“We had no idea it would take so long, and be so hard.” There’s a hard truth in that statement, softly but emphatically delivered by Gwendolyn Briley-Strand as Mrs. Rosa Parks that seems to sum up much more than the Montgomery bus strike. It sums up the entire Black experience in this country, and the escalation of hostility toward communities of people of color over the last four years. It’s one line, but reflects the bone- and soul-deep weariness of an endless battle and the one-foot-in-front-of-the-other-courage needed to keep on fighting.
It was a perfect show to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Day. It is also a perfect show to remember how much work is still to be done.
Clocking in at a mere 30 minutes, ‘Rosa Parks: Such A Time,’ is a beautifully written play by Gwendolyn Strand, who also stars as the civil rights icon. In this play — set more than two years after the bus strike and the Parks’ move to Detroit — Mrs. Parks is giving a speech to a group, reflecting on the bus strike and the events leading up to it.
The script is full of well-researched moments that are woven seamlessly into the presentation. One telling example is the gaslighting the bus company used when the demands for ending the strike were presented (and there were only three). The demand was simply to have the buses actually take Black people into their neighborhoods, which were usually a mile away from the closest bus stop. The bus company said no. Their reason was that Black people had not indicated they wanted that so there was no need for it. It was a small, but breathtaking moment.
The focus of the script itself is on the bus strike, but Briley-Strand positions it so that you can feel the ramifications of this case which was won in the U.S. Supreme Court. One of the few caveats I had with it was a line at the end detailing how Mrs. Parks was found guilty by the local court and fined $14.00. The line had to do with what a bargain that was to the beginning of the end of segregation. I couldn’t help but think that that price didn’t count, in practical terms, the costs of keeping that boycott going for 381 days, until the bus company gave in. That’s more than a year of a lot of walking for people who didn’t probably have a lot of shoes or the money to take taxicabs every day. It didn’t count the sore muscles from walking, carrying shopping, and the harassment from the white folks coming into their neighborhoods. And it probably didn’t count the lost jobs, the tightening of belts, and all the contributions to be able to take a case all the way to the Supreme Court.
This is a quietly powerful show. Briley-Strand’s Mrs. Parks is modest and straightforward. She is costumed beautifully in a period dress suit, hat, and stockings and low heels. She stands behind a simple lectern in a church-type setting, with her pocketbook resting on a nearby chair. Her delivery is direct but adamant, and a bit of impatience with fools shows when she utters a quiet “mm-hmm” after recollecting the bus company’s smug refusals. It is a strong, graceful performance.
It also has one of the most moving montages at the beginning that gives us a brief history of the realities faced in the years following the enactment of the Jim Crow laws. Just the pictures show how little has changed in so many ways and how far there is still to go.
Briley-Strand has focused her career on iconic Black women who have produced lasting change. Her one woman shows, “Harriet Tubman: The Chosen One” and “Rosa Parks Such A Time,” have been performed for hundreds of schools, and organizations throughout the United States and Canada, including notably at the Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, and to open the Underground Railroad Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. Due to her work, she introduced President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama in the grand opening of the African American Museum Of History And Culture in Washington DC.
It was a perfect show to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Day. It is also a perfect show to remember how much work is still to be done.
Running Time: Approximately 30 minutes without intermission.
Show Advisory: Recommended for audiences 10 and above.
“Rosa Parks: Such A Time” was presented on Monday, January 18, 2021 via streaming by The Essential Theatre, Washington, DC. For more information on this, and on upcoming programs, please click here.
