Bourbon at the Border - Miami University School of Fine Arts

MIAMI UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE presents
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Bourbon at the Border
By Pearl Cleage
Directed by Paul K. Jackson
Steven R. Pauna, Scenic Designer & Technical Director
Meggan Peters, Costume Designer
Jay Rozema, Lighting & Sound Designer
lighting design assisted by Katie Johnson
Emily Ruth Williams, Stage Manager
Produced by special arrangement with Rosenstone/Wender

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A SPECIAL THANKS to
Dr. Rinda Frye, guest vocal/performance consultant,
University of Louisville
Dr. Mia Biran, guest consultant on psychological issues related to the play
Miami University
Ann Elizabeth Armstrong for overseeing the content and organization of the
dramaturgy for this Program Guide
Performance Guide Editor
Lisa A. Campbell
Dramaturgy
Andrew Beal
Amy Foster
Dr. Paul Jackson
May I-3
“The Green Dress”
Costume Rendering
by
Meggan Peters
THEATRE ETIQUETTE
• Please turn off all cell phones and pagers.
• The taking of photographs or use of recording devices is strictly prohibited.
• If you have candy to unwrap, kindly do so now.
• Please note the closest exit in case of an emergency.
• Smoking is not permitted in the Center for Performing Arts.
• Please discard all food and drinks before entering the theatre.
• As a courtesy to the audience and performers, all latecomers will not be
seated until an appropriate break in the performance.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Please join us for an Opening Night reception, immediately following the
show on October 27, in the Green Room of the CPA.
There will be a Talk Back with the cast, designers and director following the
matinee performance on Saturday, October 30.

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Performance Guide CONTENTS
Director Notes 4
Exploring Cultural Spaces of Pearl Cleage 5
1954-1994: 40 Years of Civil Rights 6
Synopsis of Scenes/Cast List 8
Who’s Who in the Cast 9
The Racial Chasm 11
Hitsville, USA & Motown Records 13
Designer Notes 14
Company Credits 16
Charlie I-1
“Coming Home”
Costume Rendering
by
Meggan Peters

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DIRECTOR’S NOTES
Bourbon at the Border is a memory play...
I have only been to Detroit once. But, perhaps we all live in Detroit or in its shadow. I remember in high school, or so I think
it was… rejoicing in the election of Detroit’s first African American mayor. It seemed, to me, a natural progression of the
civil rights movement, a signifier of King’s dream. Then…I remember a news story about school buses burning in Pontiac…
My first car was a Ford Pinto, built in Detroit I suppose. The Pinto was the car that when rear-ended could instantly become
an immolation device. I loved that car…
A colleague tells me that Fordism refers to an economic system where assembly line production combined with high wages
enabled many workers to buy the American Dream. White men benefited more than non-whites and women during this
so-called golden age of the 1950’s.
Times have changed.
While at Wharton, during the so-called halcyon Reagan era, I remember no one wanted to talk to the GM recruiter from
Detroit.
Has Detroit been rendered obsolete as Exxonworld, Toyotaworld, and Dellword and other such worlds have transported,
translated, and translocated Fordism into a new economic equation?
What is the domestic response, the discourse, the condition, around race, economics, and displacement, in a global context,
to the de-Detroitalization? Is it violence? If it is, then…do we all live in Baghdad or in its shadow?
Burning crosses, burning buses, burning cities, burning people…
Who is sitting next to you?
DIRECTOR’S BIO
Paul K. Jackson (Director) is currently a Professor of Theatre at Miami University. Prior to coming to Miami, he was an Associate
Professor and Chair at Spelman College. His theatre and performance interests center on the African Diaspora, post and neo colonialism
and issues of race, class, gender and sexuality. His work as a director mirrors these interests. In 2002, he directed Suzan-Lori Parks’
Venus. He is co-editor of Intersecting Boundaries: The Theatre of Adrienne Kennedy. Recently he has given lectures at Ohio State and
at the University of Massachusetts on Kennedy, an Ohio native. He has also been Guest Professor at Mount Holyoke College. In 1994
he received a grant from the Consortium for Inter-Institutional Collaboration in African and Latin American Studies to Study Portuguese
language and Brazilian Culture at Michigan State University and later in Brazil. In July 1994, he presented the opening paper at the
Fourth International Theatre Conference at the Federal University of Bhatia (UFBA) Salvador, where he was also adjunct professor. He
has received grants from The National Endowment for the Humanities, The Ford Foundation, and the Coca-Cola Foundation. He is an
active member of National Association of Schools of Theatre, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, of which he presently serves
on the Strategic Planning Committee, the Black Theatre Network, and the Modern Language Association. He acknowledges among his
mentors the recently departed Vinnette Carroll (Don’t Bother Me I Can’t Cope and Your Arms are too Short to Box with God), one of
only two African American women to have directed on Broadway. He is currently at work editing the third annual edition of Blackstream,
a journal devoted to the conference papers of the Black Theatre Association (ATHE). He is also completing a history of African American
Theatre with African/African American historian Alphine Jefferson and emeritus theatre professor Arnetta Jefferson (both of Wooster
College) to be published in 2004. He is also completing a study devoted to public space, resistance, performance and neo colonialism
with urban geographer James Engstrom. Chapters have been presented at both ATHE and the Association of American Geographers.

