Sparta actors shine on stage

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Several members of the White County community recently tried their hand on performing on the big stage, and they became instant stars.

So, maybe the stage wasn’t Broadway or even Nashville, but Warren Arts gave Annette King, Regina Pullin, Dana Sexton, Carrol-Lee Mayberry, and Chad McGee a chance to shine brightly as they performed in what became an instant-hit play, Oh Freedom! The Story of the Underground Railroad.

“I’ve been attending plays at the Warren Arts center for four years now,” King said. “When I saw that they were auditioning for Oh Freedom! I thought it would be a perfect fit for Regina.”

Of course, Pullin wasn’t easily convinced, but, after some prompting and prodding and coercing, she eventually told King that she would do it on one condition: that Annette went with her.

“She said, ‘I’ll do it if you will,’” King laughed. “I wasn’t prepared for that! I like to be behind the scenes.”

King, who is now on the Warren Arts board and will be volunteering to help with other productions, is no stranger to the stage and drama as she was spent many years helping the White County Middle School Drama Club put on various productions.

“I always worked to help the kids learn their lines and to coach them through the performances, I’m not an actor myself,” she said.

King wasn’t the only one that Pullin talked into auditioning with her, and before it was said and done, Dana Sexton was selected as a narrator, Carrol-Lee Mayberry was chosen to portray both Harriet Beecher Stowe and a white female passenger, Annette King was given the part of Oludah Equiano Reader and also as a Slave Woman, and Pullin was chosen to bring Harriet Tubman herself to life.  In addition to the four women, Chad McGee, whose family is from Sparta, was selected as William Lloyd Garrison as well as playing a second part as a Railway Clerk.

“Everybody fit their parts so well,” King said, adding that the play was an entirely different group of actors than the theater had selected for previous productions, including herself and Mayberry, who was also used to being behind the scenes working with props. “It was a lot of people who hadn’t been involved with Warren Arts very much before, and by the time we finished our last show, we had become like family.”

The group of now-turned actors from Sparta, along with 12 other actors, spent hours trying to capture the essence and emotion, from fear to anger to excitement, that surrounded America’s Underground Railroad and their quest to free the enslaved people.

The results of the work the actors put into preparing for their moment on stage were greater than they had imagined.

“We had people coming to all of the performances. People telling us they were moved to tears. People saying they were captivated by the story. People saying they never knew this story – had never heard of “Box” Brown or how truly dangerous the times were,” King said. “They told us that they had experienced a whole new side of history through our performances.”

Oh Freedom! The Story of the Underground Railroad was scheduled to be performed on the stage at Warren Arts June 25-27, but the group did a pre-performance at an outdoor venue during Warren County’s Juneteenth celebration.

“That was a great experience,” King said, as she shared that performing during a celebration of the day the last of the slaves were given their freedom was definitely special. “To be there that day and get to perform during that celebration was awesome.”

But the Juneteenth performance wasn’t the only extra show  the group put on. The story was so emotional, and the actors’ performances were so moving that requests for encore performances began pouring in. So, on July 10, the Sparta-residents-turned-stars of the stage gathered again and gave one more emotional performance filled with tears and laughter and song.

“The people in this cast were perfect for this play,” King said again. “Everyone fit their parts so well. If even one person had been different, I don’t think it would have been the same.”

King said she didn’t know exactly what was next for the now-stars of the stage, but for herself, she plans to keep volunteering at the Warren Arts center.

“I don’t know if I will continue acting in the future. It would depend on what the production is,” she said. “This one was so good and so meaningful and so perfect; it would be hard to recreate this experience.”

But, whether any of the group steps into the spotlight again, or if this was their “five minutes of fame,” no one who experienced the play will ever forget the group of Sparta natives who brought Oh Freedom! The Story of the Underground Railroad to life during the summer of ‘21.         

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