CHICAGO PREMIERE BACKSTORY YOUR GUIDE TO TIMELINE PRODUCTIONS Comprised of Black and white people intermixed, Jiréh Breon Holder THE TIMELINE: the Freedom Riders joined together on buses travel- is an award-winning THE CIVIL RIGHTS ing across state lines into deeply segregated states playwright who grew MOVEMENT 1954-1965 where national desegregation laws were being vio- up in Memphis, Ten- 1954 Brown v. Board of Education lated not only by emboldened groups of citizens, but nessee. As an only is decided by the U.S. Supreme Dear Friends, even by renegade local officers working in tandem child, he occupied Jiréh Breon Holder. Court, officially ending segregation Welcome to the Chicago premiere with violent obstructionists. himself with his imagination in public schools as enforced by law. of Too Heavy for Your Pocket by Jiréh The cost to the Freedom Riders was immense and the family dog. He’d sneak Toni Morrison In the decision, the Court rules that Breon Holder, directed by TimeLine —they faced imprisonment, vicious brutality, and and Alice Walker books off his mother’s book- “separate but equal” cannot be upheld A MESSAGE A Company Member Ron OJ Parson. even firebombing. shelf. It was through these texts that Holder was if the other services are not equal, inspired to write his own. overturning the Plessy v. Ferguson A 2016 graduate of Yale’s acclaimed There are countless stories to tell about those verdict of 1896. Yet many schools He attended Morehouse College, a historically playwriting program, Jiréh has who put their lives on the line, and the pages of remain segregated. quickly earned acclaim, writing with a this Backstory provide further exploration of the black college in Atlanta, where he received August 27, 1955 At just 14 years poignant, contemporary voice, while costs paid. his BA degree in Theatre. From 2012 to 2013, THE PLAYWRIGHT THE Holder served as the Kenny Leon Fellow at old, while visiting family in Mississippi, also garnering comparisons to some Jiréh’s eloquent play is not only an homage to activ- Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, a Tony Award-winning Chicago-born Emmett Till is accused of the greats that preceded him. ism in 1961 but also a stark reminder of all that has of whistling at a white woman, institution. In 2016, he received his MFA degree Set in Tennessee, 1961, Too and hasn’t changed in 2019. Carolyn Bryant Donham. As a result, in Playwriting from the Yale School of Drama. Heavy for Your Pocket is a story Today, as activism, for many, is exhibited predomi- relatives of Ms. Donham kidnap Till with tremendous heart, moments nantly online, one can’t help but see the contrasts There, Holder developed his play, Too Heavy for from his uncle’s house and torture of great joy, luminous musicality, between what might be perceived as risky today, Your Pocket. He was inspired by the resurgence him extensively, then shoot and kill and infectious laughter, despite a compared with the peril faced by a crusader like in Civil Rights Movement-era films like The him before throwing his body in the backdrop of a country in turmoil. Butler and Selma. But he took issue with some Tallahatchie River tied to a cotton gin FROM ARTISTIC DIRECTOR POWERS PJ Bowzie and his fellow Freedom Riders. of the portrayals of legacy, and engaged his fan. Mamie Till, Emmett’s mother, We’re introduced to two young When I first mentioned this play to my ever-inspiring grandmother on her personal recollections, bravely decides to have an open couples striving to build their future colleague, Ron OJ Parson, I was blown away by his TOO HEAVY TOO FOR YOUR POCKET as she had grown up in Nashville around the casket funeral to show the world against considerable, systemic odds. immediate enthusiasm. He said, “That is the story Freedom Rides. She recalled a friend who had what has been done to her son. This When the character Bowzie has the of my cousin! He sacrificed finishing his college thrown away his education to “hop on a bus,” case will galvanize the Civil Rights opportunity to realize his full potential degree so he could be on those buses.” Ron’s and Holder was immediately taken with a topic movement, with widespread coverage with a college scholarship, it seems passion and investment in this story was clear from that history remembers differently. During his in Black outlets such as Jet magazine. as if a tide is turning in his life and his day one, and the interview on page 9 explores that. research, Holder went on a Freedom Ride tour December 1, 1955 In Montgomery, community, opening a door for a new We couldn’t be happier to have him at the helm of and spent weeks immersed in 1961 Nashville. Alabama, Rosa Parks sits in the front generation of leadership and hope. this production. of a segregated bus and refuses to But despite the Supreme Court In 2017, Too Heavy for Your Pocket was the give up her seat to a white passenger, We’re