Breath and Imagination

Long before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, before Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar for the role of Mammy in “Gone with the Wind” or the Tuskegee Airmen won honors as black pilots in World War Two, Roland Hayes made history as the first world-renowned African-American classical singer. The son of slaves, he grew up in poverty on a Georgia plantation. As a man, he headlined at Carnegie Hall and sang for kings and queens of Europe, blazing a path for Paul Robeson, Marian Anderson, and countless others who came after. Discover how the gift of his father’s pocket watch sets him on his remarkable journey to greatness in this extraordinary, inspiring play filled with music.