DATE: Thursday, May 15, 1997                TAG: 9705140138

SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN             PAGE: 17   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   80 lines

STUDENTS GET PREVIEW OF JUNETEENTH FESTIVAL PLAY ``SUMMERS IN SUFFOLK'' SPANS 120 YEARS AS IT TELLS THE HISTORY OF FIVE FAMILIES OVER SIX GENERATIONS.

Producer Sheri Bailey has been giving some area school children a preview of coming attractions for Suffolk's newest festival, Juneteenth.

``One Summer Evening,'' the first act of a five-act play, ``Summers In Suffolk,'' has been making the rounds at local schools. It spans 120 years as it tells the history of five families over six generations.

The production will be a focal point of the Juneteenth celebration, June 13 to 15, at the Portsmouth campus of Tidewater Community College.

In one scene the words of hate and despair are accented by the constant crack-crack of the whip hitting the floor.

With each crack, Cleo spewed her hatred for ``the man on the hill,'' the white slave owner and the father of her son, Amos.

Amos was on the giving end of the razor-sharp instrument; his mother, on the receiving end.

The young man could not do otherwise. If he did not whip his mother, his father would have her killed.

``The son had no choice. I would've done the same thing,'' said Kelli Orvin, one of many John Yeates Middle School students who recently watched ``One Summer Evening.''

Juneteenth is a celebration featuring a Civil War re-enactment, sporting competitions, entertainment and eats and other events and attractions.

Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom, hailing the day when the news of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, six months earlier, finally reached Texas.

The play had a successful run last year in Los Angeles. Bailey, a Portsmouth native, is bringing it home and has been showing the first act, which takes place just after the Civil War, to rapt area middle school audiences.

``I learned a lot about slaves,'' said Tarniki Speight. ``Slavery was not fair - the way they treated people.''

If that sounds simplistic, it does show the impact ``Summers In Suffolk'' is having.

``I learned about how slaves were treated,'' said Shawniqua Parham. ``I knew some of the things - I learned more.''

James Crockett described the production as ``very educational,'' adding, ``the whip part showed a lot of action.''

``The play offers history in an entertaining way,'' Bailey said. ``Also, we're getting word out about the Juneteenth Essay Competition.''

Savings bonds, including a $250 bond for first place, will be awarded in two separate categories - middle school and high school.

Study guides, and guidelines, were distributed to the schools. A panel of ministers, teachers and historians will decide the winners.

The essays, calling for 300 words or less, must be about Juneteenth, or the play which David Ewell called ``interesting. It talked about slavery and how it was. I never knew slaves used to run away.''

Often - into the Dismal Swamp, the edge of which is the locale for ``Summers In Suffolk.''

The characters in the first act have just begun to taste freedom, ``but,'' Bailey said, ``Mama Cleo is living in the past.''

At one point, Mama Cleo describes how one slave, ``had his guts torn open by dogs.''

Most of the Yeates students reacted in horror to that, as they did when they heard that she wanted her son to kill his father - the slave owner who raped her.

And the reaction was them same when they heard Cleo cry, ``In 1832, he took me from my mama and put a baby inside of me.''

Following the play, Jacqueline Matthews, a guidance counselor, told the Yeates students, ``90 percent of you were very attentive. The other 10 percent need to get a grip.''

Christopher McCauley was attentive.

``I learned more about what people did in the older times,'' he said, ``and I learned more about the history of Suffolk and how the people felt and dressed.''

In some cases, the play went beyond education, into the spiritual.

``I learned that you should always believe in yourself,'' Kelli said. ``You should always follow your heart.''

For information, call 624-1045. MEMO: Information on the essay competition is available in middle and

high schools.

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