Photo provided Bright Star Touring Theatre brings its nationally recognized Black History Hall of Fame production to the Bartholomew County Public Library on March 20.
History will soon come to life at the Bartholomew County Public Library as Bright Star Touring Theatre brings its nationally recognized Black History Hall of Fame production here.
Though it’s aimed for kids in pre-K and up, casting director, tour manager and performance director Hunter Taylor said everyone, regardless of age, will learn something.
“It’s a fast-paced show, it’s really entertaining and yes, it is educational, but we always want to make sure that our audience has something to enjoy,” Taylor said.
The production will be held from 3 to 4 p.m. March 20 at the Bartholomew County Public Library. Registration is requested. To register, visit mybcpl.org.
The North Carolina-based Bright Star Touring Theatre specializes in two-person shows dedicated to performing for young audiences. Since they launched their first touring production of “A Dickens Tale” in 2003, they have brought over 70 programs to schools and communities across the country, according to their website.
Their Black History Hall of Fame productions, which they started in 2014 and hold annually from January through March, have been one of their most popular. Taylor said they have been all over the state of Indiana and the country performing it, but this will be their first time performing Black History Hall of Fame at the BCPL and will be the last Black History Hall of Fame production of the season.
“Our Black History season is really the gem of our entire business,” Taylor said. “It’s something that we really, really find really important to educate everyone in schools and out of schools about these key figures in American and world history really. So that’s something that we take very seriously and something that we want to continue for many, many years to come.”
The Black History Hall of Fame productions follow Dr. Daisy, played by Yolee Louis, and Professor Paisley, played by Jackson Barham, as they put together a special tour of the Hall of Fame. All of a sudden, the figures that they are showcasing in this hall of fame, figures including Maya Angelou, Harriet Tubman and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., come to life.
Within the span of 45 minutes, audiences will meet over a dozen historical figure. As with all of Bright Star Touring Theatre’s shows, it will also be educational and treat everyone portrayed in the production in a respectful and historically accurate way, but also in a fun and humorous way, Taylor said.
“A lot of these characters are people you do know, people like Harriet Tubman. She’s obviously one of the more serious characters or someone like Sojourner Truth, but then you have Dr. Daniel Hale Williams who performed the first open heart surgery….,” Taylor said. “We treat it in a more comedic way because there’s lots of things you can play around with there, lots of little jokes you can make.”
As it is a two-person show, Taylor said Louis starts as Dr. Daisy but also performs the roles of every historical figure. While Barham goes over what was just introduced, Louis is backstage changing into the next historical figure. That is repeated for each figure they have in the show, Taylor said.
“I can’t talk about the actors enough,” Taylor said. “They’re really wonderful.”
