Mahalia, a musical production from the Arena Players Baltimore MD. Feb/March. 2024

ARENA PLAYERS, SHOWCASES MAHALIA
How can singing enhance a Movement? It was truly personified when the Civil Rights Movement became an embryo.
That clapping, and rhythmic singing injected a spirit to shout and give thanks and praise! But to whom, and for what?
The black barber shop politicians were lost, once their audiences headed for home. Same result when the Baptist church pews were emptied, after services.
Now what would happen if one took the dreary church hymns, spiced them up, added some stomping and clapping, and put Jesus’s name in the mix?
The congregation said “AMEN!”
This combination ‘cake’ needed a leader, that will bridge the church to a political movement, that can take the downtrodden “to the promise land!”
Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. punched the ticket.
MAHALIA JACKSON sang, Martin preached, and the march on Washington in 1963, became a pilgrimage.
ARENA PLAYERS PLAYHOUSE is celebrating the above with the play, MAHALIA.