“The Power of Harriet Tubman” Play
On Monday February 16th 2015, the Black Theater Workshop came to
Michelangelo International Elementary School to present a play entitled, “The
Power of Harriet Tubman”, a play written by Michael Miller. The play showed
students and teachers what it was like to be a slave and how Harriet Tubman
saved over 300 black slaves. The play also showed students about the injustice
and inequality of slavery.
The actors involved in the play were:
Cherissa Richards as Harriet 1
Virgilian Griffth as Harriet 2
Alejandro Céspeaes: Musician
Gordan Balan: Composer and musical director
Cherissa and Virgilian both played Harriet and also played over 10 different
characters as they retold events.
The play follows the story of a girl named Araminta Brodiess aka, Minty.
Her whole family had been slaves since her grandmother got taken away from her
home in Africa. The audience follows Araminta throughout her life as a slave and
experience how difficult it was to live in that period of time.
Araminta was a young girl when she became a slave. She had a dream and
that dream was to be free. In the beginning of the play, the masters would sell
their slaves and white people would bid on them. People would use their slaves to
do all the chores around the house. If they did one thing wrong, they would be
severely punished with a whip or be sold again to someone else.
As she got older, she learned about a system known as “The Underground
Railroad” which helped slaves escape slavery and reach the Northern States and
Canada, where slavery was abolished and everyone was treated more equally.
In the dead of night, she packed up a few things and headed on a
dangerous journey to the North. She settled in and started making money for
herself. She then changed her name to “Harriet Tubman”. She got the name
“Harriet” from her mother and “Tubman” from her ex-husband “John Tubman.”
She loved it there but she felt lonely so she brought her family and everyone else
who wanted to come. She rescued over 300 slaves!
In the end, the students and teachers loved the play. It was very well done.
“It was a very good play and very well written!” says Ashley D’Avella, a grade 6
student at Michelangelo International Elementary school.
Article written by: Karina Lanza and Mariam Gahia
The Michelangelo Times School Newspaper