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MU premieres drama on Freedom Summer

'Down in Mississippi: A Play with Music' opens tonight.

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By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 1:40 AM Thursday, October 1, 2009

OXFORD — The five-year process to produce a new play comes to fruition this weekend as Miami University Theatre presents the world premiere of “Down in Mississippi: A Gospel Play with Music,” exploring the real-life events of Freedom Summer.

In 1964, more than 1,000 volunteers gathered for training at Western College for Women, now a part of Miami University, before traveling to Mississippi to register black voters and organize freedom schools.

This new play by Carlyle Brown, artistic director of Carlyle Brown and Company in Minneapolis, delves into the heart of the Civil Rights Movement as three college students journey to the dangerous world of 1964 Mississippi. Through their struggles, they learn they have to change themselves in order to change the world.

The play features freedom songs with musical direction by Tammy L. Kernodle, associate professor of music at Miami. The cast includes Miami students, Oxford community members and professional actors.

The play is a part of Miami University’s “Finding Freedom Summer in Oxford, Ohio” project, an ongoing interdisciplinary program that recently won funding and support from the National Endowment for the Humanities for interpreting the site of Western College campus with future programs about this history.

“Down in Mississippi: A Play With Music” by Carlyle Brown

When: 8 p.m. Oct. 1-3 and Oct. 8-10 and at 3 p.m. Oct. 4

Where: Gates-Abeg

Tickets: $7 for students/youth, $13 for senior citizens and $14 for adults

More information: (513) 529-3200; tickets.muohio.edu

Other Freedom Summer programs include:

• The Freedom Summer National Conference and Reunion, Oct. 9-11, which will feature participants who formerly served as Freedom Summer activists.

• “Walk with Me: Freedom Summer Interactive History Tour,” through Oct. 31, a 45-minute tour on the Western College campus drawing upon the oral histories, letters and diaries of 1964 Freedom Summer student activists. Tours start in front of Clawson Hall on Western Drive. They can be scheduled by contacting Karen Gotter at 513-529- 5819.

• “Finding Freedom Summer: A Retrospective,” Oct. 1-31, exhibition of images and materials from the Mississippi Freedom Summer Collection on Miami’s Oxford campus at the Western College Memorial Archives.

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