Black History Assembly Skits

This is an invitation to the creative writing department to write a few short scenes for the Black History Assembly, which will be held at 7 p.m. on February 4th,

The theme of the program is "Read All About it! Black hHstory and Culture Through the Centuries." The idea is to choose an article from a newspaper from a specific time in American history and project the article onto a screen in the theater.  While the atricle is visible,  two or three characters discuss it as though they were living through it. Each vignette should be 3-5 minutes long. We currently envision four of these short scenes.

The first newspaper article is about a slave rebellion in the antebellum South; the characters could comment on the morality of slavery and the yearning among the slaves for freedom. The second article will be about the rise of jazz culture in Harlem in the 1920's; the characters could talk about the excitement and energy of black culture and the music of Duke Ellington. The third article will be about the civil rights marches of the early 60s. The final article will be something from contemporary history; perhaps the election of Obama, or the new civil rights protests. Of course, all scenes must be family-appropriate in terms of language, tone and subject matter. We might want to take these scenes with us to elementary schools, so please keep our audiences in mind.

Please share this opportunity with interested students. please let us know by the end of the week if there is student interest. The Black History Assembly is coming up soon; we would like the scenes to be roughly finished by the 15th of January so we can cast and rehearse them. We know this is a tight timeline, but hopefully some young writers will be inspired by a chance to hear their words performed.