University News

BU Drama launches new production, innovative program for graduating students

June 27, 2011

SHERBROOKE, QC—Columbia Days, an original musical memoir about growing up in the Deep South during the late 1950s debuts at Bishop’s University this Friday. Written and directed by the acclaimed George Rideout, and with music direction by Jamie Crooks, Columbia Days is set in 1959 as a new music, rock & roll, sweeps the nation just as an ongoing fight for racial equality in the American south is heating up.

It is the story of Walter Young, whose father is the only white professor at Allen, an African Methodist university in Columbia, South Carolina. Ten year-old Walter lives in a black neighbourhood, plays with black friends, but goes to a white school as the law requires. Through the eyes of this boy and the pulsating rhythms of the new beat, we experience a family's struggle to survive the violent upheaval taking place in southern society, an upheaval that provokes hatred and violence, but also small acts of great courage and love.

Columbia Days runs from July 1 to July 9 at 8:00 pm in Bishop’s Turner Studio Theatre. Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for seniors, and $10 for students and are available by calling the Centennial box office at 819-822-9692.

Columbia Days is also the inaugural presentation of Bridge Theatre, an innovative new program at Bishop’s University which seeks to assist graduating drama students in bridging the gap between their university studies and a career in professional theatre. It aims to forge relationships with professional companies and to encourage entrepreneurship in the arts.

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