"Echoes of American Slavery" Presented at UVSC

In commemoration of Black History Month, Utah Valley State College Theatre Department presents "Echoes of American Slavery" February 9-11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Ragan Theater. Tickets are $6-10 and are available from Campus Connection at 801-863-8797. The play tells the story of slaves as they are sold to the highest bidder on the auction block and follows first-hand accounts of American slave life on the plantation in the 1860s. The script for the production was derived directly from transcriptions of more than 2,300 interviews and 500 photographs from the Slave Narrative Collection of the Federal Writer's Project compiled in 1936 and 1938, archived at the Library of Congress. Producer Adam Slee, 24, a UVSC theatre major and junior from Kittanning, Pennsylvania, came across the collection while conducting personal research on American history. "I just do a lot of independent research because I love history and theatre," Slee said. "The slave narratives captured the very voice of the American slave. And I thought that it would be amazing to put all this in a production." Slee presented his findings to other historians and shared his idea for a production with Theatre Department Chair Terry Petrie, who signed on to co-author and direct the show. Slee and Petrie structured the piece into a multi-media documentary and dramatization of the accounts of former slaves. The production incorporates actual images from the collection as well as interviews with scholars, historians, and students. "Look, listen, and learn from slave narratives," said long-time Genesis member Alan Cherry, historian and UVSC director of sponsor programs. "These former slaves tell tales of wickedness, wonder, wisdom, and the whimsical. Listen to their voices through the window they have given our minds. We might be shamed. We might be surprised. Yet, we will surely be enlightened by their human spirit, by their incredible pursuit of happiness."