I dedicate my work in Bourbon at the Border to all my womanist and feminist sisters
from,
a comrade
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EXPLORING THE CULTURAL SPACES OF PEARL CLEAGE BY PAUL K. JACKSON, PH. D.
Pearl Cleage is a serious writer, and her plays reflect a century of political and social progress, change, struggle, awareness,
denial, failure and triumph of the lives of African American women and men. Ms. Cleage states,” as a third-generation
black nationalist and a radical feminist, the primary energy that fuels my work is a determination to be part of the ongoing
worldwide struggle against racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. I approach my work first as a way of expressing my
emotional response to oppression, since no revolution has ever been fueled purely by intellect, no matter what the boys
tell you; second, as a way to offer analysis, establish context, and clarify point of view; and third to incite my audiences or
my readers to action. My work is deeply rooted in, and consciously reflective of African American history and culture since
I believe that it is by accurately expressing our very specific and highly individual realities that we discover our common
humanity.” (Contemporary Plays by Women of Color, Routledge, Perkins and Uno) Flyin’ West (1992) Blues for an
Alabama Sky (1995), and Bourbon at the Border (1997) each contribute to Pearl’s political/dramaturgical vision. These plays
revisit, recreate, and reanimate challenging historical spaces in such a way that they compel the audience to reconsider those
central questions of gender, race, and community identity within a paradigm of past, present, and future.
These plays also reflect a tradition of African American women in the theatre that spans the 20 th century. To locate the
space of Ms. Cleage within a tradition of African American playwrights is first to look at the plays included in the volume
of her plays Flyin’ West and other Plays (TCG 1999). An interesting and important observation can be made in that her
first major play puppetplay, which opened the 1983, 17 th , season of the Negro Ensemble Company in New York City, is not
included in the collection. The play, a fanciful non-realistic drama that investigates relationships and employs a marionette to
do so, received mixed reviews. In an interview with Freda Scott Giles, Professor of Theatre at the University of Georgia, Ms.
Cleage speaks about the play. “Most people are not enamored of new forms. Using traditional forms gives me more power
in taking the audience’s defenses away.” It is not surprising then to see that given the experience of puppetplay, Pearl,
politically and strategically decides to embrace a tradition of African American women playwrights that include those of the
Harlem Renaissance: Angelina Grimke and Mary Burrill (1901), those of the U.S. Civil Rights era: Alice Childress, and Lorraine
Hansberry and her contemporaries Kia Cothorn and Rhodessa Jones. These “warrior women, ” who prefer the textual
clarity and pragmatism of social realism over non-realistic drama and who choose the most pressing issues of our day,
including lynching, prison, abortion, questions of identity, enslavement and the ghosts of its aftermath, sexuality, colonialism,
nationalism, and integration to confront their audiences, presage and reflect the dramas of Ms. Cleage. Furthermore, it
can be entertained that given Cleage’s nationalist and feminist desires to address global concerns and foment community
around central issues that the playwright chooses a dramatic form that embraces all and not only the inner circle of the
theatre-going community. It is simultaneously important to note that Pearl Cleage sees her first audience as that of African
American women.
Within this context of dramatic and literary tradition and “warrior women,” Ms. Cleage recreates and constructs African
American historical and cultural spaces, familiar yet “strange,” in which to set her plays. Violence marks and resonates within
those spaces. In Flyin’West, it is a space in Nicodemus, Kansas where recently freed Africans attempt to create “home” while
carrying the ghosts and violence of enslavement on their backs. In Blues for an Alabama Sky, it is a space in Harlem during
the Harlem Renaissance where community dreams of social change and racial uplift and personal dreams of fame, fortune
and glamour are either legislated against, violently ended or only attainable through the culturally violent process of leaving
home--becoming an ex patriate, and in Bourbon at the Border, it is a “homespace” haunted by the memory of violence that
occurred in the basement of a Mississippi jail during Freedom Summer 30 years earlier.

