Distinguished Events Series Presents 'Civil War Voices' Oct. 6

Sep. 23, 2011

FLORENCE, Ala. – The Distinguished Events Series at the University of North Alabama will present “Civil War Voices: Songs and Memoirs of 5 Extraordinary People,” a musical-play depicting the stories of real people who survived the Civil War and which uses actual words left behind in diaries, letters and other pieces of writing from that time period.

The show will take place Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. in Norton Auditorium and admission is free. The production, arranged by composer Mark Hayes, features patriotic songs, hymns and spirituals and follows the characters as they endure the conflict of the Civil War. James Harris, playwright of “Civil War Voices,” will host a post-show discussion and question and answer session following the presentation.

A production of the Barter Theatre National Tour, the “Civil War Voices” follows Joe Harris, an Alabama cotton planter whose Civil War diary actually inspired the creation of the play. The play also follows Elizabeth Keckley, a slave who purchased her freedom and became Mary Todd Lincoln’s close friend and assistant in the White House; Theo and Harriet Perry, a newly married couple in Texas who were separated by the Civil War; and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a college professor in Maine who enlisted to fight for the Union.

Songs from “Civil War Voices” include Bonnie Blue, Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, Goober Peas, Yellow Rose of Texas, Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel, My Lord What a Morning and more. The program will feature two acts and a 15-minute intermission before the post-show discussion and QandA.

For more information about the event, contact Debbie Chaffin with the Distinguished Events Series at 256-765-4297.