Ghostlight Ensemble began performances of their latest production, “Alabama Story” at the end of September during Banned Books Week. The show, written by Kenneth Jones, is a six-person play based on acts of segregation and book banning that occurred in Alabama throughout the 1950s.
The play is directed by Ghostlight Ensemble Co-Artistic Director Holly Robison, and the cast includes two of the company’s members: Co-Artistic Director Justin Broom as Thomas Franklin and Marketing Director Maria Burnham as Emily Wheelock Reed.
Also featured is Scott Olson, who has been a professor at the college for 25 years teaching acting while in the midst of his own acting career. Though he is named in the program solely for the role of Garth Williams, Olson actually ends up switching between eight different characters throughout the production.
Kyrie Wilhelms, a sophomore acting major who has taken classes with Olson said that it was fascinating to see him “apply what he teaches in class, onstage.”
Although she didn’t know much about the story coming into the show, Wilhems said that it “felt hopeful” and “addressed a topic of discussion that is still so relevant today.”
Maria Burnham, the company marketing director and actress who plays Emily Wheelock Reed, said that although never hearing of the show previously, the entire cast was “overwhelmingly drawn to the message and the writing. Not a single member voted against it.”
Olson said that the show is very “multi-layered,” and that he thinks those watching will be “surprised at how much humor exists in the play as well.”
Similar to Olson, Burnham said she thinks audience members will, “find this show to be more moving and emotional, but also humorous, than they might initially believe a story set in 1959 about book bans and the Civil Rights movement [to] be.”
She said that the company often tries to pick performance spaces that are relevant to the story that they want to tell, which is why two site-specific locations were chosen for this play: After-Words Bookstore and Haymarket Books. Burnham said that “the proximity to real books, many of which are being challenged in libraries around the country, adds a layer to the show that you wouldn’t get if you were seated apart from the action in a theater.”
Burnham said that this production has left a lasting impact with the audience thus far.
“Books and libraries still hold a special place in many people’s hearts,” she said. “This show has reminded people of the importance of libraries and librarians, especially as the battle for Civil Rights, unfortunately, continues.”
Although it is a fictional play, it is heavily based on real events that took place after the release of a children’s picture book by the name of “The Rabbit’s Wedding.” This narrative was illustrated by Garth Williams, and depicted two rabbits—one black and one white—who decided to get married.
The book was not intended to be politically affiliated, but the story of these two rabbits caused an uprising across the southern states with threats to ban and even burn the book. Sen. E.W. Higgins led the effort to restrict access to this book, while the state librarian, Emily Wheelock Reed, fought to keep it on the shelves. This conflict is contrasted with the story of childhood friends, Joshua Moore and Lily Whitfield, who have to navigate the tense sociopolitical climate as a Black man and a woman of white privilege.
Ghostlight Ensemble Co-Artistic Director and the director of “Alabama Story” Holly Robinson said that one of the reasons this show is so profound is because “it helps you realize that book bans and censorship are not just about banning books and ideas, but at their core, they are aiming to ban, silence, or exclude certain people.”
Six more performances will be held in Haymarket Books at Haymarket House, 800 W Buena Ave., Chicago, on Oct. 11-13 and Oct. 18-20.
Copy edited by Manuel Nocera