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Ms. Cleage’s spaces of history, marked by violence, encompass, chronicle and reflect a Diasporic experience and culture
that are further marked by struggle. The playwright constructs character, language and action to underscore that reality. It
is therefore not at all uncommon in Ms. Cleage’s plays to see a moment of great joy suddenly confronted by great sorrow
or anger (Bourbon at the Border)--the birth of a new generation overshadowed by an abusive relationship (Flyin’ West),
or a joyous party suddenly ended by homophobia (Blues for an Alabama Sky). Notice how quickly the “dreams” of the
characters in Blues For an Alabama Sky appear to be shattered by one bullet, and the dreams of a new job or a new
beginning are shattered by a forgotten note (Bourbon at the Border). One important feature of these spaces in relation to
the culture and struggle of the African American Diasporic experience is that these spaces can be both remarkably complex
and remarkably simple. They are at times transhistorical. They are even at times magical. So do not dismiss actions or
events as being too simplistic or overly melodramatic at times for Ms Cleage often calls upon the wisdom of the past to
resolve an evil of today.
Ultimately Ms. Cleage’s plays occupy a dialectical space where she feels comfortable in interrogating and confronting her
audiences. If we look at the trajectory of Flyin’West to Bourbon on the Border we see the continual development of this
technique: Flyin’ West, concludes with a womanist vision of the future—but what about the PIE?; in Blues for an Alabama
Sky, we witness Angel, who feared solitude, sitting alone and contemplating her future and at the close of Bourbon at
the Border we see the two central characters in an embrace, one an admitted murderer who sought vengeance for the
rape of his wife twenty years earlier and the later brutality thrust upon him. It is also a renaissance for May. Although Ms.
Cleage’s works resonate political reality, innuendo and circumstance, it is important to note these dramas refrain from
postulating political theory or action. Eschewing political dogmatism, Ms. Cleage develops multiple arguments and asks
that her audiences consider, reflect, and “discover their common humanity.” Given recent and continuing events, perhaps
discovering our humanity, in all of its pluralistic variances, is something that we all must do.
1954-1994: 40 Years of Civil Rights and Politics
by Amy Foster
1954 – Brown vs. Board of Education decision
1955 – Emmett Till
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat
1957 - Attempted integration of the Little Rock 9 in Arkansas
Sputnik is launched in space
1959 - Woolworth lunch counter sit-in
1960 - First televised debate is between Nixon and Kennedy
Soviets shoot down U.S. spy plane
1961 - Freedom Riders
University of Mississippi riots against integration
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Berlin Wall built
Green Berets sent to Vietnam
Tomatoes: A Playful Discourse by Andrew Beal
Tomatoes are a member of the deadly
nightshade family, and as such were considered
toxic, causing many conditions like “brain
fever” and cancer. In fact, they may have just
the opposite effect. An eccentric New Jersey
gentleman Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson
brought them back from a trip overseas. He
shocked his hometown by consuming and
entire basket of tomatoes in front of a crowd
of spectators, expecting him to keel over any
second.
Since then tomatoes have been a staple of the
American diet and with good reason.
Most tomato plants will survive and produce
fruit even in sub-standard soils and conditions,

1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis
U.S. begins using Agent Orange in Vietnam
1963 - Murder of Medgar Evers
JFK assassination
March on Washington
Bombing of 16 th Street Baptist Church, Alabama
(kills four young girls)
1964 - Civil Rights Act of 1964
Freedom Summer Training in Oxford, OH
Murders of Cheney, Schwerner, and Goodman
Nelson Mandela sentenced to life in prison
Gulf of Tonkin incident
1965 - Los Angeles Riots
Malcolm X assassinated
1966 - Black Panther Party established
Veterans of WWI, WWII, and Korean War stage
protests of Vietnam
1967 - Six Day War in Middle East
MLK speaks out against Vietnam
1968 - MLK assassinated
Robert Kennedy assassinated
1979 - Last segregated school district in U.S. integrates
1988 - Civil Rights Restoration Act (expands nondiscrimination
laws)
Jesse Jackson makes notable run for U.S. President
1991- Police beating of Rodney King
1992 - Urban Uprising in Los Angeles as a result of police
exoneration in beating
1994 - Nelson Mandela elected State President of
South Africa
but to achieve the biggest fruits and
best health for the plants, careful soil
preparation is a must.
It appears to be a matter of environment.
Tomatoes need plentiful sunshine, so be
sure to give them a sunny space in the
garden, preferably where they receive the
sun all day.
Try to protect the plants from excessive
wind and heat if possible, to achieve the
biggest and best tomatoes.
Some species do better in the north, and
some do better in the south, so choose
your varieties carefully, depending on
your location. You don’t want your
tomatoes to suffer.
Tomatoes are the one of the most grown
vegetable of them all in the American
home garden. They are easy plants to
grow, and provide good yields for the
amount of space they use. They are
rich in many beneficial substances, and
as such, make a good addition to the
healthy and healthful garden.
Tomatoes, though foreign to American
soil, are here to stay. Though feared
initially, they have integrated themselves
completely into every faction of the
American way, and they will not be
uprooted, so please don’t try.
They are the red, of the red, white, and
blue.
I don’t know what the blue is.
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2003 - Affirmative Action is upheld in the courts

