On Mother’s Day in 1961, two busloads of Freedom Riders on a mission to oppose racial segregation in the Deep South were brutally beaten by mobs in Alabama. One of the buses was firebombed.
Thomas Kee, a BSU associate professor of theater, is helping bring to life the story of those chilling incidents and the passions of the larger 1960’s Civil Rights movement as co-director of a new play that will have its debut performance on campus Sept.14
Based on Mr. Kee’s interviews with two surviving Freedom Riders, “The Summer I Disappeared” portrays a group of civil rights activists, poets, and musicians who hear the news of the violence in Alabama while at a party and wrestle with how to respond to it.
“I’m thrilled about it,” said Professor Kee, a veteran actor, director, and playwright. “It’s such a great opportunity to tell such an important story.”
A production of The Heretic Club – a New York theater company that Mr. Kee co-founded – and the Ophelia Theatre Group, the play features a diverse cast of actors from New York.
BSU is hosting the kick-off performance as a result of a Promoting Diversity grant from the university obtained through the efforts of that Dr. Suzanne M. Ramczyk, a BSU professor of theater. After BSU, the play will be performed in Boston, Cambridge, and New York.
The piece is presented as “immersive theater,” an emerging style of drama in which audience members inhabit the same space as the characters and can even interact with them. Those attending will be considered among the “guests” at the 1961 party, and encouraged to dress in the style of that time.
Professor Kee said he hopes the play inspires audience members to reflect on how ordinary people more than a half century ago rose to meet the challenge of promoting desegregation.
“This piece is about understanding these moments of history when people take this leap of enormous courage to try to change something in this country and step up for social justice,” he said.
The BSU performance of the play will be presented at 8:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers of the Rondileau Campus Center. Because of limited seating, those interested in attending are asked to RSVP at Misinformation@TheHereticClub.com.