Name: I Can't Breathe - American historical play about Slavery
SKU: 33306
Price: 7.50 USD
Availability: InStock

Description

I CAN’T BREATHE – AMERICAN HISTORICAL PLAY ABOUT SLAVERY

If you were enslaved during the 18th century, would you consider the Founding Fathers any differently than an Auschwitz inmate would consider Eichmann or Hitler? Most of the Founding Fathers were enslavers. Hamilton, who claimed to be against slavery,
married into a slave-holding family and bought slaves himself. Even the minority who never owned slaves, were complicit in our American Holocaust and signed the Declaration of Independence, a document that did not condemn slavery, did not protect
the rights of women, and infamously ends with a racist reference regarding “merciless Indian savages.”

The archetypal painting, “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” has hung in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for more than a century. In it, a Black soldier is rowing beside the General’s knee. Who is this man? Many have claimed him to be Prince Whipple, enslaved by William Whipple, one of the Founding Fathers. Recent research,
however, has shown that neither one was with Washington at the time of the crossing.

Inspired by that unknown Black man in Washington’s boat, this play attempts to explore the ongoing adoration of the so called, “Founding Fathers,” and our complicity in adhering to those myths that seek to subvert the truth at the expense of all those who have
suffered and continue to suffer. Taking place in 1796, it is a time when the country is in the midst of a great partisan divide not
unlike our own. A time when “fake news” first becomes ascendant and, through the secret bidding of Hamilton and Jefferson, the “scandal-monger” is created, emboldening both sides with talk of secession and civil war. I can’t breathe is also a love story imbued with a dark comedic sensibility that buoys the lovers as they navigate the cruel waves of their storm tossed world. A tale of enslavers and rebels. It will challenge what we think we know and what we pretend to forget.

‘I Can’t Breathe,’ formerly known as ‘In the Boat,’ was named a finalist for the 2021 Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award.

Author: Steve Romagnoli

Type: Two-act Play

Genre: Drama with humorous overtones, American historical play about slavery

Cast: The cast is composed of five Black actors and one white actor. In alternating scenes, the enslaved Black characters double their roles as Martha Washington and three of the Founding Fathers. The one white role is based on the historic figure, James Callender,
who was traditionally disparaged as a drunk “scandal-monger” and dismissed by historians despite of (and because of) his speaking truth to power and revealing the underlying corruption and mendacity of Washington, Adams, Hamilton and Jefferson

Ages of the actors: Adult

Suitable for: All ages to watch and older teens up to perform

Length: 100 minutes

Set: Various: Initially a dark stage with suggested swirling clouds and moonlight, Martha Washington’s dressing room and the back room of a saloon, Washington’s Drawing room, a row of chairs on a bare stage.

Level of Difficulty: 8/10 – the double casting of the same actors playing both the enslaved and the white people in power should create a very interesting dynamic, and skilled actors must be able to switch attitudes, body language and accents as well as costumes very quickly as the scenes change.