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Cast
(in order of appearance)
May Thompson______________________________Majida Al-Husaam
Rosa St. John____________________________________Cara Parrish
Tyrone Washington______________________________Breon Jackson
Charles Thompson______________________________Vonzell Carter
Synopsis of Scenes
The action takes place in May’s apartment.
September 1995; Detroit, Michigan
Act I
Scene 1: Friday night
Scene 2: Saturday morning
Scene 3: Saturday night
Scene 4: next Saturday
INTERMISSION
Act II
Scene 1: following Friday
Scene 2: Monday
Scene 3: Tuesday afternoon
Scene 4: Tuesday night

WHO’S WHO IN THE COMPANY
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Majida S. Al-Husaam (May Thompson) is a fourth year Interdisciplinary Studies Major with a dual focus in Pre-Medicine/
Women’s Health and African American Theatre and Literature. Majida appeared in the Miami University 2003 production of
The Vagina Monologues and also performed an original performance piece in 2003’s The Genesis Project.
Majida has interest ranging from social and political activism, travel, and music (guitar and violin). Don’t forget to vote!
Majida would like to say thanks to her parents, Abdul Kariym and Zakiyah, her brother, Adam, and the love of her life, Zach
Fisher, for their never ending support of all of her various adventures and undertakings. I love you all!
Lisa A. Campbell (Audience Development) joined the staff in February 2003 as the Audience Development Coordinator
for the department. She has a BA in Theatre and an MA in Student Personnel from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She
is a passionate supporter of arts in education and occasionally enjoys the opportunity to crawl on stage herself.
Vonzell Carter (Charlie Thompson) entered the Department in 2003, and has enjoyed numerous opportunities from Philly
O’Cullen in Playboy of the Western World, to a wonderful 600’s performance as Peter in Gladiator, to a few Scripts Out Of
Hand performances, to two movies from the locally acclaimed Miami Association of Filmmakers and Independent Actors.
Charlie Thompson has been his most challenging and complex role yet, and he is thoroughly convinced that this play will be
a redefining experience for everyone. He would like to thank Dr. Jackson, Emily Williams, Sarah Butke, Mary Lacny, Breon
Jackson, Cara Parish, Majida Al-Hussaam, and the crew of Bourbon for being his constant reminder of why he loves what he
does, to be the audience’s reflection in the shot glass of Jack Daniels.
William Doan (Producer/Chair) holds a BA from Gannon University, and MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University
and a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University. He served eleven years as the Director of Theatre at Gannon, then as
Director of Liberal Studies, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College of Humanities, Business and
Education. Dr. Doan is known nationally in professional theatre in higher education organizations, currently serving as
National Treasurer for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. His theatre productions have been recognized with
numerous certificates of merit by the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival, and he has been honored for
outstanding teaching. In addition to creative work, Dr. Doan maintains a commitment to published scholarship. Dr. Doan
co-authored Prophecy, Power and Performance for Trinity Press, scheduled to be released in spring 2005.
Gion DeFrancesco (Production Manager) joined the faculty of Miami University in the fall of 2001 and teaches courses
in scene design, design communication skills, scene painting and American musical theatre. He also designs scenery and
serves as scenic charge artist for MU Theatre productions. Recent designs at Miami include The Boys from Syracuse , Anowa,
As Bees in Honey Drown, Green Gables, and Venus. Regionally he has designed and painted at a number of theatres across
the country including Big River at the Gallery Players of Brooklyn, I Love You! You’re Perfect ! Now Change! at the Florida
Repertory Theatre, and The Magic Flute at the Illinois Opera Theatre.
Tom Featherstone (Scene Shop Supervisor) has managed the Scenic Studio since August of 1995. He teaches laboratory
courses for the Theatre Department in set construction. He is a former Technical Director at Miami University Theatre,
Evansville Dance Theatre and Indianapolis Civic Theatre.
Amy Foster (Dramaturgy) is a first year graduate student in Miami University’s Department of Theatre. She received her
BA in theatre from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. While there she acted as dramaturge on several
productions including: Seagull and Ghosts. She also Stage Managed such shows as Pericles, Seagull, and Land of the
Dragon; and directed Lorca’s The Love of Perlimplin and Belisa in the Garden. She is originally from Houston, TX.

