In advance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the Bank of N.H. Stage will be presenting Warrior, formerly Warriors Don’t Cry, a modern story that incorporates the history of the 1957 integration of schools in Little Rock, Ark.
Warriors Don’t Cry was a one-woman play, created by the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts 10 years ago, dramatizing Melba Patillo Beals’s searing memoir of the battle to integrate Little Rock’s Central High as one of the Little Rock Nine.
Warriors looks at Melba’s journey through the lens of a contemporary young activist, Ya Girl.
Regan Sims, a New York City-based actress, stars. It is directed by Tamilla Woodard, written by Donnetta Lavinia Grays and produced by Ric Waldman of Hopkinton (who previously worked at the Capitol Center for the Arts before joining the Bushnell). Barbara Pasternack, TheatreWorksUSA artistic director, assisted in assembling the creative team.
Grays and Woodard “crafted a compelling play that connects Melba’s story to that of a young, contemporary social activist who is struggling to come to grips with issues in her own life – issues like gun violence, cyberbullying and, of course, racism. It’s still a one-woman show, but now it stretches across more than 60 years of injustice,” Waldman said.
Waldman said as executive producer, one of the first things he did was to speak with Melba, who is now 78 and still educating young people about social justice. She was supportive of the concept of contemporizing her story, Waldman said.
“We premiered Warriors at The Bushnell last week in performances for student and adult audiences, and we were all overwhelmed by the impact it had,” Waldman said. “Every show ends with a Q&A session with Regan Sims, the actress and a trained teaching artist. It’s never easy to get a room full of eighth-graders to open up, but this show stimulated wide-ranging and engaging conversations that went on until we ran out of time. Our adult audience was equally engaged, with many reflecting on their own experiences in the fight for social-justice.”
The show blends the past and present using video projection, including archival footage from Melba’s story and contemporary graphics to bring the modern world to the stage.
“The video really populates the world,” Woodard said in a video, “We have one actress who is playing many different people.”
“The impulse for video being a part of it came from the Bushnell. There was just a really lovely invitation to start thinking about how to use archival footage in a really active way,” Woodward added.
Using the projections has two drawbacks, Waldman said, artistic and technological.
For the artistic challenge: “To integrate archival and contemporary images into the show in a way that enhances the storytelling, rather than distracting from it,” he said. “Projections can sometimes feel gratuitous, serving as a sort of video wallpaper behind a show. When done right, as I hope audiences find we did, projections almost become part of the cast.”
For the technological challenge: Designing the projection to travel to different communities, about 60 in three months, Waldman said. The show will be performed on stages large and small, and other spaces, like school gyms. It also needs to be set up quickly by just four people who are touring with the system, including the actress and an understudy/teaching artist.
The play also uses original music, spoken word, poetry and prose to tell the story.
“My most meaningful input to the artistic process was to discourage the team from talking down to young audiences, something that I see in much of the theater produced for students,” Waldman said. “The artistic team embraced that approach, and the result, I think, is compelling to student and adult audiences alike.”
Sims will play Melba and Ya Girl, who inhabit the same body at the same time, Waldman explained.
“Regan is a trained mime, and her pure physicality really helps her distinguish between the two roles,” he said.
“Warriors,” presented as part 2019-20 Lincoln Financial Education Series, will have shows at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets for the morning show, the school performance, are $7. The evening show will be $25 for adults and $15 for students. Doors open an hour before each performance.
“Our hope is that this show stimulates similar conversation in every community in which it is presented,” Waldman said. “Sims, I think, is coming to recognize the impact her portrayal has on young audiences, and I know she will grow in her capacity as a role model for young people who want to make a difference in the world but don’t know how to proceed.”
“And most importantly, we hope that audiences come to understand that Melba’s struggle to integrate Central High is as vitally important today as it was in 1957, and that young people have always been on the front line of change.
For more information or to purchase tickets to the Friday performance, call 225-1111 or go online to banknhstage.com.