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HARRIET TUBMAN Take My Hand and Follow Me A Large Cast Musical Play for Young Performers and Young Audiences By Kathryn Schultz Miller ArtReach Children’s Theatre Plays 4047 Pro Am Ave. East Bradenton, FL 34203 Phone: 941-753-3222 Fax: 941-753-5407 www.ChildrensTheatrePlays.com © Copyright 2020, Kathryn Schultz Miller 1 HARRIET TUBMAN Take My Hand and Follow Me A Large Cast Play For Young Performers and Young Audiences Soundtrack: A soundtrack CD is available from ArtReach Children’s Theatre Plays. Please request if interested. IMPORTANT COPYRIGHT NOTICE NO COPIES OF THIS DOCUMENT MAY BE MADE WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR. A ROYALTY IS DUE FOR ALL PERFORMANCES, INCLUDING PERFORMANCES FOR NON-PAYING AUDIENCES. This play is fully protected by copyright. Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that this play, being fully protected under international copyright laws, is subject to a royalty. All rights including professional, amateur, motion pictures, radio broadcasting, television broadcasting and the right of translation into foreign languages are strictly reserved. In its present form this play is reserved for personal reading and perusal purposes only. However, authorized productions of this play are encouraged and supported. Arrangements for productions must be made in writing with: Kathryn Schultz Miller ArtReach Children’s Theatre Plays 4047 Pro Am Ave. East Bradenton, FL 34203 Phone: 941-753-3222 Fax: 941-753-5407 Email: [email protected] Website: ChildrensTheatrePlays.com © Copyright Kathryn Schultz Miller, all rights reserved. This play cannot be performed without written permission from the author and payment of royalty for all performances (including non-paying audiences). 2 HARRIET TUBMAN Characters: Flexible Cast of 23-32, 7-8 M, 6-13 F, 10-11 M/F Easily adapted for larger or smaller cast STORYTELLERS (M/F, 19 lines together, plus songs) (Any/all can be M or F, change names in dialogue if appropriate) ELWOOD (17 lines) ELIZABETH (16 lines) ISABELLA (20 lines) MARIAH (18 lines) NELSON (18 lines) ROSA (19 lines) MARTIN (16 lines) SAMUEL (18 lines) HARRIET (F, 51 lines) HARRIET #1 (7 lines) HARRIET #2 (10 lines, enter page 22) HARRIET #3 (6 lines, enter page 30) HARRIET #4 (18 lines, enter page 33) HARRIET #5 (10 lines, enter page 39) PREACHER (M/F, 21 lines, plus songs) PREACHER #1 (9 lines) PREACHER #2 (12 lines, enter page 23) MINTY, Younger Harriet (F, 24 lines) MINTY #1, young child (5 lines) MINTY #2, adolescent (8 lines, enter page 17) MINTY #3 (MINTY/HARRIET), young adult (11 lines, enter page 19) OLD RIT, Harriet’s mother (F, 25 lines, plus song) OLD RIT #1 (18 lines, plus song) OLD RIT #2, much older (7 lines, enter page 38) BEN, Harriet’s father (M, 24 lines, plus song) BEN #1 (13 lines, plus song) BEN #2, much older (11 lines, enter page 33) MASTER BRODESS, slave owner (M, 13 lines) JOHN, Harriet’s brother (M, 9 lines) ROBERT, Harriet’s brother (M, 4 lines) MARY, Harriet’s sister-in-law (F, 8 lines) ABOLITIONISTS MRS. FRANCIS GARRETT (F, 4 lines, plus song) MR. THOMAS GARRETT (M, 3 lines, plus song) WILLIAM STILL (M/F, 9 lines) FREDERICK DOUGLASS (M, 1 line, speech) WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON (M, 1 line, speech) SOJOURNER TRUTH (F, 2 lines, speech) SONGS 1. All the Pretty Little Horses 5. ‘Tis a Gift to be Simple 2. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 6. Go Tell It on the Mountain 3. Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd 7. Wade in the Water 4. Bound for the Promised Land 8. Amazing Grace © Copyright Kathryn Schultz Miller, all rights reserved. This play cannot be performed without written permission from the author and payment of royalty for all performances (including non-paying audiences). 3 CASTING NOTES For a Smaller Cast: It is easy to make this cast smaller by reducing the number of STORYTELLERS, distributing more lines to each one. You may also have the multiple roles played by just one performer. There can be just one MINTY and one HARRIET, or the same performer may play both roles. The role of the PREACHER can be given to a STORYTELLER and even the roles of JOHN, ROBERT and MARY may be played by STORYTELLERS. The roles of ABOLITIONISTS may be performed by the same performers who played OLD RIT, BEN and BRODESS. And again, the GARRETTS and WILLIAM STILL may be played by STORYTELLERS. Of course, this will put your STORYTELLERS in constant action on stage so you will want to put your most experienced performers in these roles. For a Larger Cast: There are so many ways you can add performers to the cast beyond what is listed already! You can add STORYTELLERS and divide their roles according to what you think each child can handle. You