For the first time in some years, the theatre at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) is presenting a play for children, albeit one with a weighty plot.
In “Steal Away Home,” Amos, 12 and Obie, 10, run away from enslavement on a plantation in South Carolina and journey to Philadelphia where their freed father lives.
The play is set in 1854, pre-emancipation.
“There is no GPS and no maps, a detail rendered irrelevant by the fact that they cannot read,” said Assistant Professor Nadia Bodie-Smith, Ph.D., who is directing the play. “We learn more and more about how perilous this journey is for them.”
Steal Away Home was adopted by Aurand Harris from a 1969 book by Jane Kristof. The department chose to put it on during its 75th anniversary season in part because it was presented 20 years ago by former department chair Rev. Linda Kerr-Norflett. The play, which runs from Feb. 26 – March 1, also overlaps with Black History Month.
“It’s an opportunity to share a powerful story that carries a deeply positive message,” Bodie-Smith said. "Even in the darkest chapters of history, there has always been a light – people who chose courage over compliance and refused to uphold laws they knew were morally wrong and violated humanity.”
Presenting this play has its challenges. It can, for example, be difficult for adult actors to act like children.
“I have to take myself back to when I was 12 and let myself go,” said Tyrone Andrews, a senior majoring in theatre performance who performs the role of Amos. “We work so hard to become adults that sometimes we forget what it’s like to be a child and the beauty that is childhood.”
Adult audiences, said Bodie-Smith, understand the etiquette of theatre space. They might gasp or laugh or chuckle when appropriate.
“Children don’t filter their reactions,” said Bodie-Smith. “They are fearless enough to laugh when something is truly funny, and just as honest when they’re confused or don’t like what they see. They bring a kind of innocence that rises above everything else. If you can captivate them, you know you’re done something right.”
Durant Long, a transfer student from University of North Carolina at Ashville and a student in the department of language and literature, is one of the busier actors in the production. He plays three characters, both positive – like a Quaker who is a conductor on the underground railroad – and negative – like a civilian who tries to apprehend Amos and Obie.
“The biggest challenge is carrying yourself with age,” Long said. “How does someone move who has worked on a farm for 60 years? Or a young spry lawyer who hasn’t had to do anything (physical) with his life?”
“It’s a challenge to find white actors who are willing to step into stories like this one Bodie-Smith said. “Often, it’s because of the subject matter – being asked to portray the slave owner or the man who commits violence on stage.”
Intermixed with the stage scenes are shadow projections that feature both actors and cut outs. The projection mostly occurs at the end of each scene transition and continues the story once the lights go down.
Malachi Moore, a senior majoring in theatre performance who plays Preacher Prentice – a conductor on the underground railroad – particularly likes the shadow projections.
“We are creating pictures with our bodies,” Moore said. “Trees, hills, houses. It encompasses how we use movement and dance to tell the story.”
For tickets and information, go to https://our.show/stealawayhome