up and growing comfortable: family, job and property. Their position tempers their pursuit of racial equality, so much so that the people he is championing perceive Evers as a threat. On this score, the play transcends race and asks, ‘At what cost, comfort?’ To that end, playwright Norton turns the comfortable environ against itself. With people driving by and knocks on the door, front and back, the middle class palace becomes a prison … In a risky playwriting move, Norton moves the action four years back in time. As confusing as it is, some of the mystery of the first act is preserved by reserving the backstory ’til the second. Patterns emerge but by inverting the sequence, it comes off as discovery instead of predictability. Call it ‘The Prequel Effect’ … The tension mounts terrifyingly. There’s even some visceral combat … There are some changes, though. The Evers, Medgar and Myrlie, who we heard so much about in the first act, make their first appearance in the second … The other great change is that Robbie is young and impressionable. As thrilling as the events of the second act are, a close second is watching the effect they have in forming her attitudes. It becomes its own play. This historical thriller is an ensemble achievement of the first order with long sequences building tension in both acts, but without its emotional base it would be a roller coaster ride that was fun for as long as you rode it and nothing more. Be among the first to see it, because it’s going places. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.” —David Novinski, TheaterJones

PEOPLE WHERE THEY ARE

“In the spring of 1955, much of the Southern US was a simmering kettle of racial segregation, civil rights repression, and worker/workplace abuses ⁠—⁠ one that was on the verge of boiling over into a full scale struggle against those economic and civil rights injustices. With that time and atmosphere of conflict as a starting point, playwright Anthony Clarvoe has focused in on the rural Grundy County of 1955 Tennessee and the organization known then as the Highlander Folk School for his new play, PEOPLE WHERE THEY ARE … While the story of Highlander and its goals of educating and agitating for change may be an unfamiliar or misunderstood one among today’s audience, Clarvoe has succeeded with a superbly compelling narrative that reveals and explains. Most importantly, he draws important parallels between the racial and socioeconomic struggles of the 1950s and 60s and similar issues that face contemporary American society such as immigration, voter suppression, and LGBTQ rights. The storyline of PEOPLE WHERE THEY ARE is constructed around an educational session at the Highlander Folk School in the pre-Montgomery bus boycott days of 1955, involving four invited, outsider ‘students’ along with the group leader, Mrs Clark and a helper, Mr Carawan. [Note: Clark and Carawan are based on the real-life Septima Clark and musician Guy Carawan.] The visitors are May, a mountain housewife turned labor organizer; Emma, a Mexican-American suffering from ethnic and class abuse; Ned, a compromised white man from the Atlanta office of the CIO; and John, a northern black man who presents himself initially as the son of a minister. As their session moves into a second day, personal stories begin to flow and character complexities emerge allowing each actor to paint a portrayal that not only reveals their character, but ties in subject matter relevant to an audience in 2019 … While I rarely make such a direct and obvious recommendation, I am suggesting that all theatre-goers place PEOPLE WHERE THEY ARE on their must-go list … This is brilliant theatre.” ⁠—⁠Alan Sherrod, ArtsKnoxville

THURGOOD

“Stirring and absorbing. THURGOOD may actually feel like a sweet escape to happier times, every bit as cheering (and a whole lot more edifying) than the giddiest of Broadway musicals. As I left, I found myself misty eyed.” ⁠—⁠Charles Isherwood, The New York Times

“All bio dramas should be as vivid and entertaining as THURGOOD. A story rich in history, humanity and humor.” ⁠—⁠Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News

“A superb bravura performance! Compelling and engrossing.” ⁠—⁠Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

“Riveting and inspiring! This fine production does Thurgood Marshall supreme justice.” ⁠—⁠Roma Torre, NY1

“A don’t miss event! As riveting as anything ever seen on the stage.” ⁠—⁠Liz Smith, syndicated columnist

“The verdict on THURGOOD: Excellent!” ⁠—⁠Elysa Gardner, USA Today

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