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Youth play examines key points in black history
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Published: January 13, 2010
Part of the reason Xavier Zsarmani wrote his play about African American history was to teach young people what it was like for those of a certain skin color in the days before the civil rights storm.
Zsarmani, a South Statesville barber and part-time playwright, has penned stage scripts before, but the one he will put on at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Boys & Girls Club of the Piedmont is particularly geared toward young folks.
The play — part of Mitchell Community College's Martin Luther King Jr. celebration — is a series of vignettes that capture in just a few lines of dialog the essence of the story. And none of them is more stirring than the story of Emmett Till.
Because Emmett Till, whose vicious murder came to symbolize the brutality and inhumanity of racism in its most banal form, was a child himself.
"First, they shot him," Zsarmani explained to his troop of young actors during a rehearsal of the play. "And then they tied a big engine fan around his neck and threw him in the river."
The thing that purportedly got Emmett Till killed was an act of flirtation he made toward a woman in a store he stopped into with his cousin and a few other youngsters to buy some candy and a soda.
Till was 14 and black. The woman was 21 and white.
Supposedly on a dare by the other teens, Till, a Chicago native visiting relatives in Mississippi at the time of his murder, said "Hey baby" or words along those lines to the young woman. Others said he whistled in the woman's direction.
In the play, Kaitlyn Davis, 9, portrays the accusing white woman.
"He whistled at me," Kaitlyn says as she points across the stage at 8-year-old Josiah Russell, whose face quickly adopts a "wasn't me" look.
Other famous black leaders and figures include Muhammad Ali reciting his famous "Float like a butterfly..." line.
Ali is played by Jaron Waddell, 9. Jaron said that in addition to learning about African American history, he picked up some thespian lessons.
"It's important to show emotions when you act," he said.
Zsarmani explained that the play opens with the inauguration of President Barrack Obama as the fulfillment of the Martin Luther King's famous "Dream."
The actors then walk back in time to uncover those events that made the dream possible.
"It's a reflection told in time lines," Zsarmani said.
Black community leader Woody Woodard said the play delivers.
"We are always trying to educate our young people because a lot of history, especially the history of African Americans, is not recorded," Woodard said. "And (Zsarmani) never disappoints with his plays."
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