From The Till Trilogy

From The Till Trilogy Ifa Bayeza (bio) Keywords drama, Ifa Bayeza, plays, civil rights, history, death, legacy, murder, trial, Emmett Till, music INTRODUCTION IN THREE INTERCONNECTED PLAYS, The Till Trilogy is an imagined, speculative exploration of the epic of Emmett Till and the birth of the modern Civil Rights Movement, the events as seen from the perspective of the youth, himself, in his final days of life, as a specter during the trial of his killers and a shadowed presence in the aftermath. I have written numerous dramas exploring pivotal intersections of race in American history, bearing witness to the role played by the African American struggle for full humanity in the making of this nation. I chose the ancient form of the trilogy to imbue this modern story with gravitas and nobility, to juxtapose the promise of America with its tragic and tortured past. As a child of the Civil Rights Movement, I elected to enter this world from the perspective of the youth himself, and to explore the agency he played and plays in the saga that bears his name. The Till Trilogy is a story that in many ways remains a mystery. While based on actual events and primary research, the work is not in documentary or docudrama but history as metaphor and "found poetry," exploring the story on multiple levels: past and present, temporal and metaphysical, black and white. Finding the right blend of the factual and speculative remained a challenge throughout. Research and efforts to shape the story and hone the form required many years and numerous fellowships, workshops, and regional productions of the work's components—and, finally, in finding the right collaborative team to realize the vision. For dramatic exigency, some characters have been composited and some events compressed, and, as this is still a story in living memory, these choices were at times difficult. After various test cast structures, I settled on an ensemble of ten actors, in different constellations, to inhabit the three plays. Because of the scope of the work, The Till Trilogy premier at Mosaic Theatre was only made possible by an award for full production from The Roy Cockrum Foundation. [End Page 133] FROM THE BALLAD OF EMMETT TILL The Ballad of Emmett Till explores the life and afterlife of Emmett Till, a Chicago teenager who takes a fateful trip to Mississippi in the summer of 1955. He goes by the nickname Bo or BoBo and he stutters. Like the African bata "talking drum," his stammer is percussive, a rapid-fire repetition, without hesitation. His is not a stammer of insecurity but a physical disability which he has chosen to ignore and even to exploit. He is in a hurry to say everything. He whistles in a variety of ways. These moments in the script are indicated with variations of the sign ((o)). He is both a youth who never ages and an old soul, longing for death. He is accompanied by a troupe of fellow travelers, a quintet composed of two women and three men, a chorus of shape-shifters, trapped between life and after. Lost souls, who cannot find their way, they cling to life and the shadows of it, awaiting trial, release, a hearing, justice, judgment. As they wait, Emmett entertains the group with scenes from his brief life, the group taking on the roles of his family, friends, tormenters—any souls that, like the quintet, have been drawn into his sphere. It feels like a coffin, the waiting. The landscape is cold, barren, the darkness close. The overlapping chorus of voices shifts easily from idle babble around a campfire or kitchen table to the tight, shape-note harmonies of a Negro spiritual. From the bent blues harmonies of a juke joint to the fast-moving currents of river water, a humming becomes a song, a psalm, a ballad. Time: August 1955 and the present Place: Chicago, Illinois, and the Mississippi Delta The Ballad of Emmett Till runs approximately 90 minutes with no intermission. CHARACTER BREAKDOWN WHILE THE ACTOR who plays Emmett has a singular role, the other five actors in the ensemble will play varied roles evoking his memory of family members, friends and...