“The Power of Harriet Tubman”Play

On Monday February 16th2015, 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. Shethen 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