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Julia Guichard (Vocal Coach) is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Miami. In addition to serving as vocal coach during
the production season, Julia teaches voice, speech and acting and is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique. She
is also an actress; recent roles include Clara in Hay Fever for MU Summer Theatre and Gertrude in Hamlet for Stage First
Cincinnati. Julia holds a BFA in acting from the Goodman School at DePaul University and an MFA from Penn State.
Breon Jackson (Tyrone Washington) is a third year Theatre major from Detroit, Michigan. A natural performer since birth,
he has performed all across the US as well as Denmark, London, Malaysia, and Singapore. He studied and performed with
the internationally acclaimed Mosaic Theater of Detroit, Next Stage Co., and LasSalle-SIA (Singapore Institute of the Arts).
This is his fourth main stage production at Miami. In Spring 2002 he played Lucien P. Smith in Boys Next Door, in Fall 2002,
Kofi Ako in Anowa, and in Fall 2003, Makemedo in Birds. After college he plans to attend graduate school for Theatre and
then go on to work in film. He is also a strong believer of the quote “All the world’s a stage...”
Mary Lacny (Assistant Stage Manager) is a junior Theatre major from DuBois, Pennsylvania. She was last seen as
Bontemps in Miami University’s production of The Devils. Also, this past summer, she interned with Aspen Theatre in the
Park in Aspen, Colorado where she worked in audience development, did administrative work, helped with the kid’s theatre
camp, and ran front of house. She looks forward to returning to Aspen again this coming summer to continue her work. She
would like to thank Dr. Jackson for another opportunity to work with him. Also, many thanks to Emily, a great SM, and more
importantly, a great friend.
Cara “Care Bear” Parrish (Rosa St. John) is a junior Theatre major from Detroit, Michigan. Ever since middle school,
Cara has been involved in the theatre. Her first theatre experience was with the Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit where she
became a five year member and traveled with them to London and Denmark as U.S. representatives to the Children’s World
Fair of Theatre in the summer of 2000. Upon arriving at Miami University, Cara quickly received theatre positions as the
lead drummer in Anowa, assistant stage manager for As Bees in Honey Drown, stage manager for Two, Sister Louise in The
Devils, and will be the stage manager for Pentecost in the spring. Cara would like to thank her family and friends for their
love and support.
Steven R. Pauna (Scene Designer/Technical Director/Properties Master) begins his fifth year as Assistant Professor
of Theatre Technology and faculty technical director. He has also provided technical direction and scenic design for
Michigan State University, Kent State University, Bemidji State University (Bemidji, MN.) and Luther College (Decorah, IA).
Professional credits include technical direction at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and three years of technical direction
and scenic design for The Porthouse Theatre Company on the grounds of the Blossom Music Center near Cleveland.
Meggan Peters (Costume Designer/Costume Shop Supervisor) is in her tenth year as Costume Studio Supervisor.
Design credits at Miami include: Bourbon at the Border, The Devils, Green Gables, The Fourth Wall, Execution of Justice,
Hay Fever, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Lady in the Dark, The Triumph of Love, The Drinking Gourd,
The Imaginary Invalid, Glass Menagerie, Our Country’s Good and Romeo and Juliet. She is a member of USITT, and has
created costumes for numerous operas, musicals, and plays for area theatres. Last Summer, she was a Costume Assistant at
Kent State’s Porthouse Theatre. She resides in Oxford, and is the mother of two sons, Jake and Nathan.
Jay S. Rozema (Lighting/Sound Designer) is very pleased to be returning to the faculty at Miami University teaching
courses in lighting design, sound design, stage management, and fundamentals of lighting. Jay previously served as the
Scenic and Lighting Designer at Northwest Missouri State University and has also taught at The University of North Carolina
at Pembroke. Beyond teaching he has held the positions of Production Manager or Technical Director for the Peterborough
Players, Interlochen Arts Academy (National Music Camp), Givens Performing Arts Center, and the Freed Center for the
Performing Arts at Ohio Northern University. Recent lighting designs include The Devils, Genesis Project, Dancing at

