Voices of Yesteryear: A Showcase of School #26

VOICES OF YESTERYEAR: A SHOWCASE OF SCHOOL #26 is a play dedicated to honoring John Hope School #26 and the community surrounding it. VOICES OF YESTERYEAR focuses on the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement and how students, faculty, and members of the community reacted to it. This play filled with lively dialogue provides a brief glimpse of the community and of John Hope School #26. Hopefully, it will act as a reminder of what once was and what can be again.

Written by Angela Jackson-Brown

Directed by Dena Toler

Stage Manager/Assistant Director: Journey Slater

Featuring: Katherine Adamou, Ennis Adams, Jr., Arika Casey, Saundra “Mijiza” Holiday and Jamaal McCray

VOICES OF YESTERYEAR has been in development since 2017. Storefront and Ms. Jackson-Brown were invited by the Harrison Center for the Arts and Sapphire Theatre to conduct interviews with the alumni of John Hope School #26 (now The Oaks Academy) during the PreEnact Festival on Monon 16. The long-term goal for the project was to create a play based on these interviews. After a public reading of the play at the 2018 installment of PreEnact, and further development beyond, the show will premiere at Storefront’s facility in Broad Ripple on February 25, 2022, and run through March 6, 2022.