MY HEART IS THE DRUM
2013 Festival
Director
Schele Williams
Cast
Natalie Venetia Belcon, Krystal Joy Brown, Rebecca Covington, Mel Johnson, Crystal Joy, Nicole Lewis, Jarran Muse, John Eric Parker, Saycon Sengbloh, Danielle Thomas, Donald Webber and Tommar Wilson
For More Information Contact
Phillip Palmer palmer.phillip@gmail.com / 202.642.4777
Number of Acts: 2
Number of Principals (Male): 3
Number of Principals (Female): 4
Preferred Ensemble Size: 18
Total Cast Size: 25
Orchestra Breakdown:
1 Flute, 1 Clarinet, 1 Trumpet, 1 French Horn, 1 Trombone, 1 Violin, 1 Cello, 3 percussion, 2 Keyboards
Casting Notes:
Preferred: 2 children 16 adults, other than principals, all roles are doubled.
Genre & Style:
Synopsis
Afua Yansa is aching to flee her poverty-stricken Ghanaian village for the city of Accra, where she hopes to attend University and someday become a teacher. But as the price of crops from the family farm plummets, Afua is told she must quit school, work on the farm, and marry her father’s last farmhand, Edward. Afua is distraught at seeing her plans dashed and decides to follow her heart and run off to Accra with her best friend Balinda, even though neither of them has ever left home before. In Accra they receive help from Caesar, a wealthy jewelry merchant who is a contact of Balinda’s father. Balinda hopes Caesar will want to marry her and offer her a new life, but Caesar’s plan—he is also the owner of an upscale brothel—is to showcase the girls as prize merchandise. Afua faces physical and emotional dangers with a rollercoaster of brave, humbling, painful, and exhilarating choices as she fights to escape the situation, and Edward overcomes his own fears of leaving the village to attempt to find the two young women. All three—Afua, Balinda, and Edward—are transformed by this journey.
My Heart Is the Drum won over the committee with its African-influenced score and its deeply emotional story of oppression and love. Dealing with difficult issues of sexual exploitation, it also manages to provide hope and a richly beautiful score.
- Festival Committee
Development History
This will be the first public presentation of My Heart Is the Drum. The idea for the show was born out of Phillip Palmer’s trips to South Africa and Ghana in 2004-2005. Some of the book and songs were developed at the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, where Jennie Redling received the Jerry Harrington Award for Creative Excellence for her work on Drum. The authors produced a private reading of Act I in 2010.
Festival Successes
Development at the Johnny Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals 2014
Performed at Village Theatre Festival of New Musicals 2014
Recipient of Fred Ebb Award, Phillip Palmer and Stacey Luftig, Music and Lyrics
Recipient of Kleban awards – Stacey Luftig, Lyrics
Developmental production at Kent State University 2015
World Premiere at Village Theatre in spring of 2016
Presented at Prospect Theaters Good to Go Festival of New Music by Women 2017
Recipient of Jerry Bock Award 2017
Fest Fast Facts
- My Heart Is the Drum pulses with high-energy music and the otherworldly presence of ancestor spirits, both of which evoke the traditions of West and Southern Africa and offer opportunities for bold theatricality in design and choreography.
- Phillip Palmer, the show’s composer, has devoted five years to humanitarian work in Haiti and several African countries including Ghana, where he immersed himself in the study of the syncopated rhythms of traditional drumming and singing.
- My Heart Is the Drum tackles global women’s issues that Hillary Clinton calls “the unfinished business of the 21st century” with writers who have first-hand experience; Phillip worked as a volunteer at an AIDS counseling center in South Africa and bookwriter Jennie Redling is a certified rape crisis/sexual assault counselor.
- My Heart Is the Drum is also a love story, told with warmth and humor, and Efua Kuti is a spirited young heroine in the tradition of The Color Purple and Sarafina.
- The My Heart Is the Drum writing team is excited to find theaters/producers who will share their passion for this material and help develop it, through readings and workshops, on to production.