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<br /> Mike Wiley Productions'newest acclaimed work commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders. In 1961, the
<br /> original 13 Riders boarded a bus in Washington, DC bound for New Orleans via Mississippi and Alabama.They barely made it
<br /> "out of Alabama alive.Over the course of the next three months, approximately 300 other Riders took up the mantle and
<br /> followed the path of those first brave few. Mobs brutally assaulted many. Riders were arrested and, instead of posting bail,
<br /> chose to serve sentences in one of the most brutal prisons in the South, Parchman Farm, proving the Freedom Riders and the
<br /> movement to desegregate interstate travel would not be deterred. Utilizing the race rhetoric and the soulful freedom songs of
<br /> the 1960's, a 10-member ensemble casts new perspective into what became possibly the most tense three months of the
<br /> American Civil Rights Movement.The Parchman Hour is a celebration of bravery. It is a call to action through remembrance,
<br /> leaving the audience asking"Who stood up for me? Moreover, who can I stand up for today?"
<br /> •Two-act/90 min. for mixed audiences,50-min. student version for grades 5+.
<br /> BLOOD DONE SIGN MY NAME
<br /> "Daddy and Roger and 'em shot'em a nigger."Those incendiary words, spoken by ten-year-old Gerald Teel in the spring of
<br /> 1970 were merely a harbinger of the turmoil smoldering on Oxford, North Carolina's dark horizon. Henry"Dickie" Marrow, a 23.
<br /> year-old U.S.Army veteran whose wife was pregnant with their third daughter, had been beaten and shot to death by Robert
<br /> Teel, his son Larry, and Roger Oakley,Teel's stepson, for allegedly making a remark to Larry Teel's wife.The men were
<br /> acquitted of the crime by an all-white jury, despite testimony by two black eyewitnesses. Roger Oakley,Teel's stepson, actually
<br /> confessed to shooting the gun but was never indicted. But it was the Teels'acquittal for their hot-headed hate crime that
<br /> launched Oxford into a season of violent reprisals. Based on Tim Tyson's award winning memoir, Blood Done Sign My Name iE
<br /> meant to acknowledge America's painful racial history,"that our freedom and dignity, if we still have any, has been paid for in
<br /> blood, that we have a contract with our ancestors not to let their sacrifices be in vain" Features special guest musical artist in
<br /> full-length version. •Two-act/90 min. for mixed audiences plus 50-min.student version, grades 7+.
<br /> DAR HE:THE STORY OF EMMETT TILL
<br /> In 1955, a 14-year-old black Chicago youth traveled to the Mississippi Delta with country kinfolk and southern cooking on his
<br /> mind. He walked off the train and into a world he could never understand -- a world of thick color lines, of hard-held class
<br /> systems and unspeakable taboos.Young Emmett crossed that line and stepped into his gruesome fate by whistling at a white
<br /> woman.This riveting play chronicles the murder, trial and unbelievable confession of the men accused of Till's lynching.
<br /> •Two-act/90 min. for mixed audiences plus 50-min, student version, gr. 7+.
<br /> ONE NOBLE JOURNEY: A BOX MARKED FREEDOM
<br /> A true story of three slaves who overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to gain a life of freedom.Wiley becomes Henry
<br /> "Box" Brown, a black slave who sees no alternative but to mail himself to freedom in a small crate. Brown's life unfolds like a
<br /> Mark Twain adventure, perilous and somber at times while humorous and heroic throughout.Audience members join Wiley on
<br /> stage, quickly and quietly becoming characters helping propel the historic action. •Two-act/90 min. for mixed audiences plus
<br /> 50-min. student version for gr.3+.
<br /> BROWN VS. BOARD OF EDUCATION: OVER FIFTY YEARS LATER
<br /> In 1952, the Supreme Court heard a number of school-segregation cases, including Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,
<br /> Kansas. It ruled unanimously in 1954 that segregation was unconstitutional, overthrowing Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that had
<br /> set the "separate but equal" precedent.A tour de force that encapsulates the high impact ruling for desegregating schools.
<br /> •50 min;grades 7+, plus general audiences.
<br /> JACKIE ROBINSON:A GAME APART
<br /> A play that can intrigue, educate and set one's thirst for success on fire;a powerful lesson of couragE!through dedication and
<br /> leadership, of African-American athletes who pushed the color barrier to its break point. Meet role models from the outfield, the
<br /> backcourt, the track, the ring, the blacktop, the mud rising from the blood, sweat and tears of a bygone era of separate unequa
<br /> locker rooms, whites-only hotels and restaurants with only a back door through which colored athletes could enter.
<br /> •50 min.;grades 2+, plus general audiences.
<br /> TIRED SOULS:THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT
<br /> Over fifty years ago, a petite black woman, tired from a day's work, rested her weary bones on a segregated Alabama city bus.
<br /> Rosa Parks' refusal to relinquish her seat to a white man sparked a movement among Montgomery's black citizens that would
<br /> carry cries for equality around the world and subsequently resound in the halls of the Supreme Court.This play documents the
<br /> tales of Martin Luther King Jr.and nearly a dozen others of the hundreds of men and women who stood up to Jim Crow's
<br /> segregation, held tight to their bus money and walked for freedom for 381 days. •50 min.;grades 3+, plus general audiences.
<br /> All productions include post-show discussion Q&A;study guides available.
<br /> goingbarefoot 919.489.1541 08www.goingbarefoot.com •• • i
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