Out of this history came my play, MERIDIAN SUMMER. This play has its roots in my childhood. Every summer, we visited my mother's family in Meridian, Mississippi. It wasn't until I was an adult that I learned that James Chaney was a native of Meridian. Growing up, I had heard from my white family that "outside agitators" were to be blamed for all the "troubles." I wanted to write about the Movement from some very personal points of view, both inside it and outside it. MERIDIAN SUMMER is a work of fiction based on actual events of Freedom Summer, 1964.
More than 50 years ago James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andy Goodman were killed for working to register African-Americans to vote. In writing MERIDIAN SUMMER, I hoped to show the power of prejudice and to honor those who continue the struggle for human rights.
If you’d like to read MERIDIAN SUMMER, please download the PDF here. If you wish to perform the play, please contact me for permission and royalty information.
Winner of the 2006-2007 Kaplan Prize and the Cape Cod Playwrights’ Competition, which included a staged reading produced by Eventide Arts and the Cape Cod Writers’ Center, Dennis, MA
Other readings of the play include:
- Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT), workshop reading, Wellfleet, MA
- Cotuit Center for the Arts, co-sponsored by Zion Union Heritage Museum
- Cape Cod Community College, Hyannis, MA
- Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House, Chatham, MA
- Cape Cod Branch of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), in honor of WILPF's receipt of the James Chaney Prize for anti-racism work, Harwich, MA