October 5, 2021 – Millikin University’s School of Theatre & Dance will open its 2021-22 mainstage production season with a performance of “Blood at the Root” that plays Thursday, Oct. 7 to Saturday, Oct. 9 at 7:30 pm, and on Sunday, Oct. 10 at 2 pm.
Tickets are $15, or free admission with a Millikin student ID, and shows will be held in the new Virginia Rogers Theatre located in Millikin’s Center for Theatre & Dance.
Written by Dominique Morisseau, “Blood at the Root” is set in a fictional Cedar High School in Louisiana. The plot is based on real events in 2006 at a high school in Jena, La., where there was a particular tree that only white students sat under. The day after black students tried to sit there, nooses appeared in the tree. A schoolyard fight broke out. Six black students were charged with attempted murder. That injustice prompted Morisseau to write a choreopoem with the title echoing the Billie Holliday song “Strange Fruit” [“Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root”].
The play examines the complexities of race, justice, hate crime, and an educational and judicial system built on racial biases.
Millikin University’s School of Theatre & Dance is a nationally recognized program, offering conservatory-style training rooted in a liberal arts education. The School’s approach to education, known as Performance Learning, offers a comprehensive integration of theory and practice with the added component of collaboration with third-party stakeholders. Through these collaborations, students gain valuable insight and engagement with their chosen professions prior to graduation which helps prepare them for professional success.
For more information about Millikin University’s School of Theatre & Dance and the School’s 2021-22 production season, please visit millikin.edu/theatre.
