Dr. Eric Conway writes:
Hello everyone,
Last night, the Morgan State University Choir performed Phil Woodmore's Antigone in Ferguson at
the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on the campus of the
University of Maryland, College Park. This performance was under the
direction of the composer with musicians and chorus members from
Ferguson, MO who premiered this piece over two years ago. Woodmore
adapted Sophocles' Greek tragedy Antigone to
highlight the civil turmoil after the killing of Michael Brown. The
Morgan choir learned this piece at the beginning of this semester for
our Performing Arts Convocation on October 4, 2018.
The
group from Ferguson, MO has performed this piece all over the country
since the premiere. The company just returned from a five-week run in
Harlem, New York. This performance was very different from our Morgan
performance. The composer has since decided to have the choir sing
Gospel songs as the audience entered the auditorium prior to the formal
start of the piece to get in a receptive spirit. During our rehearsal,
Phil asked the chorus on stage, in the best sense of the typical Greek
chorus, to react to the lines spoken by the actors on stage with total
abandonment. The actors were professionals, including Baltimore native
Tracie Thomas from the musical Rent, vividly brought
the Sophocles’ text alive. The soloists who at this point had scores of
performances under their belts, sang all the songs from memory and with
conviction. The band made up of saxophone, piano, Hammond organ,
guitar, and drums was quite effective.
After
the formal performance was over, topics in the tragedy were discussed
in a town-hall meeting fashion. After five panelists shared their
unique perspectives on how this piece impacted their lives, the floor
was open to the audience and choir members to discuss what the
performance meant to them individually. Other related topics were
including pride, misogyny, responsibility, love, among others. After
an hour-long impassioned discussion with fairly riveting personal
expressions of how Sophocles’ Antigone was still
relevant in 2018, the choir sang “Thank you Lord," where the first line
in the piece was appropriately: “Tragedies are common place”. . .
On
so many levels, this may be one of the choir’s most fulfilling
performances of the year — with a great musical as well as humanistic
experience. See attached photos, program, and video from the evening.
If you get a chance, please listen to the entire performance, but
especially the profound discussion and comments based around the topics
at the end of the evening.
Best,
EC
Link to PreConcert Gospel Songs:
Link to Antigone in Ferguson Presentation:
Link to post concert discussion:
Link to entire concert:
