Passage Theatre Company is set to present Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj’s new musical play, Little Rock at the Mill Hill Playhouse in October.
Told in music and memory, Little Rock is the story of the nine black students who fought for integration at Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The story hurtles from present to past, tragedy to triumph. They never planned to be change agents, and they didn’t consider themselves heroes. They just wanted to go to school.
“I cannot imagine a better story to tell in Trenton. Trenton actually has a community member living amongst us who was one of the students from the original group who started out for school that first day in 1957. Delois Harris, wife of The Reverend Harris of Galilee Baptist Church, was pointed out to me my first season at Passage 18 years ago,” Passage’s artistic director June Ballinger said in a statement.
According to Ballinger, a New Jersey Supreme Court case—Hedgepeth and Williams vs. Board of Education, Trenton—played a role in the Little Rock Nine story.
“The 1944 N.J. Supreme Court case was brought to the court by two mothers, Gladys Hedgepeth and Berline Williams, who sued the Trenton Board of Education over racial discrimination against their children and won,” she said, “It was a precursor to the Brown vs. Brown decision that prohibited racial segregation of school systems throughout the United States. But Little Rock Arkansas in 1957, regardless of federal law, did not adhere.”
Maharaj is set to direct the production which features a cast of nine actors hailing from New York and New Jersey. He started Rebel Theater Company in 2003 in New York City, and is currently producing artistic director of the company.
Maharaj has made an imprint as a director of very diverse, social and political theater about American history. He has directed regionally, including George C. Wolfe’s A Colored Museum at New Jersey’s Crossroads Theater.
When asked why this story needs to be told now, director Rajendra Maharaj said in a statement, “I think that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And if you look at our country today, from Sanford, Florida to Ferguson, Missouri, the need for racial equality and tolerance is vital as it was during the Civil Rights Movement. Education is, and will always be, the key to opportunity, access, happiness, and freedom in the United States of America.”
The production is set to run Oct. 2 to 26. Performances are scheduled for 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; and 3 p.m. Sunday at Mill Hill Playhouse, 205 East Front St., Trenton.
Ticket prices range from $30 to $35. Student and senior rates are available.
More information is online at passagetheatre.org.
