In 2002, seventy-year-old Joan Evelyn Southgate, a Cleveland area retired social worker and activist, left Ripley, Ohio on foot, with the goal of highlighting the courage and resourcefulness of freedom seekers and conductor families who risked everything on the Underground Railroad.
Traveling 10 miles a day, her 519-mile walk crossed Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, ended in St. Catharines, Ontario, Harriet Tubman’s terminus on the Underground Railroad. On the trek she visited Underground Railroad sites, gave presentations at schools, and slept in the homes of welcoming strangers, her own “safe houses.”
Southgate, motivated by her pilgrimage, founded Restore Cleveland Hope to save the city’s only remaining Underground Railroad house from demolition. To raise money for the project, Southgate, at age 80, walked another 250 miles from Canada back to Cleveland, completing the final mile with 170 companions who had been inspired by her journey.
In 2014, the house, resting on the corner of Mayfield Road and East 115th, in Little Italy, opened as an Underground Railroad teaching center where people can learn “what is possible in the way of changing the world and loving people.”
Now in her 80s, she is still active in fulfilling her dream of being an educator and ensuring that important parts of American history, such as the Underground Railroad, are taught to children and explained in a way that instills a sense of pride in the fight for equality for all.
Southgate was in attendance, surrounded by a large number of her devoted followers, at the opening night of Nina Domingue’s one-woman play, The Absolutely Amazing and True Adventures of Ms Joan Evelyn Southgate at Cleveland Public Theatre.
Domingue, one of the area’s stellar actors, is also noted as the author of the play, which, according to the playbill, was nine years in the making.
As CPT’s Executive Artistic Director Raymond Bodgan, who nurtured the development of this work, states, “I have learned so much from Joan Evelyn Southgate, and I am not alone. Her wisdom, resilience, her joy, her hope, and her love has made, and continues to make, such an impact in our community.”
He continues, “This has been a long process. Everyone involved in the project has overcome many obstacles and challenges to make this show possible.” He summarizes, “It is my hope that through these amazing and true adventures, you will be touched by Joan’s wisdom, joy and love.”
Those who attended the opening night appeared to be truly moved by this determined and sprightly little woman who has made an amazing contribution to the Cleveland and African-American communities to insure a permanent understanding of the history of the slavery and, specifically, the Underground Railroad.
The play itself is a different matter. Original scripts are a process in the making. They often need to be evaluated by a dramaturg, an expert in script writing and play production, to evaluate the oral and physical aspects of the material. An oral reading of the script often reveals issues, as does the first attempt to stage it. The Absolutely Amazing and True Adventures of Ms. Joan Evelyn Southgate is such a script.
The staged version revealed that it is too long. The announced 90-minute length turned out to be closer to two hours. Going by the adage “The mind can absorb what the seat can endure,” the audience had more than enough of the material and started to wander the aisles at about the time the play was supposed to end. The script needs cutting.
The topic was overly developed. There was too much of the same ideas presented over and over. This not only added to the excessive time, but became redundant, in spite of Domingue’s fine acting. The “cough factor,” when an audience gets bored they start to cough, was present about half way through the enactment.
The multi-areas on the stage, which appeared at first glance would allow us to know where on the journey Ms. Southgate was, helped naught, as they didn’t really fulfill that purpose, nor did the electronic graphics which were also inconsistent in their use and purpose. Good intentions, poor execution.
CAPSULE JUDGMENT: Ms. Joan Evelyn Southgate is a wonder of a person. The play about her Freedom Trail walk is an inspiring story, which needs editing and a clearer staging concept.
[Written by Roy Berko, Member: Cleveland Critics Circle and American Theatre Critics Association]