The Parchman Hour

In the fiery first months of America’s civil rights movement, waves of young people, mostly college students, rode buses into the heart of the Deep South. Many were brutally attacked, arrested, and imprisoned in Mississippi’s notorious Parchman Farm Penitentiary, where they invented an ingenious pastime to help them endure, a live variety show inspired by programs then popular on radio and television. Jokes, stories, singing and Bible readings sprang from every cell. This nightly event became known as The Parchman Hour. With characters such as Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, The Parchman Hour honors an important piece of history. We are proud to give this inspiring new play its professional premiere.