One of the things I appreciate the most about The Coterie Theatre, is it’s history of putting on shows about black history to help educate their young audiences. It’s unfortunate that we even have to view black history as its own subject, but it’s the part of American history that cannot and shouldn’t be ignored.

Their Struggle

This play was about the Freedom Rides and the brave young individuals who took a lot of the hardship (racism, discrimination, etc...) so that African Americans could have the same opportunities as Caucasians when it came to bus transportation. Multiple groups of civil rights activists (particularly students, both black and white) rode interstate buses through the (at the time) wicked south, to challenge the enforcement of segregated buses. The Freedom Rides took place May 4th, 1961- December 10th of the same year. The first freedom ride began in Washington, DC with the original 13 freedom riders (7 black and 6 white), who took the Greyhound bus that was scheduled to reach New Orleans on the 17th. They made their way through Virginia, and North Carolina which grabbed the public's eye. The first violent incident happened in Rockhill, South Carolina. John Lewis (THE JOHN LEWIS) and a few others were attacked as they tried to enter a whites-only waiting area. Although they were attacked, they were “trained” before leaving the bus station to continue to be resilient and act as if any of the attacks didn’t phas them. The day after the event, the group made it to Atlanta, GA where some of the riders moved to Trailways buses. Many more angry mobs chased the riders and buses out of their states and it wasn't until Martin Luther King Jr. led a service in Montgomery, Alabama where thousands of freedom ride supporters attended, when things began to “settle”. He called Robert Kennedy for protection. President JFK didn't want America to look bad as a country, so he helped out by asking the angry mobs to “cool off”. The rides continued for several months, and under pressure from the Kennedy administration, the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission), prohibited segregation in interstate transit terminals.

Thank you Freedom Riders.

The Show

RISE UP was written by Lisa Evans the third show of the season that I was chosen to be in. The Coterie once again, snagged the first American premier. The cast had a total of 4 individuals; one black male, two black females, and one white male. Each playing the role of modern day high school students putting on a class project about The Freedom Rides. What made this play different than most that I see is that it was all in spoken word form. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what spoken word is, it's speaking but in poetic form. Some words are more emphasized or used differently then others. Here's a glance of the written dialogue:

Em played by Catera Combs

Dayz played by Khrystal Coppage

TY played by Jay Love

CJ played by Jordan Luty

My Struggle

I will say, as an actress reenacting some of the abuse throughout the play, it was very mentally and physically tiring. To be pushed into the realm of the state of the world in the 60s and then jumping back into the current day reality, is really eye opening. Unfortunately, I can still see the resemblance of protest and fighting for equal rights today. Not only were we playing the riders themselves, but we each played a total of 4+ historical figures, accents and all! Personally, I struggled with a lot of the dialect. Out of the 4 of us, I had the least amount of training. As a girl born and raised in the mid-west, before this production, the most difficult dialect I had to overcome was an Italian dialect, but that soon changed. Since The Freedom Rides took place in the South, 95% of the characters I played were southern, except JFK. Yes, I played John F. Kennedy who was the president at the time. Luckily, we had an amazing dialect coach named Scott Stackhouse to help us through my trouble spots. Up until the very hour before opening, I continued to work on the dialects with Scott in hopes that I wouldn't embarrass myself on stage. It was a challenge that I’m glad I got to take on!

What amazed me the most was the groups of students that came in with open minds. After each show, we held a short Q&A session about the freedom rides and they came in with generous amounts of questions! Sometimes I even learned a thing or two from them!

https://cinnamon.video/watch?v=446369391961966197

https://cinnamon.video/watch?v=446140233445017339

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