THEATER : Central High backdrop for One Ninth
Posted on Sunday, January 4, 2009
One Ninth will have its premiere on the fifth.
Spirit Trickey-Rowan's new one-act play is the story of her mother, Minnijean Brown Trickey, one of the nine students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957.
"It's my mother's story, from the perspective of a 15- or 16-year-old, a regular teenager," Trickey-Rowan says.
The Arkansas Repertory Theatre will stage one performance for the general public at 7 p.m. Monday at Wildwood Park for the Arts, 20919 Denny Road, Little Rock. Admission is free.
Then it heads out on the road for a series of "artistic residencies" that will include performances of the play and workshops for students in 10 Arkansas communities this month and February.
The Rep describes the play as "an insider's look at the 1957 desegregation crisis and race relations" that "incorporates the sounds and styles of the 1950s."
Crystal C. Mercer plays Minnijean, with Nisheedah Devre Golden as Mrs. Brown, Minnijean's mother, and Helen Michelle Daniel as Melba, Minnijean's best friend. Jeremy Matthey, Melody Taylor and Jason Thompson round out the touring cast.
Morgan Christina Brown, a student at Baker Interdistrict Elementary School in western Pulaski County, will play Phyllis, Minnijean's 9-year-old sister, for the Little Rock opening night and performances Tuesday through Thursday at North Pulaski High School in Jacksonville.
For the Little Rock performance, nine students from Parkview Arts/ Science Magnet High School - LeVelle Bell, Samantha Butler, Rashida Herndon, Shaye Hurst, Stephen Jones, Breanna Lanigan, Seth Martin, Brendan Ripa and Deonte Watson - will fill nine chorus parts.
At each of the 10 tour stops, local students will play Phyllis and fill those chorus parts.
Trickey-Rowan initially submitted her first script to the Rep's 2007 Voices at the River play development program for emerging black and Hispanic playwrights.
"[Putting it onstage] was not the original intention," she says. "We had a reading at the Rep, which I thought would be the end of it."
Instead, Bob Hupp, the Rep's producing artistic director, suggested to her that it might make a good show for the theater's educational outreach program.
Hupp; playwright Sybil Roberts Williams, who served as dramaturg; and director Xiaoqing Hu have helped her get the show into stage shape, including enhancing the characters.
As the play tours, the sixmember cast will take part in community conversations about the play, the 1957 desegregation crisis and the play's themes.
The tour venues:
Friday-Saturday: Southside High School, Fort Smith
Jan. 12-13: Clarksville High School, Clarksville
Jan. 15-17: Dumas High School, Dumas
Jan. 19-21: IBM Theatre, Mc-Gehee
Jan. 22-24: Hope High School, Hope
Jan. 26-28: Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, Pine Bluff
Jan. 29-31: Osceola High School, Osceola, under the auspices of the Arts Council of Mississippi County
Feb. 2-4: Arkansas State University, Newport
Feb. 5-7: The Ritz Civic Center, Blytheville
Feb. 9-11: Little Rock Central High School
Trickey-Rowan, who has at times been an unofficial spokesman for the Little Rock Nine, still works as a park ranger at the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site while working on her master's degree at the Clinton School of Public Service.
This is her first play, although she has created an independent documentary film called Mixed Messages about the experiences of people with black and white heritages.
She says she has no idea what might become of her work after the tour is over.
"I'm still just fascinated with the life it has taken on to this point," she says. "After it's over we'll look at the options on where to go from here."
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