Sing Me to the Other Side

Written by Gwen Flager

Reading on Monday, March 18, 2024

Preformed by National Michael Chekhov Association

Synopsis:

Lorean Stephens holds tight to her convictions as she tenderly addresses the strengths and weaknesses of her adult children while they deal with the bigotry and prejudice of 1961 Bynum, Alabama, during the planning of her Mother’s Day celebration. Blind hate and terrifying violence push the Stephens family to make hard choices even though many in Calhoun County quietly watch and secretly listen to other “celebrations” being planned for the arrival of the Greyhound Bus, carrying the Freedom Bus riders as well as Lorean’s youngest daughter, on that Mother’s Day Sunday. The Greyhound bus is attacked at the Anniston bus station by white supremacists and followed by the mob as it travels out of town. The Stephens family confront their fears and allegiances when the Greyhound bus is firebombed near Bynum, leaving the youngest daughter comatose in the local hospital with life-threatening burns.

Playwright Bio:

I am a story teller, who grew up in Louisiana and Alabama. My stories have a Southern flavor and embrace strong unconventional and spirited women of this region. I tell the stories of women who maneuvered and managed the social stigma and prejudice of their sexual identities, flourished in their unconventional lives and shared their unflinching compassion or the broken. My full-length plays include Waiting To Be Mended, produced in Houston by Theatre Suburbia in 2010, and Shakin’ the Blue Flamingo, selected for the 2017 - 2018 New Works Development Program, and produced in Houston by Queensbury Theatre in 2018. Shakin’ the Blue Flamingo was also produced by Dirt Dogs UNLEASHED in association with Sweet Darlin’ Productions in Houston for a limited seven performance engagement in August 2022. Sing Me to the Other Side was selected as a semifinalist in the Bechdel Test Festival 2.0 (2019). In Flight, a 10-minute play, was produced at the Fifth Annual Museum Plays by Scriptwriters Houston in 2012. Jornada del Muerto, a 10-minute play, was produced at the 25th Annual Scriptwriters Houston 10 x 10 Showcase in 2015; presented at the Midwest Dramatists Conference in September 2017; produced at the 2019 Santa Cruz Actors Theatre 8 Tens @ 8 Short Play Festival; selected for Itinerant Theatre’s 2020 “The Play’s the Thing: Life Inspired” New Play Series; and presented at the Crafton Hills College New Works Festival in 2021. Clean-Up on Aisle Seven, a 10-minute play, was read at Theatre Southwest’s Spotlight: Houston Playwrights in March 2020. Tattoos and Tater, a full-length play, was the winner of The Shawnee Playhouse 2022/2023 Original Playwrights Series in the Full Length Play category.