Don't miss Serena Ebhardt in "The Parchman Hour" with Mike Wiley Productions' 2013 cARTwheels Tour sponsored by the North Carolina Arts Council. Serena also serves as Arts-In-Education director for the tour, providing workshops to teachers in order to help them prepare student audiences for viewing the production. Visit the study guide created by Serena for this production here...
http://www.mikewileyproductions.com/characters.html
- Jan 18th Elizabeth City, NC
Jan 19th Cary, NC
Jan 22nd Asheville, NC
March 8th Gates County, NC
March 11th Kinston, NC
March 12th Duplin County, NC
March 13th Duplin County, NC
March 14th Washington, NC
Mike Wiley Productions’ newest work commemorates the 50th anniversary of
the Freedom Riders. In 1961, the original 13 riders boarded a bus in
Washington, DC bound for New Orleans via Mississippi and Alabama. They
barely made it out of Alabama alive. Over the course of the next three
months, approximately 300 other riders took up the mantle and followed
the path of those first brave few. Mobs brutally assaulted many. Others
were arrested and, instead of posting bail, chose to serve sentences in
one of the most brutal prisons in the South, Parchman Farm, proving the
Freedom Riders and the movement to desegregate interstate travel would
not be deterred.
Presented in the style of the variety shows of yesteryear, this moving production explores three of the tensest months of 1961.
The Parchman Hour brings to the stage powerful oral histories and conversations from the Freedom Rides’ most iconic protagonists and antagonists.
“Did you know that at Parchman, to pass the time and to keep our spirits
up, we ‘invented’ a radio program? I don’t recall that we named it, but
‘The Parchman Hour’ would have been a good name. Each cell had to
contribute a short “act” (singing a song, telling a joke, reading from
the Bible -- the only book we were allowed) and in between acts we had
‘commercials’ for the products we lived with every day, like the prison
soap, the black-and-white striped skirts, the awful food, etc. We did
this every evening, as I recall; it gave us something to do during the
day, thinking up our cell’s act for the evening.” — Mimi Real, Freedom
Rider, 1961
Originally produced by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke
University and the Department of Dramatic Art at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, The Parchman Hour is a celebration of
bravery and a call to action through remembrance, leaving the audience
asking, “Who stood up for me? Moreover, for whom can I stand up for
today? Who needs my words, my song, my voice?”
Production is 90 minutes in length and appropriate for a mixed audience.
There is also a 50 minute student version for grades 6 and higher.
