Child of the ’60s

Passage Theatre opens its season with a world premiere about the civil rights movement.

By: Susan Van Dongen
   For playwright, director and actress Seret Scott, college had always been a dream. Like many African-Americans of her generation, Ms. Scott’s parents started talking to her about higher education almost before she started kindergarten.
   That’s why, when she arrived at New York University at the height of the civil rights movement, it was such a hard decision to walk away from college to head South to try to make a difference. As part of a theater group, Ms. Scott and her colleagues went to rural areas in Mississippi and Louisiana talking to some of the poorest Americans in the country. On improvised stages where the lights were sometimes hung from trees, or in barns, basements and living rooms, the troupe would help raise awareness of equality issues.
   "From the time I can remember, my mother and father’s words were, ‘When you go to college…’" Ms. Scott says. "It was a mantra in my family. But getting there was only part of what was going on. I was a child of the ’60s, so after a day of classes, we would sit and watch TV, watch all kinds of events of the movement unfold. And that was when they really showed you the news. From the water hoses to the attack dogs, it wasn’t sanitized."
   Ms. Scott made the choice to step away from school but never regrets the education she received away from the classroom. Her life experience inspires her play, Second Line, which will have its world premiere by Passage Theatre Company at the Mill Hill Playhouse in Trenton, Oct. 5-29.
   Second Line follows the relationship of two middle class African-American college students whose love for each other is tested as they live through the historic events of their generation. Directed by Regge Life, the play features Billy Eugene Jones and April Yvette Thompson.
   The turbulent times that form the backdrop for Second Line forced the black middle class to make tough choices about what they would sacrifice and what they would gain by supporting the civil rights movement or taking a stand on the Vietnam War. The play follows Bennie and JoJo, who meet while earning college degrees — the first in their families to do so.
   But as the social protests of the ’60s heat up, they find their paths diverging. Should they head south to register voters, or should they stay in school and follow a path to success that had been denied to previous generations of African-Americans? The story line really resonates for Ms. Scott, and is virtually autobiographical.
   "JoJo is a field worker in the civil rights movement, she trains the new recruits on what to expect," Ms. Scott says. "I did not do that, but I did leave school like she did and went south with the Free Southern Theater, a group that grew out of the civil rights movement. We went into small towns in Mississippi and Louisiana and put on skits, initially scripted plays, things that might be described as ‘the new black theater.’ Then over time we’d get into the community, find out what was going on — were they in the middle of a boycott, for example — and we’d do skits based on that."
   Passage Theatre has been working with Ms. Scott to develop Second Line for some time. Artistic Director June Ballinger saw the potential about three years ago when Ms. Scott gave a reading of her work, which was originally supposed to be a series of letters read aloud by the two characters.
   "Seret is so well-known as a director, but is just coming into her own as a playwright," Ms. Ballinger says. "Her writing offers a different perspective about what it was like to be part of the emerging black middle class in the ’60s."
   An associate artist of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, Ms. Scott has directed productions at major theaters around the nation, from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage. She is a past recipient of the Lloyd Richards Directing Award and won a Drama Desk Award for her performance in Sister Sister on Broadway.
   She describes the Free Southern Theater’s informal productions as "happenings" — at least that’s what they would be called in New York.
   "The audience would be migrant and itinerant farmers, with little education but very savvy about what was going on in the rural South," Ms. Scott says. "This was what you’d really call ‘grass roots’ (activism). Sometimes we’d even stay with the farmers in their homes, so we might not have running water or electricity, very different from NYU. But what better kind of education could you ask for?"
Second Line by Seret Scott will be presented by Passage Theatre at the Mill
Hill Playhouse, Front and Montgomery streets, Trenton, Oct. 5-29. Performances:
Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Tickets cost $25. For information, call (609)
392-0766. On the Web: www.passagetheatre.org