October 2024
RESURRECTION is a fantasy based on a true event – a massacre so disturbing it is left out of school textbooks – when in 1921 the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma was burnt to the ground by the Klan.
The characters in this play are people who have been resurrected to tell the story of the largest racial massacre in the history of the United States. The town had been so prosperous that it was nicknamed NEGRO WALL STREET by Booker T. Washington. The violence broke out in Greenwood because a white woman claimed she was raped by a colored man. A trial was held and was dismissed by the judge because the woman gave such bizarre, conflicting testimony as to what happened.
On May 31st, 1921 the Klan was so infuriated by how the trial went, they came into the town of Greenwood and burned 35 square blocks to the ground in a fire that lasted two days. Hundreds were killed (exact count unknown), and 6,0000 residents were displaced. Today, those who know this story refer to it as…BLACK WALL STREET.
Loss: 600 businesses/ 21 churches/ 21 restaurants/ 30 grocery stores/ 2 movie theatres/ 6 private airplanes/ also: a hospital, a bank, a post office, schools, libraries, law offices, and a bus system.
This play premiered at American Theatre of Actor in February of 2020, just prior to COVID-19. There have been four production of this play at the ATA and also one tour to Oklahoma.
Resurrection and A Lesson in Blood
Available for Weekends and Block Bookings.
Inquiries: email Jessica at americantheatreofactors@gmail.com
Resurrection: 15 Actors. (Website)
A Lesson in Blood: 8 Actors. (Website)
About A Lesson in Blood
Synopsis:
Aggie is the daughter of Nathan, a card carrying Klansman. She has returned to the south after a seven year absence because she is dying. Unbeknownst to her family, she has given birth to a child. The father is a colored Cherokee Indian who lives with his Aunt Lucy and his brother Calvin, whose upbringing is obscured in African superstition and Georgia roots. Aggie only reveals the secret to Osceola, that he’s the child’s father. All hell breaks loose when Clara, the woman Osceola is seeing thretens to tell “the law” when she finds out the two were lovers. The law is a childhood friend, Johnny Ray the Sheriff, who is also a Klansman and a racist. When Aggie is murdered, the Sheriff gets Osceola fired from his job at Noah Cohen office who is a Jewish lawyer that befriends this colored family. The mystery is who killed Aggie, was it Clara or was it the Sheriff who loved her.