Freedom Summer: A Stage Play about the 1964 Mississippi Summer Project: Civil Rights Arts Project, #2

By Alan Marshall

In 1964, Wendy Whittaker, a white sophomore from Oberlin College, and Cynthia Moore, an African American junior at Swarthmore College join nearly 1,000 college students joined the Mississippi Summer Project to help African Americans secure their voting rights.

During the orientation session in Ohio, Wendy and Cynthia find themselves immediately having to defend their motives for joining Freedom Summer to the seasoned, and somewhat cynical, battle hardened veterans of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Once in Mississippi, Cynthia and Wendy struggle to find their place in the freedom movement as theywalk a tight rope between white hatred and black indifference. Their inability to reach those they have risked their lives to help causes them to lose confidence in themselves and in many of their fellow citizens.

Alan Marshall's Freedom Summer explores the tensions within the project and the challenges faced by the staff and volunteers as they adjusted to life in Mississippi during the long, hot summer of 1964.

Other Characters in this play include legendary civil rights activists Fanny Lou Hamer, Dorie Ladner, Hollis Watkins, James Forman, as well  composite fictional characters who are recurring figures withing the Civil Rights Arts Project series of dramatic works,

This interactive mass meeting performance features freedom songs, speeches, testimonies, and character-driven drama, all happening around the audience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: 3MB Publishing
• Release date: Aug 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393561705

Book preview

PRAISE FOR THE CIVIL RIGHTS ARTS PROJECT

Civil Rights Arts Project Montage for Ebook.png

https://www.civilrightsartsproject.com/

This unique performance is unlike anything else Urban Gateways offers, and has made a huge impression on Chicago area schools.

Tarah Ortiz Durnbaugh

Performance Programs Manager

Urban Gateways

This was a riveting performance that evoked emotions I hadn't felt for fifty years. Prelude to a Dream was true to the values we in SNCC held for our work.

Joyce Ladner

SNCC Legacy Project

We support projects like THE MARCH that reflect the spirit of 1960's civil rights movement.

Julian Bond, Vice President

SNCC Legacy Project

Actors were phenomenal...performance exceptional...songs inspiring and entire performance was thought provoking. 

Brenda Browder, Principal

Kellman Corporate Community Elementary School 

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Alan's script captured not only the story specific to 1963, but the dynamics of every struggle for human dignity and justice.

Reverend Julie Ryan 

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The cast [of Freedom Summer] was remarkably well-prepared and committed to presenting the story of the Mississippi Summer Project.

Lisa Anderson Todd, Author

For a Voice and the Vote: My Journey with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

A wonderfully rich experience that teaches, moves, and inspires an audience.

Doug Tanner, Founder and Senior Adviser

The Faith & Politics Institute

Prelude to a Dream was a wonderful event. There was a power in this performance. 

Willa J. Taylor

Director of Education and Community Engagement

Goodman Theatre

The performance was overwhelming...The Civil Rights Arts Project never fails to bring new insights and profound learnings out of those crucial days in our nation's history.

Pastor Mark Nilson

Evangelical Covenant Church

FREEDOM SUMMER

Freedom Summer.jpg

A play in three acts

by

Alan Marshall

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Scene

Miami, Ohio and Mississippi.

Time

1964.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

James Forman, Summer Project Organizer (SNCC)

Rita Schwerner, Summer Project Organizer (CORE)

Leila Patterson, Summer Project Organizer (SNCC)

Dorie Ladner, Summer Project Organizer (SNCC)

Fanny Lou Hamer, Summer Project Organizer (SNCC)

Hollis Watkins, Summer Project Organizer (SNCC)

Wendy Whittaker, Summer Project Volunteer

Cynthia Moore, Summer Project Volunteer

Henry Douglas, Justice Department Official

Kristoff Grander, Washington Chronicle Reporter

Mrs. Whittaker, Mother of Wendy (played by actor cast as Rita or Leila)

Mr. Moore, Father of Cynthia (played by actor cast as Forman or Hollis)

Mother Tatum, Church Mother (played by actor cast as Hamer)

ORGANIZATIONS

SNCC: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

CORE: Congress of Racial Equality

NAACP: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

ACT I

PROLOGUE  ~  Saying Goodbye

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SETTING:

Miami, Ohio. June 22, 1964. Volunteers for the Mississippi Summer Project are arriving for orientation in a courtyard outside the auditorium of Western Women’s College.

AT RISE:

A summer project volunteer is seated on a bench unpacking her guitar from its case. Wendy Whittaker, a summer volunteer, is being dropped off for the orientation by her mother.

(WENDY and MRS. WHITTAKER enter through ENTRY/EXIT #1. MRS. WHITTAKER hands Wendy a piece of paper.)

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MRS. WHITTAKER

(nervous)

Now, don’t lose this Wendy. It has your father’s telephone number at work, the Johnson’s number next door...and the beauty salon on Main Street.

(WENDY stops and turns to face MRS. WHITTAKER.)

WENDY

Thank you, Mother.

(MRS. WITTAKER pulls a blanket out of her bag.)

MRS. WHITTAKER

I thought you might want to take this with you. It’s the-

WENDY

(fondly)

-blanket I took on my first Girl Scout camping trip.

MRS. WHITTAKER

Yes...yes, it is. It kept you warm during those cool nights in Galena.

WENDY

Not sure we’ll have many cool nights down in Mississippi, but...thank you.

MRS. WHITTAKER

(pause)

(slightly nervous)

Wendy, I hope you know your father and I support