EXTRA! EXTRA! AHC Presents New Thought-Provoking and Immersive Museum Theater Experience
This February, the Atlanta History Center premieres a new, unique and immersive experience designed to take visitors back in time. Four Days of Fury: Atlanta 1906, by resident playwright Addae Moon, involves audiences in the ideas, debates, emotions, and perspectives that led to the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot – a pivotal, yet unfamiliar event in Atlanta’s history.
Discover 1906 with trailblazing African American journalist, J. Max Barber, editor of Voice of the Negro in this provocative gallery-based theater experience exploring the headlines, people, and events of one of the city’s seminal episodes of race and memory.
Barber leads audience members through eight memory stations designed to place participants among the sights and sounds of 1906 Atlanta. The memory stations explore themes including disenfranchisement, Jim Crow laws, the Niagara Movement, segregation, fairness and equality, and the power of the media. At each memory station, guests meet and interact with historical characters such as Thomas Dixon, author of The Clansman, and Atlanta Judge Nash Broyles, as well as average citizens affected by the event. The actors, sound and music, sets and props, movement and images help to immerse the visitor and make history come to life in this History Matters production.
This thought-provoking History Matters production leaves visitors with a broader historical perspective of Atlanta’s past that sheds light on the chaos that followed the uprising of white citizens against their African American neighbors.
Facilitated discussions following the performances help visitors explore why history matters and how it has shaped our communities and societies today. The Atlanta History Center staff involved in the post-performance discussions received dialogue training from the Levine Museum of the New South to handle questions and answers relating to this controversial and provocative topic.
The riots transformed modern Atlanta in positive and negative ways. While the ensuing reinforcement of Jim Crow segregation after the riots made life more difficult for African Americans, it also led to the evolution of Auburn Avenue as one of the most affluent Black business districts in the country, and shaped the way that the city negotiates race and racial conflict.
This History Matters production is the first in a series of gallery-based experiences using museum theatre to explore the diversity of Atlanta’s past, present, and future. This new immersive program literally places visitors inside the past to learn why history matters and how it shapes our community today.
This theatre experience is recommended for ages sixteen and up, based on language and sensitive subject matter. Visitors who take advantage of the experience should understand this is an immersive encounter with history that is challenging and provocative, yet stimulating, inspiring, and motivating as well. The experiences will take place on:
Fridays, February 15 and 22: 6:30 PM, 8:00 PM
Saturdays, February 16 and 23: 5:00 PM, 6:30 PM, 8:00 PM
Sundays, February 17 and 24: 2:00 PM, 3:30 PM, 5:00 PM
There is limited capacity per performance and reservations are required. Admission is $10 for Atlanta History Center members, $15 nonmembers. Reserve your tickets by phone at 404.814.4150 or online at AtlantaHistoryCenter.com/4Days.
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