Auditions to be Held for 'Scenes and Songs from FANNIE LOU'

Baltimore talent is being sought for the upcoming production of “Scenes and Songs from FANNIE LOU.” Open auditions will take place Feb. 1 and 8.

“Scenes and Songs from FANNIE LOU” is a concert presentation of selected music and dialogue from the acclaimed original musical FANNIE LOU, a dramatic, fact-based telling of the efforts of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer to secure voting rights for African Americans in Mississippi during the early 1960’s. Created by composer-lyricist-book writer Felicia Hunter, FANNIE LOU and “Scenes and Songs from FANNIE LOU” have been performed in venues large and small -- from community centers such as the Anacostia Arts Center in Washington, D.C., to world-renowned locations such as Yale University and Carnegie Hall. Each performance has been met with rousing applause and standing ovations.

The Baltimore performance will take place Saturday, March 21, in the Meyerhoff Auditorium, Baltimore Museum of Art. There will be two shows, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Each performance will be preceded by a perspective-setting talk/discussion about the cultural, social and economic conditions in which Mrs. Hamer and her neighbors lived.

Felicia’s work aims to tell not only Mrs. Hamer’s story, but also the viewpoints of other area residents concerning the issue of voting. There’s Laura, a friend of Mrs. Hamer, who is a bit more timid about exercising her right to vote. There’s Junior, Laura’s 17-year-old son, who doesn’t know why the grown-ups are fighting for what he sees as a lost cause. There’s Mr. Richards, the wealthiest man in the county, who is staunchly against voting rights for the “agitating” African Americans, whom he sees as wanting to disturb his comfortable way of life. There’s Pamela, a college student from the North who travels to the South to help support the voting-rights struggle. And several more, each unique in his/her outlook and how he/she goes about demonstrating it. All characters, with the exception of Mrs. Hamer, are fictional.

“What I wanted to do with my musical was show a variety of perspectives,” said Felicia. “I wanted to place the audience back in that period, getting a sense of what kinds of obstacles people had to overcome just to exercise the right to vote. But even though the action takes place more than 50 years ago, the musical is very accessible to modern audiences. People have told us how much they enjoyed the production, and how much of an impact it had on them. That’s what I wanted to do, have people leave knowing a little bit more about Fannie Lou Hamer and the voting-rights struggle, and how it might have affected those who found themselves in the midst of it.”

A variety of character types are being sought, as are musicians for the on-stage instrumental ensemble. All area performers are welcome to audition.

To find out more about scheduling an audition appointment, please visit the “Scenes and Songs from FANNIE LOU” page in the online edition of Backstage magazine.

To reserve “Earlybird” tickets for the March 21 performance, please visit the production’s Eventbrite page. (Earlybird tickets are available through Jan. 20.)

For more information about the production, including highlights from past performances, music and dialogue samples, past cast-member and panel-discussant profiles, facts about Mrs. Hamer, and more, please visit www.fannieloumusical.com.