Sandra Seaton's Plays
The following are links to pages within Sandra Seaton's web site:
About Sandra Seaton | Sally
Hemings | Plays | Performances
|
Reviews
Publications | Archival
Research |
Audio | Links
"Do You Like Philip Roth?"
A one-act play about African-American college students at a Midwestern
university during the civil-rights movement in the 1960's, Do you like Philip
Roth?
was performed on May 12, 2001 at the 31st annual conference of the Society for
the
Study of Midwestern Literature held in East Lansing, Michigan. Cast:
Ken Nelson,
Brandi Walker, and Lamont Clegg.
The Bridge Party
Portrays the strength of a group of black women who gather for their weekly
bridge
game as they cope with a house-to-house search of the black community in the
wake of a lynching.
"Because racism was then legally entrenched and publicly justified, it
was a
significant accomplishment to build a life with ceremonies and rituals affirming
the integrity and importance of our friendships and families, of our own
lives."
Sandra Seaton,
from "How I Came To Write The Bridge Party"
(click here to read)
Seaton based the play on family stories describing the way of life for middle-class
blacks in the South
before the modern
civil rights movement. This play is not a "docudrama"
of her
families life, but
rather a presentation of a part of the African American experience that
is
often overlooked.
Photos of the original Bridge Party.
The files are large and may take a few seconds to open.
View Photo 1 (jpeg)
Thursday Afternoon Bridgettes, African American bridge club, Formal Dance,
Columbia,
Tennessee, circa 1941.
View Photo 2 (jpeg)
The Bridgettes, African American bridge club, Formal Dance, Columbia, Tennessee,
circa, 1942.
To learn more about "The Bridge Party" please view the following sites:
Indiana
University Press Strange Fruit
< http://www.indiana.edu/~iupress/books/0-253-33356-3.shtml
>
Michigan
State University Media Communications News Releases
< http://www.ur.msu.edu/media/releases/jan00/theatre.html
>
"Bridge Party" Opens on Area
Stage Today (pdf)
Article by Gloriane Peck of The State News.
From the January 27, 2000 issue.
The Will
Dramatizes the life of an African American family in a small town in
Tennessee during
the Reconstruction. Cyrus Webster, the head of the family, was a freeman
before the
Civil War. He has acquired property, including a farm where the Garretts,
whites who
have lost their land, work as sharecroppers. Cyrus is determined to pass
on his heritage,
both spiritual and economic, to his descendants. His life's work is
threatened by his
rebellious son, Israel, and by the refusal of the Garretts and other whites to
accept his
right to his land. Cyrus's wife, Eliza, his son Simpse and Simpse's
fiancée, Patty
Bradshaw, are all caught up in the conflict.
Sandra Seaton,
from "Reading The Will"
(click here to read)
