Free Southern Theater Brochure searchable text

Theatre graphics and National Board of Sponsors (partial list) are on this page.

WE PROPOSE TO ESTABLISH LIVE THEATER IN THE DEEP SOUTH. 

Beginning in Jackson, Mississippi, where the first Free Southern Theater is

being formed, we will work toward the establishment of permanent stock and

repertory companies, with mobile touring units, in major population centers

throughout the South, staging plays that reflect the struggles of the American

Negro. . . before Negro and, in time, integrated audiences.

THE PLAYS:  By Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, John O. Killens, Ossie

Davis and other playwrights, Negro and white, who have confronted the moral

and political dilemmas of race and rights in our time.

THE STAGE:  Specially equipped central theaters plus community centers,

schools, churches and fields in rural areas.

THE COMPANIES:  Participants from the local Negro communities and, with

the cooperation of the appropriate unions, professional actors, directors and

technicians.

FREE SOUTHERN THEATER of Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, Mississippi.

I/we hereby subscribe as a    ___ Patron   ___ Associate    ___ Benefactor

 ___ Donor  ___ Friend of the FREE SOUTHERN THEATER of Tougaloo

College.

Name _____________________________________________________________________

Address ___________________________________________________________________

City __________________________________ Zone_______ State  __________________

Enclosed herewith $____________________

____ Patron (over $500)                                                     ____ Donor ($50)

____ Benefactor ($100)

____ Associate ($500)                                                           ____ Friend

Signed ________________________________________Date ______________________

Please make checks payable to: Theater Project, Tougaloo College. Contributions are tax deductible and should be mailed to: Free Southern Theater, % Philip Rose Productions, 157 West 57^th St. N.Y.,N.Y. 10019

I shall be pleased to serve as a member of the sponsoring committee of the Free Southern Theater of Tougaloo College. You have my permission to use my name on letterheads and other materials to further the success of this essential project.

Name _______________________________________________________________________

(please print)

Address _____________________________________________________________________

Telephone ___________________________________________________________________

Signature ___________________________________________________________________

We believe that the personal involvement, the freedom and the excitement that grow from live theater make this medium the most effective means of filling the void created by:

-- the degrading effect of inferior education in segregated

Southern schools,

-- the omissions and distortions of local press, radio and

television, which effectively keep the Negro in ignorance

of the problems which most directly concern him,

-- the deliberate exclusion of the Negro community from

all but the most meager cultural resources

that combine to ensure the intellectual and cultural isolation of the Negro in the South.

A Free Southern Theater can demonstrate that the present reality can be altered and transformed, and that the Negro must play the leading role in that transformation.

Our fundamental objective is to stimulate critical, creative and reflective thought necessary for effective participation in a democratic society.

Specifically, we hope to:

-- promote the growth and self-knowledge of a new

    Negro audience,

          -- liberate the creative talent that has been denied the

             opportunity of expression

          -- provide a forum in which the Negro playwright can

             deal honestly with his own experience, express himself

in what may prove to be a new idiom, a new genre, a

theatrical form and style unique to the Negro people as

are blues, jazz and gospel in the realm of music,

          -- emphasize the universality of the problems of the Negro

people,

          -- strengthen communication among Southern Negroes,

 -- add a necessary cultural and educational dimension

              to the present Southern freedom movement,

 -- assert that self-knowledge and creativity are the

foundations of human dignity.

THE PILOT PROJECT in Jackson, Mississippi will officially commence on June 13^th.  Offering a ten week season, the company will present five shows in Jackson and near-by communities.

Each play will have a different director, Richard Scheckner, editor of the Tulane Drama Review, Ted Shine, professor of Theater at Howard University, and Frank Greenwood, director and writer from the West Coast, are committed to the program for this year.

In progress is a theater workshop which has begun with a select group of students from Tougaloo and Jackson State Colleges; planned is an apprenticeship program, which will entail sending a number of promising participants to New York for more intensive study.

In Jackson, the Free Southern Theater is assisted by Tougaloo College, an accredited interracial institution that is free of the deadening control of the State Legislature and willing to provide support in many vital areas.  Consequently, the pilot project will be known as The Free Southern Theater of Tougaloo College.  The staff includes:  Gilbert Moses, drama director, William Hutchinson, technical director, John O’Neal and Doris Derby, public relations.

Gilbert Moses, John O’Neal and Doris Derby are on the staff of The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.  William Hutchinson is Drama Director at Tougaloo College.

The Free Southern Theater brochure – Brochure was folded and half of writing was cut off.

          The Free Southern Theater will be administered nationally by the National Board of Sponsors, locally by the Local Board of Patrons.  The National Board will provide artistic and fiscal guidance, encourage the participation of professionals and assist in fund-raising efforts; the Local Board will concern itself with the needs of its particular theater, enlisting the support, participation and enthusiasm of the community.

          In One hand I hold tragedy and in the other comedy, masks for the soul.

          Weep with me you would weep,

          Laugh with me you would laugh,

Tears are my laughter, laughter is my pain,

Cry at my grinning mouth if you will laugh

at my sorrow’s reign.

I am the black jester

The booted, booted fool of silly men,

Once I was wise,

Shall I be wise again?

                                        --Langston Hughes

THE FREE SOUTHERN THEATER WILL PLAY A VITAL ROLE IN THE NEGRO’S STRUGGLE FOR SELF-REALIZATION.  IT MUST SUCCEED.

LEND US YOUR SUPPORT.

Monies raised should be made payable to:

                Theater Project

                Touglaloo College

Contributions are tax-deductible.

Checks, scripts, and offers of participation should be mailed to:

          FREE SOUTHERN THEATER

          c/o Philip Rose Productions

          157 West 57^th Street

          New York, N.Y. 10019