Page 8
August 18, 2021
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
A Worthy Production
for Live Shows Return
o Pinionated
J udGe
by
d arleen o rtega
“Fannie: The
Music and Life
of Fannie Lou
Hamer”
In-person performance has
been one of the casualties of the
past 18 months of a global pan-
demic—theater and music venues
have been shuttered, and artists
have been left to create however
they can, generally without a live
audience or any audience at all.
Those of us who register the im-
pact that theater and other forms
of live performance often have in
getting past our collective defens-
es to open minds and hearts know
that the loss is larger than it might
appear.
The need for innovation per-
sists in this wobbly time of recov-
ery, but the Oregon Shakespeare
Festival has chosen a worthy vehi-
cle for its return invitation to live
audiences: “Fannie: The Music
and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer.”
Hamer lacks the notoriety of
many other civil rights icons; the
most visible leaders were young
men, and Hamer joined the move-
ment as a middle-aged woman,
having spent decades as a share-
cropper and having first realized
she had a right to vote at age 44.
What she did with that realization
over the last 15 years of her life,
E. Faye Butler stars in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival production of Fannie: The Music and Life of
Fannie Lou Hamer. Photo by Jenny Graham/Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
though, puts any of our struggles
into perspective if we’ll let it. She
weathered beatings, attempts on
her life, minimizations, and be-
trayals, and yet spoke out relent-
lessly for the simple human digni-
ty of the Black community, whose
struggles she knew all too well.
One could not hope for a better
teacher on how to find the gifts in
adversity, and how to live a life re-
lentlessly committed to the truth.
Playwright Cheryl West de-
veloped the play with actress
E. Faye Butler in mind (Butler
plays Hamer at OSF through Au-
gust, and then able OSF veteran
Greta Ogelsby will assume the
role through October 9). Before
its OSF run, the play took vari-
ous forms through the pandemic.
Working with Butler and director
Henry Godinez (who also directs
OSF’s production), a shortened
version of the play was mounted
in the summer and fall of 2020, in
parks in Chicago and various oth-
er cities, in support of voter regis-
tration efforts. OSF’s production
occurs in its outdoor theater, and
has already been riding the pan-
demic waves; early shows had
audience members distanced and
masked, while I was lucky enough
to be there a few weeks after open-
ing during a period when audience
members were unmasked and
seated closer together. Beginning
this week, audiences will again be
masked and, for the entire run so
far, audience members have been
asked to show proof of vaccina-
tion or a negative COVID test.
C ontinued on P age 12