[NEohioPAL] Award-winning local playwright looking to partner with a venue for an original black history month play to be produced on agreed dates in February.

[Mark Little via NEohioPAL]

Award-winning local playwright looking to partner with a venue for an
original black history month play to be produced on agreed dates in
February.  Playwright will cast and direct.

SYNOPSIS

 

THE HIGH ROAD

            The play is set in the parlor of a mansion on a cotton
plantation in Alabama in February of 1860, the year before the start of the
Civil War.  James Forsythe, age twenty-five, has just returned from studying
in the North after the sudden death of his mother.  When informed that his
father is dying and that he must take over the plantation, he forces a moral
dilemma.  He has come to believe that slavery is wrong and determines to
free his slaves.  When Benjamin, his chief slave, makes him realize that the
slaves are bound more by their lack of education than their chains, James
determines to bring in a teacher to educate the slaves before they are
freed.  He recruits a teacher, Eve, with whom he falls in love.  

James faces challenges by the other plantation owners who employ various
economic measures and finally resort to threats of violence to attempt to
ensure that James is not successful.  With the common sense, savvy and help
of Benjamin and the surprising wisdom of his "simple" Aunt Emily he is able
to sell his crop and free the slaves.

            The play contains much historically accurate information about
the Underground Railroad and pioneer African-Americans in the fields of law,
religion, medicine and politics before the Civil War.  The play also
provides insights into the economics of slavery and the interrelationships
of plantation owners, slaves and sharecroppers.  The play makes the point
that only through education can a person really be free to pursue his
dreams.  Any number of African-Americans can be utilized to sing spirituals
at the close of the first act and at intermission.  Any number of
African-Americans can participate in the slave house scene and any number of
African-American children can participate in the school scene.  

NO SET REQUIRED            

 CONTACT GREGORY J. LAVELLE AT lavellearb at aim.com or at (440) 724-4538. 

 

 

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