may give the youngest the purely narrative lines and the older ones the action lines. The roles of MINTY, HARRIET and PREACHER may be divided among more performers. It might be interesting to add ABOLITIONISTS, performers who appear in the aisles protesting with signs, and protest calls. You may add lines or let them ad-lib these crowd scenes. If you have a choir in your school or church, they can absolutely be placed prominently upstage on risers or sitting throughout the audience to encourage them to sing. You may add songs and solos if you have this wonderful resource! If you have dancers or even gymnasts in the school you might add choreography to the songs. This will also get Choir Directors and Dance Instructors involved in your project. Male/Female Roles: It is obvious that some characters are required to be a specific gender but many all-girls or all-boys schools may cast these roles as appropriate for their students. Disabled Kids: Don’t hesitate to include disabled kids of every kind to the cast! Kids in wheelchairs will surprise you with what smooth moves they can come up with for their performance. Give every kid a chance and you will be amazed at how you will be rewarded. Multi-generational: What better way to honor our ancestors than to include grandparents in the performance? And don’t forget to cast the principal, teachers, janitors and cafeteria workers in the play as well. It’s a great way to combine education with community involvement. © Copyright Kathryn Schultz Miller, all rights reserved. This play cannot be performed without written permission from the author and payment of royalty for all performances (including non-paying audiences). 4 STAGING NOTES ArtReach’s new play, Harriet Tubman: Take My Hand and Follow Me, is based on the life and history of the legendary anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman. The true story is simplified and shortened for young performers and young audiences. Through song, stories and historic recreations, kids may experience her inspiring contribution to the American struggle against slavery. Playing Area: This play is best staged in a large room such as a gymnasium, fellowship hall or church basement. The audience is seated in a horseshoe shape on three sides around the playing area with two wide aisles at the sides. Performers will use these aisles and the back of the audience as playing area as indicated throughout the script. “Playing area” or “stage” refers to the main space of floor in the center of the horseshoe. Use a stage if you must! A stage certainly may be used. If so, it is suggested that you provide a safe way for the performers to step off the stage and into the audience at key points in the action. No painted background is necessary and since the action takes place all over the area it may be too confining to have one. But if a background is desired, I suggest free-standing flats much like folding/dressing screens with the following painted pictures: Landscape with antebellum mansion in the distance; dark scene of nighttime in the woods by river; 19th century sepia city street scene; Tubman’s home in Auburn with front porch of whitewashed house. The first may be turned to the audience while the other screens are turned with backs to audience. These may be turned as appropriate scenes begin throughout the performance. Make room for performance: Remember to keep your aisles wide and leave room behind the audience for performance. It’s okay if they have to turn and strain to see the scene behind them – that will give them the sense that they truly are in a natural setting rather than a theatre. By having the performance move all around the audience you create distance for Harriet’s travels and give the sense she is moving from one place to another. Church setting: When staging your production consider that the entire area or room of the performance is the setting of the play. At times this area will represent a church interior, much like the one Harriet herself attended as a girl. The benches that Storytellers sit on are reminiscent of pews. The audience will be treated at times as if they are in a church and are its active congregation. This will become clear to them quickly and they are likely to participate enthusiastically when called upon. Forest/Swamp setting: At other times your performance area should be considered the forest/swamp that Harriet navigated in her many trips from south to north and vice versa. Performers will use simple noisemakers like a dried gourd with seeds and a pole with a steamer on the end to create the creatures of the scene. They may move all around Harriet, crouching, twirling, as creatures and objects that are unseen because it is dark.

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