I’ve shared a number of music clips. Here’s a glimpse at some drama: Ben Zitelli as George Leonard White, explaining to the group the origins and purpose of their new name.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers introduced ‘slave songs’ to the world in 1871. They broke racial barriers in the U.S. and abroad, and they entertained Queens and Kings of Europe. At the same time, they raised money to support and save Fisk University. Since then, the Fisk Jubilee Singers have continued to preserve this unique American musical tradition. They have been featured in Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory, a PBS award-winning television documentary series. They have performed at the Apollo Theater in New York and traveled to Ghana at the invitation of the U.S. Embassy. In 2008, the Fisk Jubilee Singers were selected as a recipient of the National Medal of Arts; and, just this year, they were featured on a national broadcast of the CBS evening news and shared a Grammy Award nomination with musical artist Jonny Lang in the Best Gospel Performance category.

As the Fisk Jubilee Singers continue to sing and travel around the world, we can now see their story come alive on stage thanks to the KUUMBA Players, who will be donating a portion of their proceeds from this production to Fisk University. The KUUMBA Players is a community theater group in Washington, DC dedicated to producing theater that addresses issues of social conscience, like the story of our very own Fisk Jubilee Singers.

This is a production you don’t want to miss!

Michelle R. Overstreet

Fisk University

Class of 1995

Washington Fisk Alumni Association

“Ella Sheppard, soprano, pianist and reformer, was the matriarch of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a social reformer, confidante of Frederick Douglass, and one of the most distinguished African American women of her generation,” reads a bio of Ella from BlackPast.org.

On the American Experience site the authors note that she was  ”Admired for her musical talent, her quiet, confident style of leadership, and her commitment to the singers’ evangelical mission.” 

To read a complete bio of Ella Sheppard Moore click here or here.

To see an interview with Alona Sistrunk, who will be playing Ella Sheppard in Sing and Never Tire, click here.

Elizabeth: I have been attending All Souls Church and singing with the All Souls Jubilee Singers since 1999.  The music we sing moves me deeply.  Unitarian church services can be very intellectual.  We examine spiritual ideas from many sides, trying to make room for many interpretations.  Oftentimes, the music transports me emotionally above and beyond the words of the sermon. The emotion in traditional African American spirituals is so clear – it transcends words. It provides a place for people to meet. Lenard Starks leads the All Souls Jubilee Singers and so much of what I know comes from singing under his direction.

The PBS Documentary, Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory came out in 2000 and my first reaction was to think “someone has to put this on stage!”  From the first scene with Ella and her mother, to the moment on the train platform where their singing turns back the lynch mob – the story gripped me and I was surprised so few people knew of it.  I bought the Andrew Ward book shortly afterwards. Lenard Starks and I talked about the idea. We were both inspired by it. The idea of doing a Jubilee Singers play was part of the impetus to start the KUUMBA Players in the first place.  There was so much work to be done to begin the new theater group. It was too much to try and write this play at the same time. It was always there, a project I needed to grow into. In 2008, with the KUUMBA Players well established, I approached the other members of the steering committee with the proposal to research and write the play. Lenard gave me a wry smile “I thought we were going to do that 7 years ago,” he said. “Shoot, it was because of that project that I got involved in all of this in the first place.”

How did you research the play?

Elizabeth: I started with Andrew Ward’s incredibly comprehensive book Dark Midnight When I Rise. The research he did was amazing. I also traveled to Fisk University in the fall of 2008 to view the materials in their special collections. The librarian, Beth Howse, is a descendant of Ella Sheppard Moore. She showed me Ella’s journal, America Robinson’s letters, and many more treasures from the original singers. I attended Jubilee Day, the annual convocation where all of the Fisk University Community gathers in the chapel to honor the day in 1871 when the singers set off on the first tour. It was a powerful service. Afterwards, there is a procession in cars and everyone goes to visit the graves of the original singers who are buried within Nashville. The current Jubilees sing at their gravesides and they leave flowers. It was amazing to be among them.

There was so much material. I spent a lot of time researching. You have be careful about that, though. You can get lost there. At some point you have to set aside the research and start writing.

What was the most difficult part about writing the play?

Elizabeth: The actual story is so epic it could be a mini-series. How do you distill it down to a human-size drama that could work on stage? There are so many fascinating characters I couldn’t include.  All good drama is rooted in human conflict. So much of the conflict in their story is about people up against impossible forces – racism and sexism and paternalism. They were incredibly brave in the face of so much hatred and poverty.  But it’s not a novel. I’m not writing the Grapes of Wrath. As a play it must be rooted in human conflict, so how do you personify that? How do you show all of the things they’re struggling against, without getting impossibly abstract?  That was the difficulty of it – doing that, while staying true to the story and keeping it under 2 hours.

The PBS Documentary Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory aired on American Experience a few years ago. Their website has great resources to learn more about the history of the group, including a timeline, and profiles of key people.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers continue to perform around the world.  In 2007 they traveled to Ghana to give a historic performance in an African slave prison. They will be performing in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage on April 22nd and 23rd, 2010.

Sing and Never Tire is an original play with music inspired by Ella Sheppard Moore and the Fisk Jubilee Singers.  It was commissioned by the KUUMBA Players of All Souls Church and will be performed there in March 2010.

This blog will serve as a peek at the show as it develops.  Check back for production photos, videos and interviews with key members of the production team.

SYNOPSIS:

In 1871, a choir of nine former slaves set out to raise money for their failing school. Among them were Ella Sheppard, the devoted accompanist, and Maggie Porter, the demanding lyric soprano.  Through discrimination, discord, illness, and fame, they transformed their songs of sorrow into songs of Jubilee.  In doing so, they secured the future not only of Fisk University but also of the African American Spiritual. Forty years later, Maggie and Ella are called upon to sing together once more, rekindling old rivalries and exposing wounds that stretch back into slavery.