When May and Charlie joined hundreds of other Americans who went to Mississippi in the summer of 1964 for a massive voter registration drive, they had no idea their lives were about to change forever. As students at Howard University, their campus activism had been met with calls to their parents and threats of expulsion. The stakes in Mississippi were a lot higher. White supremacists, outraged at the challenge to their segregated way of life, responded with violence that left three civil rights workers dead and many wounded. Years later, May and Charlie are still searching for a way back from the damage that was done to them during that long ago “Freedom Summer.“

Bourbon at the Border takes a look at the lives of two ordinary people who gave everything they had to the African–American freedom struggle but who have now been largely forgotten. In telling May and Charlie's story, Bourbon at the Border puts a human face on the unknown soldiers of the civil rights movement by refusing to romanticize them even as it honors their specific sacrifices and the price they paid.

Cast

LaQuana Billingsley — May Thompson

Dani Cleveland — Rosa St. John

Kabin Thomas — Charles Thompson

Anthony Dupree Holmes — Tyrone Washington

Production Crew

Andre McGraw — Assistant Director

Amy Laaker — Stage Manager

Precious Young — Assistant Stage Manager & Makeup Design

Homero Vela — Set & Lighting Design

Jennifer Pool — Costume Design

*Dress rehearsal photos below reflect in-progress set design.