Lughnasa, School for Scandal, Guys and Dolls, and Picnic. Jay has also designed sound for performing acts that include
Shirley Jones, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, and The Kingston Trio as well as last year’s Miami productions of The Birds, and
The Devils. Jay holds a BFA degree in technical production from the University of Arizona and an MFA in Lighting Design
from the School of Theatre at Florida State University.
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Emily Ruth Williams (Stage Manager) is delighted to be making her stage management debut. In her previous 19 years,
this sophomore Theatre major has found herself on the stage in productions such as last semester’s The Devils. Emily would
like to thank Dr. Jackson, the cast and the Theatre Dept. for the opportunity to be a part of something this amazing. Much
love to all.
Pearl Cleage (Playwright) was born on December 7, 1948, in Springfield, Massachusetts, though she was raised in Detroit,
Michigan. In Detroit her father was a church pastor, and he played a prominent role in the civil rights movement. Thus,
when she sets Bourbon in Detroit, she is writing from the perspective that Detroit is her place, her home.
Cleage enrolled at Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1966. She majored in playwriting and dramatic literature. She
moved to Atlanta in 1969 and enrolled at Spelman College, graduating in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in drama. She later
joined the Spelman faculty as a writer and playwright in residence and as a creative director. She married Michael Lomax in
1969, an Atlanta politician and educator and the current president of Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. They have
one daughter, Deignan Njeri. The marriage ended in divorce in 1979. Cleage married Zaron W. Burnett Jr., writer and director
for the Just Us Theater Company, in 1994.
The Racial Chasm: Mississippi in the 1960’s and Detroit in the 1990’s
by Andrew Beal
The 1990’s were sadly filled with incidents our country has longed to prevent for generations: incidents of racism.
In the summer of 1994, O.J. Simpson, former football player and movie celebrity, was accused of stabbing his ex-wife Nicole
Brown and Ronald Goldman. Prosecutors painted the picture of Mr. Simpson, after years of spousal abuse, surprised Nicole
Brown at her home and killed her. Goldman accidentally interrupted Simpson and was also killed by him, they claimed.
Prosecutors, without witnesses, said that the blood evidence found at the scene of the crime, in Mr. Simpson’s car, and his
home, proved that he was the killer. His lawyers based their defense on the argument that police contaminated key evidence
and rendered it unreliable, claiming that the racist police planted evidence. They produced sufficient evidence, witnesses
and a taped interview in which police detective Mark Fuhrman revealed a deep disdain for African-Americans. After nine
months, what proved to be one of the most widely covered verdicts was released: The jury acquitted O.J. Simpson on
October 2, 1995.
This verdict, and the trial, and especially the media coverage of this event and the 1992 Rodney King beating and trial
brought a new wave of revelations about the current state of racism in America to the public eye. From the O.J. Simpson
trial, the Rodney King incident, to the 2001 civil unrest in Cincinnati, the racial chasm is again revealed beneath the surface of
America. In 1994, this racial chasm was then amplified by incidents of international terrorism when terrorists were convicted
for the World Trade Center bombing which killed six and injured more than a thousand. Unfortunately, the fear generated
by such events fueled racist acts, just a sign of what was to come.
Aware of the growing chasm, U.S. governement policies have attempted to address this. Detroit is one of only five U.S. cities
designated a federal empowerment zone. The zone receives $100 million in federal aid to provide social services. Businesses
in the zone become eligible for federal incentives. Detroit was rapidly becoming one of the poorest cities in the nation, with

12
rising crime and drug problems. The population was settling into a frustrating ratio, similar to that of the Detroit Riot of 1967.
With twelve percent of the population white, and eighty-two percent of the population black, and a rising unemployment
rate, the city was beginning to boil. The average summer temperature in 1995 was 74 degrees. An average of 2 people were
shot and killed in Detroit every day. In Detroit, by the 1990’s, the majority of the Temptations had died, some from violence
and others from drugs. Marvin Gaye’s obsessive cocaine use had led to his violent end. More and more Motown artists
were falling. And Detroit had fallen so far as well, fallen from the 1960’s, when a blue-collar factory job allowed almost
every young man to have a house, a wife, some children and a savings account; the American Dream fulfilled. By 1995,
Detroit was looking more and more like America’s nightmare, just as in 1964, the events of that summer exposed a similar
American nightmare.
In 1964, the average summer temperature of Mississippi was 79 degrees. With the population of whites at a percentage of
about thirty percent and the black population percentage at seventy, the state was beginning to writhe under the ‘invaders’
of the Mississippi Project, otherwise known as Freedom Summer. With unemployment of blacks at fifty percent in some
counties, Mississippi needed a change. Freedom Summer was conceived as an activist project that organized students to
bring that change through voter registration, freedom schools, and community development in black neighborhoods.
Again, international events in 1964 widened the chasm, with President Johnson announcing the event of Tunkin Gulf.
He asked congress “to join in affirming the national determination that all such attacks will be met, and that the United
States will continue in its basic policy of assisting the free nations of the area to defend their freedom.” The South Korean
President, Chung Hee Park, declared martial law in Seoul after 10,000 student demonstrators overpower police. South Africa
sentenced Nelson Mandela to life in prison. In Detroit, Motown was in full swing, with the Temptations, Marvin Gaye and
many others hitting the tops of the charts. In Mississippi, a jury trying Bryon De La Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers
in June 1963; reported that it was unable to agree on a verdict, resulting in a mistrial. The 1964 murders of the three civil
rights workers brought the violence in the south to the eyes of the nation. With hundreds of race riots, the Civil Rights Era
was beginning to change the world.
By the time of this play in the mid-1990’s the world was beginning to change. Bryon De La Beckwith was found guilty of the
murder of Medgar Evers in 1994. Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990. There have been African American
Governors, Senators, Judges, and many appointments, awards, recognitions and victories had been won.
But some things still had not changed.
Bibliography
Smith, Suzanne E. Dancing in the street : Motown and the cultural politics of Detroit Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1999.
Thompson, Heather Ann. Whose Detroit? : Politics, Labor, and Race in a Modern American City. Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2001.
Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau. “About Detroit” Visit Detroit. 2003. Sept. 28, 2004 < http://www.visitdetroit.com>
Frank, Owen. “Detroit Death City.” Playboy, August 2004: 60-64, 132-137.
BBC Music Profiles. BBC News. 2004. October 3, 2004
Simon, Dennis M. “The Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1963.” Southern Methodist University Faculty Pages. September 4, 2004

