Jan 12, 2007 3 min read

CALIFORNIA – California University of Pennsylvania will present the National Tour of “Jackie, Vi & Lena,” a new play about three famous Civil Rights figures – Jackie Robinson, Viola Liuzzo and Lena Horne for one performance only on Tuesday, Jan. 23, at 7:30 p.m. This event will take place in the Performance Center, located inside the Natali Student Center on the Cal U campus. It is sponsored by the Student Association Inc. and the Student Activities Board.

There is no admission charge, and the Cal U community and general public are welcome.

Perhaps the most famous of these figures is Jackie Robinson, who triumphed over ridicule and racism, becoming the first African American to play Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Later in his career, this Baseball Hall of Famer put his life in serious danger as an advocate and activist for civil rights.

Equally noteworthy but less well known is the Detroit housewife, Viola Liuzzo. Moved by the beatings of civil rights protesters in Alabama, she drove more than 1,000 miles to join the protest march led by Dr. Martin Luther King.

Shot by the Ku Klux Klan the night it was over, she paid the ultimate price for her beliefs. She is the only white person enshrined on the National Civil Rights Memorial.

Finally comes the legendary star of stage and screen Lena Horne, the first African-American to sign a contract with a major Motion Picture Studio.

Horne refused to become the “token performer” Hollywood tried to make her.

With her sharp tongue and brilliant musical talent, not only does she tell her own story but she also narrates Jackie and Viola’s as well.

In “Jackie, Vi, & Lena,” these remarkable people come together in a pivotal event in the civil rights movement the nation’s history – the tumultuous Selma to Montgomery March led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The national tour of “Jackie, Vi & Lena” is presented by The JENA Co. of New York, producers of award-winning original works.

To mount and music direct the production, JENA looked no further than two people who were responsible for the company’s success with its most recent mountings.

First is Joy Vandervort-Cobb, an Emmy Award-winning actress, regional theater director and professor at The College of Charleston, who brought together the stories and songs in last season’s “My Soul Is A Witness,” a dramatic chronicle of the civil rights movement.

From gospel to jazz, music is an important ingredient in “Jackie, Vi & Lena.”

To create its diverse score, JENA is pleased to be working again with New York and West Coast musical director and composer Kevin Christopher Teasley who was the much-acclaimed onstage pianist and musical supervisor for the National Tour of “Unforgettable: the Nat King Cole Story.”

For more information about the production, call Michael Cavnaugh of JENA at 212-765-9610.