WEEPING TIME [untitled]

WEEPING TIME [untitled] is a musical play set in the mid-1800s, in the years leading up to and shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation, during Reconstruction. It is the extraordinary true story of Fanny and Pierce Butler and the enslaved folks of Butler Island Plantation and a tale of love and courage of Black people who refused to live life untethered from the truth of one another. Drawing on the rich history of American music, from spirituals to blues to rap, Weeping Time is an exploration of American history, the ramifications of slavery that all Americans have inherited, and a study in human resilience and ingenuity. For over three generations Butler Island near Savannah, Georgia, was home to a community of interconnected families and friends. Despite (or maybe because of) the horrible conditions of ‘the peculiar institution’ that was antebellum chattel slavery, the island was home to hundreds of people who not only suffered their inhumane condition, but cared for one another, fell in love, raised children, created, celebrated and lived. Over the course of two days in 1859 this community was annihilated. The people of Butler Island were sold off in what became known as The Great Slave Auction, the largest sale of human beings in American history, The Weeping Time. Pierce M. Butler. gambled away his family fortune and his greatest valued 'properties’ had to be liquidated to appease his creditors. 436 souls were sold. Families were ripped apart and dispersed to the far reaches of America’s southeast. . The Weeping Time obtained its name two-fold – from the torrential rains throughout the two days when this violent act of separating families took place. And, for those that somehow managed to keep a spiritual faith intact, it was said that God wept. This harrowing story is narrated by Nix (aka Phoenix), our musical guide. The first act shows the days leading up to the actual auction as the entire community was put on boats and shipped across the swamp to Ten Broeck Race Course in Savannah, the horse racing track that was repurposed to temporarily house and hold the auction. The second act spans the years after Emancipation, in the beginnings of Reconstruction, when the formerly enslaved traveled 'home’ in search of scattered loved ones. Nix introduces us to the rest of this cast of characters – our 'star-crossed’ heroes Dorcas & Jeffery, a couple desperately seeking to be married before their impending sale, in hopes of being purchased as ‘a package’ so they can start a family wherever their misfortune leads them. Their friends Dembo & Frances, who are hoping to have their marriage recognized by the auctioneers. Francis 'Fanny’ Kemble, a celebrated Shakespearian actress and dramatist from England and Pierce's estranged wife – who wrote one of the seminal publications for the movement for the abolition of slavery in America. William Walsh, the slave trader and auctioneer whose ambition drives him to organize this impressively massive, albeit grotesque, event. And many others.