♪ We shall overcome ♪ ♪ Someday ♪ ♪ Oh, deep in my heart ♪ ♪ I do believe ♪ ♪ We shall overcome ♪ ♪ Someday ♪ [ All vocalizing ] We look for and we search for, and we are inspired by the past.

This experience has made me feel that people do want to relive history.

There's a lot more to be thought of, even for me, who supposedly experienced it all.

I've had to rethink some stuff and realize how lucky I was.

Jackson, Mississippi -- I didn't quite take in while I was there the danger, to be honest with you, but as I go over it, I realize how much it was.

I'm still re-experiencing it, to be honest with you.

Do you know how I could -- how I could find, uh, this address?

I-I -- I seem to be lost.

[ Speaks indistinctly ] Not far.

So you just go up to the corner, turn right, and only about half a mile straight on.

Oh, th-that's where you want to go?

You're sure?

-Yes.

Um, can you tell me once I get -- -[ Spits ] -[ Gasps ] This kind of role makes me have to reflect about myself every day I go on stage, and one thing that I was struggling with Sylvie, was to understand where her white-saviorism hysteria meets up with her genuine desire to want to do good, meets up with her genuine confusion.

I mean, it's hard to play naive if you kind of have a sense that you might be naive.

And so navigating that distinction was a real gift, and it's taught me to be more, hopefully, nuanced and subtle in the roles and to, you know, share a lived experience with the audience.

Terry: The autopsies came in.

You know, they say those boys, um, they were shot, like, up close and not just once and then buried under an old earth dam.

It is every day, and my mother, if they come, how will I live with myself?

-Who comes?

-The Klan, of course.

-The Klan, of course.

-My daughter!

My daughter is dead!

[ Grunts ] Getting the script the first time.

I was really excited to just, like, dive into this really, like, intense but really fun show and get a lot more knowledge and, like, history about what we're talking about here.

Mm-hmm.

And you want me to vote?

-It's real important.

-Oh, honey, you're going to get us all killed.

Alright, he coming right back.

He coming right back.

Hey, go out back there You go out the back, and you run as fast you can.

Alright?

I'll stall them!

Having a story like this that showcases different sort of sides of the way people experience the issues in this country is very interesting.

Especially, there's, like, the Black perspective and the white perspective that comes and just the nuances of civil rights issues.

Sylvie, the South has been "getting rid of people" since before the Civil War, hid a lot of bodies down in those swamps and bayous, only this time, they kill them out in the open, sending a message loud and clear.

What about the Warren Report?

Nobody believes that.

But don't you even care?

Of course I care.

What do you think I am here for?

Miss Hamer, if you would come this way into the office.

All this on account that we want to register to vote to become first-class citizens.

And if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seeing it now, I question America.

Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hook because our lives be threatened daily 'cause we want to live as decent human beings in America?

[ Breathes shakily ] I was lucky that I have incredible actors who were willing to experiment, willing to do things a different way.

Some of them play 10 characters each.

It's a methodology.

You embody a character, you embody the world through your movements, and we did a lot of improvisation.

One gentleman said he had a whole opinion about voting and voting rights that, seeing the play, he totally changed.

The performances have been incredible and the audience has loved it.

I think one of my takeaways is to keep talking about it and keep trying to connect and try to understand one another.

You know, in an ideal world, maybe we get picked up to tour the show and get to take this story around the country in a way that can have teachings at the end of the production and community forum, theater counseling, and people can talk about how this story might affect them today in parallels.

Banda: It's very inspiring, and, like, I think that it makes me want to push forward and keep moving and gather more people, gather more support, get more people to just be aware of what's going on, the, like, police brutality, racism, homophobia, transphobia in this country.

And I haven't had the opportunity to sort of, like, really dig deep and get in-depth in trying to understand and explain what's going on in, like, a play.

And so, like, the dramaturgical aspect of that was really awesome to delve into.

Press stops covering it.

Everybody loses interest.

People forget.

-I won't.

-Uh-huh.

I won't forget you.

-Promise?

-Promise.

Kane: The message is to get active, to make sure that you vote and have the courage to stand up and fight for what you believe in.

Armour: I'm getting more and more connected to the fact that young people are very much more active.

There were thousands of civil rights workers, but I think this is nationwide, I really do, and things are going on, so it's alive.

We can keep that going and be nourished by the past.

You do what you can.

You know, it's a waste of time, to me, to be pessimistic.

And time is essential.

Get out there and do it.

♪ Oh, this little light of mine ♪ ♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪ ♪ Let it shine, let it shine ♪ ♪ Let it shine ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