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Posted on January 28th 2015
The Scottsboro Boys
The play presents a real-life harrowing tale of nine black teenagers falsely accused of attacking two white women in Alabama in the early 1930’s. This true story was a ground-breaking moment in legal history and a start of the American Civil rights movement.
The production was performed in the style of a Vaudeville Minstrel show which made it both poignant and often uncomfortable viewing as the subject matter was juxtaposed with lively music and comic lyrics.
We laughed and cried in equal measures and all gasped in shock when we realised that the woman who had been a silent witness haunting every scene was in fact Rosa Parks who had been inspired by the story of The Scottsboro Boys herself.
The students were deeply moved by the production and were full of questions both about the themes and the unusual performance skills involved.
We were very fortunate that the following day one of the lead actors James T Lane came in to Harris Academy Beckenham to work with the students by delivering a two hour workshop. The students were able to experiment with performance skills and ask questions about the rehearsal process. It was fascinating for us to see how long the rehearsal process takes and how painstakingly every detail is thought through.
This was a hugely inspiring experience for the students, both as a unique cultural experience and as an opportunity to have an award winning piece of drama on which to base their GCSE Drama Controlled Assessments on.