Hitsville, USA and Motown Records by Andrew Beal
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Berry Gordon Jr. christened a house in Detroit Hitsville, USA in 1959. With that, Motown spontaneously exploded out
into the world. The studio (growing to eight houses and then moving uptown to a high rise) would go on to produce
the records that shaped an entire generation of music, and continues to move each subsequent generation. The studio
produced such artists as: The Contours, The Four Tops, The Funk Brothers, Marvin Gaye, The Jackson Five, Martha & The
Vandelias, Rare Earth, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Stevie Wonder and The Temptations.
Marvin Gaye -The first chart hit of the legendary singer was Stubborn Kind of Fellow, which set the tone for the next few
years. This style of the suave, sexy, smooth, Don Juan Tenerio figure carried him through the charts. How Sweet it is to be
Loved by You represents the turning point from the call-answer style into the more sophisticated style. His duets with Mary
Wells and later Tammi Terrell solidified his throne as male king of the Motown label. I Heard it Through the Grapevine
plastered the Motown label on the national and later international wall of hits, and Gaye’s name was plastered with it. With
Let’s Get it On he moved away from the sophistication and into the bedroom, with sultry and sexy rythmns. Personal events
forced Gaye to move to Hawaii, and later London, where he composed the intimidating album In My Lifetime. Upon its
release, Gaye accused Motwon records of re-mixing the album and other infringements, separating the long time partners.
Gaye moved to Columbia records, moved home to live with his parents, and continued to create his music. By the early
1980’s his cocaine addiction had pushed him into a depression, and on April 1, 1984 in a heated argument Marvin Gaye Jr.
was shot by Marvin Gaye Sr. Usually associated solely with the hits of I Heard it Through the Grapevine, Sexual Healing
and others, his work encompasses the full development of the black music culture, from earthy blues and rythem, through
soul and political works in the 1970’s and a turn inward towards personal and sexual politicals thereafter. He truly shaped a
generation, and his lover-man stance is still being impersonated; though no one can be the man that was Marvin Gaye.
The Temptations -Formed in Detroit in 1961, The Temptations would go on to be the most successful group in black music
history. Only when teamed with Smokey Robinson after a few rocky years, did The Temptations rise to stardom, coinciding
with the replacement of Eldridge Bryant by David Ruffin. His gruff baritone would become their calling card. From the
dance do-wop The Way You Do The Things You Do through the other vocally perfect pieces, through the #1 hit My Girl in
1965, The Temptations continued to be impeccable. In 1966, Norman Whitfield succeeded Robinson as The Temptations
producer . He furnished a new rawness into their sound, allowing impassioned David Ruffin to take the lead vocals.
From there on members of the group come and go, and the group would later go on to win the Motown Label its first
Grammy in 1972 for Papa was a Rolling Stone. Drugs, suicide, and replacements continued to take their toll on the groups
numbers, they continued to pour out hit after hit. Hits took to the UK, and the album Rising Phoenix in the later 1990’s won
the group their first platinum. Though Otis Willaims is the sole remaining original member, that the group performed on
the Oprah Show in 2003 is an incredible testament to shaping Motown and music in the America for the past four decades.
Little Johnny Taylor -Little Johnny Taylor represents the finest of the musicians to merge the black gospel vocals with the
blues. Under the Galaxy label out of San Francisco, he reached the charts in 1963 with You’ll Need Another Favor and Part
Time Love. Following a stale period of minor hits such as Since I Found A New Love (1964), Zig Zag Lightning (1966) and
Big Blue Diamonds (1967), he released a flurry of top chart albums such as Everybody Knows About My Good Thing in
1971 and Open House At My House in 1972. As the years waned, he has been unable to maintain his luster, achieving only
lukewarm responses for his continuning release of albums, though he has a steadfast and slightly growing following of hardcore
fans.
Andrew Beal (Production Dramaturge) is a senior Theatre major focusing in Dramaturgy and Playwrighting. He is/has
been artistic director and producer for Scripts out of Hand, TRIO, and EXPO (student run theatre organizations and
companies.)