delighted to introduce Jiréh’s immense talent recipient of the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation outlawing segregation in restaurants, AND HOLDER BREON JIRÉH beginning the Montgomery bus boycott to Chicago and to share this story about taking a Award and winner of the Alliance/Kendeda restrooms, public areas, and on stand. Getting off the sidelines. Acknowledging your that will last a year. buses, those long overdue advances National Graduate Playwriting Competition. The privileges. And being an active ally for change. play premiered at the Alliance Theatre and had February 14, 1957 The Southern commonly go unenforced, and in Christian Leadership Conference Through Bowzie, Jiréh poses the question—“What an extended Off-Broadway run at Roundabout many areas of the South they are (SCLC) is founded by Dr. Martin are you willing to risk to fight for what you believe?” Theatre. Its West Coast premiere took place boldly and hostilely defied. Luther King, Jr. (who becomes the I thank you for joining us to examine that question in February and March 2019 at Sacred Fools Enter the Freedom Riders, a group organization’s first president), Charles and to experience Too Heavy for Your Pocket. Theatre Company in Los Angeles. of civil rights activists who catch the K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth. attention of the nation and inspire Best, Holder is currently under commission with The SCLC will prove to be an essential Bowzie to question whether a crusade the Old Globe Theatre, Roundabout Theatre, leader in the style of nonviolent for equality is more urgent than his and the Manhattan Theatre Club. His other protest for which Dr. King becomes renowned. personal pursuit of a higher education. plays include The Rules, The Dancing Granny, and Some Bodies Travel. Although the 1946 U.S. Supreme Oppression of Black people has taken 1957 Nine Black students attempt Court decision in Morgan v. Virginia many forms in America, but one of the most to integrate Central High School in ruled segregated bus seating uncon- effective societal manipulations has been the Little Rock, Arkansas, and are forcibly stitutional, most public spaces and education system. prevented from doing so. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends in Federal facilities continued to be divided Enslaved people were forcibly prevented from troops to assist the students—who by race. Though the federal law learning how to read, but often did so in secret. will become known as the “Little Rock favored integration, racism and In the beginning, the Church of England and deep biases held more weight in a Nine”—though the assistance does Students led the Nashville Freedom Riders, specifically C.T. Quakers would build schools for the purpose not end their harassment. society built on the backs of Black Vivian (left) and Diane Nash (center). (Tennessean) of religious conversion specifically for enslaved folks and other people of color. people. Around the 1800s, education for September 9, 1957 President THE ACTION THE Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act The Journey of Reconciliation, In May of 1961, seven Black and six white people HISTORY THE enslaved people was severely restricted in many of 1957, designed to help protect voter traveled on a Greyhound bus from Washington, states because slave owners were growing viewed as an early inspiration of the rights. It establishes a Civil Rights anxious that those they had enslaved might get Freedom Rides, was assembled by D.C., with the hope of reaching New Orleans, Section of the U.S. Justice Department the organization Congress of Racial Louisiana, in time for the seventh anniversary ideas about freedom, especially following the and gives legal grounds to file an Equality (CORE, founded at the of Brown v. Board of Education. They traveled Gabriel Conspiracy of 1800 and Nat Turner’s injunction if anyone tries to interfere University of Chicago) in 1947. This mostly undisturbed through Virginia and North Rebellion in 1831. with people's right to vote. FREEDOM RIDES nonviolent direct action challenged Carolina, but violence struck in the way of vicious Nat Turner was a literate enslaved preacher who 1958 The Nashville Christian state segregation laws. Sixteen men, attacks in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The Freedom led a rebellion during which 55-65 white people Leadership Conference, an affiliate Riders split up, with one group continuing on the eight white, eight Black, rode public were murdered. As a result, laws governing the of Dr. King’s Southern Christian transportation in Virginia, North Greyhound and the other in a Trailways vehicle. education and freedoms of enslaved people Leadership Conference, is established Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky, Mere days later, the Freedom Riders in the Grey- became incredibly strict up until the Civil War.