“The Daniel Bell incident twice was a major story in
Milwaukee. In 1958, the 22 year-old black man was shot and killed while running
from a pair of uniformed Milwaukee policemen. In the late 1970s, one of the
former police officers cam forward and admitted the shooting incident was not
self defencse and that there was a cover-up that spread from the Milwaukee
Police Department to the office of the district attorney. That disclosure
launched a criminal trial and subsequent civil suit by the family of the slain
man.
The Bell incident forms the basis of a compelling and, for the most part,
engrossing play, AN AMERICAN JOURNEY.”
Rugg, Variety
“Kermit Frazier’s and John Leicht’s AN AMERICAN JOURNEY
is a piece of fine playwriting….
…the play is an effective and moving piece of drama.”
Jay Joslyn, Milwaukee Sentinel
“…authors Kermit Frazier and John Leicht brought
fort a model of clarity and condensation that is all the more notable for its
power to move us.”
Nels Nelson, Philadelphia Daily News
“AN AMERICAN JOURNEY, a provocative play that
rings with awareness of American life as people are actually living it today.”
William B Collins, The Philadelphia Inquirer
“The play creates a haunting portrait of a
transient country in which many characters, both black and white, seem unable to
settle down in one place.”
Bruce Murphy, Milwaukee
“Playwrights Kermit Frazier (who is black) and
John Leicht (who is white) have succeed in fashioning a powerhouse play…that is
ingenious in structure (moving through time with cinematic grace), passionate in
content…”
Charles Lee, W F L N
first produced at Milwaukee Repertory Theater
5 black M, 10 white M, 2 black F, 3 white F
I S B N 978-0-88145-552-6
$14.95
download or read the first 18 pages