A heartfelt end-of-year thanks to Caleen Jennings, author of Better Homes: The Play and to Aaron Nichols, Executive Director of the South Bend Civic Theater. Aaron commissioned Caleen Jennings, playwriting professor at American University, to turn Better Homes of South Bend. An American Story of Courage into a play. Her work makes us feel viscerally the pain and suffering of racism and discrimination, and the courage and perseverance of the group of Studebaker workers, migrants from the South, who stood up against it. Songs like I am Climbing Jacob’s Ladder and Aint Nobody Gonna Turn me Around made us all cry.
Thanks to the enthusiasm of the audience, Better Homes had to be moved from the small to the large stage, and even then almost every performance sold out. For anyone not able to attend this World Premiere, WNIT has recorded it, and this Spring I will teach a Forever Learning class about both the book and the recording.
The Better Homes family on first night of play, Nov. 10, 2023. Above, the image of the 1954 picnic showing them as kids while the adults celebrated their 22 new homes in a white neighborhood.
Panel discussion after the play with Director Laurisa LeSure, Moderator, Exec. Dir. Aaron Nichols, author Gabrielle Robinson, and playwright Caleen Jennings