The Hillsboro Story
is a warm-hearted, hard-hitting narrative, set in the writer's hometown, near the Mason Dixon Line, during one of America's most powerful turning points.
The story opens in Hillsboro, Ohio on July 5, 1954 when the "colored" elementary school went up in flames. The fire sparked a "school fight" led by five African American mothers that became the first test case for the Brown v. Board of Education decision (May, 1954) in the North. Ms. Banyas was in the third grade, and the memory of those times sparked this cultural detective story -- a lively weaving of spoken word, movement, monologues, and visual images, backed by an evocative original music score. The work is a sequel to No Strangers Here Today, a story of the Underground Railroad. Both works are set in Highland County, Ohio 100 years apart, and celebrate bi-racial resistance movements that are core to maintaining democracy and upholding human rights.
The Hillsboro Story selected as Artists Repertory Theater's entry in to the Fertile Ground new performance works festival in January 2010, will be produced by Artists Rep in their 2010/2011 season, followed by a tour of the Pacific Northwest and Ohio. Stay tuned for details.
Funding for the development of this project has been made possible with grants from the
Regional Arts and Culture Council, The Puffin Foundation, Oregon Arts Commission, Pacific Power Foundation, Saint Mary's College of California Faculty Development, and The Kennedy Center.
