The irony was not lost on the audience that as bard Mohammed Ali Ojarigi’s play about the Civil Rights movement Greenwood 1964 premiered, a contemporary struggle was playing out in Los Angeles’ streets, as president Donald Trump (who this author believes has white supremacist leanings) sent in the marines and national guard to occupy L.A. and aid ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and LAPD in attacking non-Caucasians and their allies. In Greenwood 1964, singer/actor Harry Belafonte (Tracey Dukes) recruits a sympathetic but reluctant thespian, Sidney Poitier (Eltony Williams), to embark on a mission impossible. It’s almost as if the impassioned Belafonte is telling the hesitant Poitier: “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go way down yonder to Dixieland to assist and inspire the ‘Freedom Summer’ insurgents registering African-Americans to vote and to resist American apartheid.”
Once the superstars narrowly elude the Klan and alight at a supposedly “safe house” in the titular Greenwood, Mississippi, they encounter that force of nature, grassroots activist Fannie Lou Hamer. Although Poitier had just earned a groundbreaking Best Actor Academy Award for 1963’s Lilies of the Field, and Belafonte was famed as a Calypso crooner and thesp, it is Joy DeMichelle as Fannie Lou who steals this show and lights up the Greenway Court Theatre every time she graces us with her presence when she steps onstage in this gripping one-act drama. Outshining her luminous co-stars, it is really DeMichelle’s performance as Hamer that is the must-see star of this show, with her compelling performance of the real-life daughter of sharecroppers who dared to tell America: “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
The skillful, deft direction of Iona Morris Jackson, the daughter of Hollywood royalty (Iona’s pathbreaking dad, Greg Morris, played Barney in the original 1966-1973 Mission Impossible TV series) enlivens this 75-ish minute three-hander that may have theatergoers sitting on the edge of their seats, as Harry and Sidney debate the role celebrities could and should play in social causes, and whether or not the rabid racists will discover the hiding place of the outside agitators.
Ojarigi’s play opens up with audio and film clips of historical figures, such as Malcolm X, who eschewed the “nonviolence” credo advocated by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King in favor of a more militant approach of not passively accepting oppression from racist bullies.
In a remarkable vignette, the creative Iona has DeMichelle depict Fannie Lou as actual clips of Hamer are played, with the actress simultaneously speaking the same lines. I have never seen this technique deployed before onstage, and Iona’s virtuoso use of the projections in interplay with the live actor is startling, vividly bringing the character alive. Of course, it helps that the historical figure being portrayed is so dynamic and that she is being reenacted—rather “embodied”—by such a gifted thespian as DeMichelle.
I am fortunate to be well aware of Iona Morris Jackson’s talent, as about a decade ago, I was lucky enough to have her direct the musical I wrote the book for, Still Standing, which we presented at Long Beach and Switzerland. She has also directed episodes of the TV sitcom Black-ish, among many other plays. However, with Greenwood 1964, she simply outdoes herself.
She and Ojarigi, along with their cast and crew, are to be congratulated for bringing back to life a long-lost chapter of the Civil Rights movement. Evelia Jones, who attended the premiere, was a child when she actually witnessed Poitier, Belafonte—as well as other celebs, such as author James Baldwin—brave Mississippi burning during those heady days of the crusade for equality in the segregated South, and Ms. Jones felt that the play realistically captured the events being dramatized. While many members of the opening night audience were old enough to remember the heyday of Poitier and Belafonte, Greenwood 1964 is far more than a mere excursion into antiquity and nostalgia. This trip down memory lane is also a history lesson for those who weren’t born yet in 1964, as the fight for human rights by today’s Freedom Riders continues against the modern incarnation of Bull Connor in the White House.
And for inspiration, oh boy and oh joy! That Joy DeMichelle’s Fannie Lou Hamer is simply not to be missed!
Greenway Arts Alliance and Ojarigi Enterprises present Greenwood 1964 at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 28, and 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 29 at the Greenway Court Theatre, 544 N. Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles, 90036. Free parking is available in the lot adjacent to the theatre. Tickets may be purchased online here.
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