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Scene Design by Steve Pauna
“The danger in asking a writer to introduce her own work is, of course, that she will yield to the overwhelming temptation to
explain: to try once and for all to answer the question: What’s your play about?”
P. Cleage,
(Flyin’ West and other plays 1999)
I resist the “overwhelming temptation to explain” this setting. This world exists in both the past and present through the
marriage of the characters’ action upon the stage and in the collective ideas and feelings of the audience members. Having
said that I remember the process and the feelings.
A selection of the words that Dr. Paul Jackson used to describe potential settings for this production included “magic,
simplicity, spiritual and communal.” He asked that I think in terms of archetypes or original forms. As a result, an iris was
formed through which I attempted to peer through into the mind of the character, Charles Thompson. Accounts of horrific
acts committed upon certain individuals participating in Freedom Summer voter registration first came into view. Thinking
about the progression of the play I saw the specter of those same abuses that Charles endured during participation in the
movement. Although the effects are temporarily held at bay through years of therapy, they now continue to gain ground on
his current day circumstances. It is a cancer eating away reality.
Sketch by
Steve Pauna
Costume Design by Meggan Peters
The first thing I took into consideration when designing costumes for Bourbon at the Border, were the “givens’” of the
script. The time is September 1995. The place is a downtown Detroit apartment that is “neither particularly fashionable
or particularly safe”. The characters are May and Charlie Thompson, their neighbor, Rosa St. John, and her beau, Tyrone
Washington. All of the characters are African -American, in their late 40s.
We learn through the story that May and Charlie are haunted by memories which take them back to Mississippi in the
summer of 1964.

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These facts led me to find back issues of Ebony Magazine. I was lucky to discover that 1995
was their 50th year of publication, and these commemorative issues contained images
from many decades of African-American history as well “current” looks from 1995.
The action of the play spans 19 days, and each scene needs to show a passage of time
from the previous scene, although the time frames vary. Sometimes a week has passed
between scenes, other times; it is only a few hours. I felt the best way to indicate these time
passages was by having the wardrobe reflect a new day, a different time of day, or a new
activity.
The colors chosen - brown, rust, red, tan, beige,
black, - are meant to suggest the colors of flesh,
bone, and blood, of passion, struggle, and violence.
In one scene, in a departure from this palette, May
wears a vintage1960’s green dress, one that she
says her husband “always liked”. It is intentional that
this dress is set apart from the rest of the looks in
the play. It is intended to suggest memories from a
different (and perhaps happier) time.
Costume Renderings by
Meggan Peters
Rosa I-1
“Dressed to the nines”
Tyrone I-3
“Saturday night”
Lighting Design by Jay Rozema
The lighting design for Bourbon at the Border brings out the hidden fears, troubles, and conflicts in the characters. Inside
each character is a hidden person just looking for a way to find an outlet. In some cases it is harmless, but in others, this
outlet can hurt on many levels. As the characters discover who they are, their hidden skeletons are exposed. The lighting of
this show reflects the exposure of the hidden structure that makes up all of us. How does our past alter our present? How
does our inner framework build our outer selves? This lighting design explores visually how our hidden framework affects
our outward appearance and actions.

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Company CREDITS
For this Production
Stage Manager
Assistant Stage Manager
Assistant Props Master
Rehearsal Assistant
Production Dramaturg
Running Crews
Props Supervisor
Light Board Operator
Sound Operator
Deck/Fly Crew
Wardrobe Crew
Emily Ruth Williams
Mary Lacny
Jay Berger
Sarah Butke
Andrew Beal
Shannyn Collins
Emily Pucell
Lindsey Barlag
Michael Polk
Casey Bolten, Issac Ramsey, Melanie Satoran
MU Theatre
Producer
William J. Doan
Production Manager Gion DeFrancesco
Technical Director Steven R. Pauna
Scene Shop Supervisor Tom Featherstone
Scene Shop Staff Andrew Beal, Laura Brant, April Cook, Tim Hawkins, Jessica Jewell,
Kathleen Petroziello, Clara Smith, Abby Waterman, Eryn Whistler
Scenery Construction THE 103 & THE 204
Electrics Staff
Brian Alexander, Vonzell Carter, Brian Farkas
Electrics Crew THE 103, THE 254
Property Master Steven R. Pauna
Costume Shop Sup. Meggan Peters
Costume Shop Staff Hannah Bystrom, Kim Cheng, Marion Lytle, Lucy MacDonald, Shannon
McGill, Erin Moody, Rose Reynolds, Clinton Wright
Costume Construction THE103
Audience Development Lisa A. Campbell
Audience Dev. Asst. Emily Rose Goss
House Manager Judy Hsu
Audience Dev. Crew THE103
Administrative Asst. Karen Smith
Senior Account Exec. Jeanne Johnston
Vocal Coach
Julia Guichard