PORT ANGELES — “Bound for Freedom” is a story of a time that, though more than 150 years ago, is similar in some ways to the era we’re living in.
So believes Juanita Ramsey-Jevne, writer and director of the show on stage tonight and Friday in the Little Theater at Peninsula College, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd. Admission is free to both shows.
While Friday is the public performance — patrons are invited to come shortly before the 7 p.m. curtain — those who want to attend tonight must obtain a free ticket from Five Acres School, the producer behind “Freedom.”
The school at 515 Lotzgesell Road in Dungeness can be reached at 360-681-7255.
Change ‘exploding’
“Freedom” is about the 1850s, when “change was exploding all over,” Ramsey-Jevne said.
Together with her students at Five Acres, she’s bringing that period to vivid life in a drama featuring 14 songs, 32 young actors and an ending that points up the possibility of redemption.
Pre-Civil War America was when slaves in the South were using the Underground Railroad to escape their brutal masters, when Native Americans were being forced out of their homelands and onto the Trail of Tears and when women were beginning to call for civil rights.
Three acts
“Freedom” tells these stories in three acts, starting with a young man’s move from Mississippi to Ohio.
In college there, Daniel — played by Five Acres student Mathew Craig — meets a Northern woman; they marry and move back to his native South.
At home, Daniel tangles with his brother, Caleb, played by Lily Gloor, over the institution of slavery.
Daniel has come to believe the slaves must be freed, while Caleb is against such a radical change in the Southern way of life.
At the same time, “Freedom” shows women questioning another foundation of American life: the Declaration of Independence.
What about me?
To its assertion that “all men are created equal,” they ask, “What about me?”
Ramsey-Jevne’s original song bears that title. In it, the women sing:
What about me? My liberty?
I am your mother, your daughter, your helpmate,
I worked beside you creating this land,
You claim your right to freedom and liberty,
But what about me?
“Freedom” is not only a stage play, but also a way to open up history for young students, Ramsey-Jevne said.
“They are always shocked,” she added, “when you tell them we in the United States enslaved people.
“With the play, I wanted to present a realistic picture — but not in a way that condemned anybody. I tell the students: If you lived in this time, you would have had these challenges.”
The story’s ending aims to lift people’s spirits, Ramsey-Jevne said.
It shows how people in power can have changes of heart and how those without power find ways to rise above their oppressors.
The struggles and sea changes that took place here in the 19th century, she said, aren’t so different from the trials playing out today in various nations across the world.
In “Freedom,” Ramsey-Jevne illustrates the strength of the human spirit with music and new lyrics for the traditional song “I’ll Fly Away:”
Free at last . . . we are free at last!
No more shackles chain me to the past
I’ll fly away
Shouting hallelujah, free at last! I’ll fly away
. . . In the morning
with these wings of freedom
I shall rise
I’ll fly away.
The show’s young cast, meanwhile, is more than eager to take the stage.
Irie Brown, a sixth-grader, describes “Freedom” as “really cool and interesting.”
“We worked really hard on it; it would be good if people supported us in our efforts,” said Gloor, who’s also in her final year at Five Acres School.
“I would say: Definitely come,” added Liam Harris, the fifth-grader who plays abolitionist Thomas Mortenson.
“The overall message of the play,” said Ramsey-Jevne, “is that the people of the past are no different from us. They were just as human as we are. They made mistakes, and many of them also made a difference.
“This story is about seeing the past with our eyes open and honoring who the people were.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
