Once upon a time back in 1933, Eatonville’s own world-renowned writer and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston staged a play centered on Black folklore at Rollins College in Winter Park. Hurston had friends among the professors, but that wasn’t enough to get her work onstage at the Annie Russell Theatre. She had to produce her show in the Rec Hall instead…and for an all-white audience.
Fast forward to today, and a new play about the makings of that 1933 play is about to hit the very stage Hurston was denied.
“Let the People Sing” is a documentary drama based on the few historical records, letters, and playbills found in Rollins archives. It was co-written by Theatre Program Director Marianne DiQuattro and four students.
Connor Chaumley is one of the student writers. He said “Let the People Sing” is a story that both challenges and uplifts the audience.
“This was a really great way to learn about history, especially Black history, and a story that needs to be told,” Chaumley said. “And I feel like what this also does, is that it definitely speaks up for Black voices. It really also showcases our students of color in our department. It feels really important.”
“Let the People Sing” is the first student-written play ever to be presented as part of the Annie Russell’s main stage season.
“You couldn't have an integrated audience anywhere in Winter Park [in 1933],” DiQuattro explained. “And our show is an examination of that politics and those structures of racism, but then the hopefulness of the relationships she formed with those professors. We look at the moment, and we use a little bit of Zora's spirit to imagine what would have been possible, if integration was possible.”
DiQuattro said the documentary drama is extrapolated from historical research and documents such as letters between Hurston and Rollins College professors, along with a program from Hurston’s play and a very positive review from a 1933 student newspaper.
“I thought, well, that might make an excellent piece of theater, to use the resources of historical research and the skills that our students are gaining as part of a liberal arts education,” said DiQuattro. “[It’s] a look at how barriers both of representation - like what can be shown on stage - and barriers to who can be in the audience, can limit creative potential and limit our ability to act to have a stronger community and a more equitable and just society.”
DiQuattro noted that the play is a musical, “and it actually invites the audience to join the song,” she said. “Because if you open your voice and sing with others, you make yourself vulnerable, but you also direct yourself towards the same goal, which is to community, and to creating something new.”
