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My Life in Art

My Life Stories

Our Town

Fall 1966

Producer/Director/Drama Teacher – I “did” the plays

Courter Tech

Courter Tech was not a neighborhood school. It drew students from all over the city. We had a large number of black students who wanted to participate in the drama club, but it was hard finding plays where you could use a mixed race cast.

Our Town has a huge cast and there were a lot of scenes where we could use the black actors. We did this play in the middle of the civil rights movement.

There was a black student who was especially good and needed to have at least a supporting role, so I cast him as Frank Gibbs, the husband in one of the family units with a white wife.

The students and the administration were accepting of my decision. It was a daring thing to do at the time.