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On Thursday, March 9, New Stage Theatre presented an in-school performance of Oh, Freedom! The Story of the Underground Railroad at Simpson Central School in Pinola as part of the New Stage Theatre Arts-in-Education statewide touring program. Oh, Freedom! was presented for 255 5th – 8th graders at 1:30 p.m. This tour was sponsored by People’s Bank.
The greatest collaboration against racism in American history, before the Civil Rights Movement, was the Underground Railroad. People of all ethnic backgrounds, of both sexes, and from North and South came together to resist the oppression of slavery by helping escaped slaves make their way to free territory in the years before the Civil War. Oh Freedom! The Story of the Underground Railroad celebrates these alliances by combining the many stories with songs of the period. Famous participants like Harriet Tubman and Harriet Beecher Stowe are represented as well as lesser known heroes of the movement like John Rankin, whose house on a hill was a beacon for freedom; the mysterious “Peg Leg” Joe who moved among the plantations teaching slaves to escape and “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” a song designed to show them the way; and Henry “Box” Brown who had himself put in a box and mailed to freedom. The production will encourage student audience participation in the singing of traditional spiritual, “Oh, Freedom.” The story inspires all to work together for the good of all as it celebrates a time when Americans were at their courageous best, supporting one another—regardless of background, ethnicity or gender—in the cause to extend to all Americans our greatest, most inalienable right: freedom.
The performance was followed by an open discussion between the acting company and the students. The discussion explored the literature, the themes of the play, and the experience of acting.
Directed by Chris Roebuck, Resident Teaching Artists at New Stage, Oh, Freedom! was performed by New Stage’s Professional Acting Company members Jake Bell, Christan McLaurine, Hope Prybylski, and LaSharron Purvis.
New Stage Theatre is a professional not-for-profit theatre. New Stage Theatre’s Arts-in-Education tours are supported, in part, by Entergy, the Chisholm Foundation, and the Mississippi Arts Commission.
For further information call Education Director Kerri Sanders at (601) 948-3533 ext. 232 ksanders@newstagetheatre.com or Education Consultant Betty Wong at (601) 278-4669 or bwong@newstagetheatre.com.
