The Princely Players in New England

By Wayne Self

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When Mary Chapin Durling attended the Southern Arts Federation’s (SAF) American Traditions Training program at the 1999 Southern Arts Exchange regional arts conference in Tampa, Florida, she had no idea how much a simple performance viewing would impact her, her community, and her region.

Durling, Cultural Affairs Coordinator at Fitchburg State College in north-central Massachusetts, was selected along with four other presenters representing underserved New England communities and three New England traditional artists to participate in SAF’s professional development program for traditional and folk artists, and presenters. Artists and presenters from other eastern U.S. regions joined her in Tampa for the American Traditions artist/presenter training sessions, which included both workshops and showcase performances. American Traditions, a National Endowment for the Arts-funded initiative administered through the Southern Arts Federation, was a three-year program sponsored in conjunction with regional arts organizations such as the New England Foundation for the Arts, in partnership with their state arts agencies.

It was the task of the regional arts organizations and their state partners to find suitable presenters and artists — those who were doing high-quality work with audiences and in communities — ready for participation in a short but intensive program of professional development. Artists learned more about working with presenting organizations, agents, and managers; doing school residencies; and, of course, working with presenters based in struggling but persevering communities. Presenters in turn worked on improving their skills in budgeting and contract negotiations; developing audiences with a focus on traditional/folk artists; fundraising and grantsmanship; and developing board members and volunteers.

And then there were the American Traditions showcases. During the Southern Arts Exchange conference, each of the two evening concerts featured six traditional and folk solo or ensemble artists from the New England, Mid-Atlantic seaboard, and greater Southeast regions. It was at the second conference showcase that Durling first encountered the a capella, nine-voice Princely Players ensemble of Nashville, Tennessee, performing spirituals, hymns and work songs depicting the African American emancipation.

"As a presenter at one of my events," Durling continued, "I rarely move out of ‘work mode/thought/worry’ into [the role of] receptive audience member. My two moments of clear, emotional response to the Princely Players [did not come] during their performance at my venue [Fitchburg State College]."

"The first was in Tampa when I first heard them perform. There I was, an audience member — which is the perfect reason why showcases at conferences are important," Durling explained. "I was struck by the poetry of "The Slave Block;" the words were so evocative and [Princely Players member] Odessa Settles as the young girl child being sold [portrayed her] as so trapped, discarded, and ignored, she struck my heart. She was there on the block; I was there on the block. I was able to open myself to the emotionally visceral moment, the universal aloneness, the very personal Black Experience of which I have no parallel experience."

Moved to tears during their Florida performance, Durling went on to book the Princely Players for an engagement during February 2001 (Black History Month) at Fitchburg State.

"My second moment," Durling continued, "is about their music when we were at South Street Elementary School in Fitchburg before the Players’ lecture-demonstration." "We [Durling and the ensemble] were all in the music room, which was like a small cathedral — high-ceilinged with incredible acoustics. Odessa began singing, not one of the ensemble’s regular performance songs but one she had just heard recently or thought the group should be thinking about performing. Gradually, the other singers all blended in without talk... choice... deliberation. It was soaring, beautiful, and so rich, just the magical quality of nine voices; friends who knew where each part lay and how the sound could go..."

"The Princely Players had an authenticity of cultural expression," Durling recalled. "Their performance gave me — as a White person — an opportunity to experience/hear the ensemble’s voices while being allowed to understand in a non-confrontational, open-minded manner the nature of oppression without the fourth wall of theater, or anger. Without the anger, I heard the message and experienced the humanity more clearly.

"I see the FSC Cultural Series as an eclectic one because the school should welcome all community segments," Durling explained. "A public institution should reflect all community facets regardless of race, class, income or interest. Fitchburg State’s New England Writers series is an example; it includes writers of the stature of William Styron, to sportswriters, to writers with radical political views. What’s important is the art’s integrity and the artist’s authenticity."

Her wider vision grew out of Fitchburg native Durling’s background as a lifelong arts enthusiast. She vividly remembers the thrill of, as a child, seeing Arthur Fiedler lead the Boston Pops. Experiencing musical theater inspired her to become a pit orchestra pianist. And, as a committed arts professional, Durling plays a significant role in the drama of Fitchburg’s transformation from a struggling mill town to one developing a strong economic and cultural infrastructure. Not only does she program the college’s various presenting series — traditional and other performing arts, a writers series, and an international film series — she coordinates the Fitchburg Public Library’s performing arts series as well.

"With proper care and nurturing, Fitchburg is revitalizing and recharging itself as a community," Durling said. "Arts and culture does it — from projects featuring composer Barbara White (in a yearlong residency funded through the NEA’s Continental Harmony millenium initiative and a Meet The Composer/New England grant awarded through NEFA), to the college’s role in embracing new audiences through its programming directions. It’s called giving back to the community. FSC’s President Michael P. Riccards gives me free rein without political pressures, and Fitchburg State’s cultural series offerings have made the connection (along with other resources and services available through the college) with the overall economic development of Fitchburg."

And the connections don’t stop in Fitchburg. Durling is an active member of both the Green Mountain Presenters and New England Presenters consortia. At separate meetings of each organization, she sold the idea of developing a regional tour around her presentation of the Princely Players at Fitchburg State. Not only would Durling be able to host a performance and in-school lecture-demonstration of the ensemble, she made it possible for the Players to debut its first extended tour.

The in-school lecture demonstration came about as part of a long-term relationship being built between the college’s Cultural Affairs Department and South Street Integrated Arts Magnet Elementary School. Teacher-Art Specialist Josephine Rivers worked with Durling and the Princely Players upon their arrival in town a few days before the ensemble’s presentation to South Street’s 3^rd- and 4^th-graders. Rivers also requested and received beforehand an informal repertoire of songs slated for performance during the workshop and concert.

"I sensed excitement building among the students prior to the Princely Players’ presentation," noted Rivers. "Some active student participation took place during the workshop, held in our school’s gym." She recollected as high points the ensemble opening the session with a work song and how the members changed outfits to reflect various eras and types of African-American music. "The Princely Players’ lecture-demo," said Rivers, "ranked near the top in terms of positive impact as far as our 2000-2001 school year presentations."

Bill Menezes, Director of Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond at Keene State College in New Hampshire — and one of four other tour site coordinators, saw the Princely Players’ engagement as a great success. "Keene State is a ‘whitebread’ school and many who attend the college have no history of the Black American experience," Menezes related. "As a result of the performance of this accomplished — as opposed to polished and sophisticated — ensemble, several students were seen moved to tears — people who had never experienced art on an emotional level — and one particularly and consistently critical professor (of Redfern’s series offerings) really loved the concert!"

The Players did over an hour-long presentation to an audience of approximately 80 choral and non-choral students, Keene State faculty, and community members. The workshop, a lecture-demonstration, gave historical and social context to early field hollers, traditional African-American hymns and spirituals, and gospel songs, even including 1950s-era blues and jazz singing. All ensemble members participated in the workshop either through explanations or through providing sung examples of song types or vocal styles.

Menezes said, "Not only was this five-engagement, two-state run the Players’ first extended tour, it was during the winter — snow still a shock to Southerners — and Keene State was the first tour stop." Menezes considered the Princely Players workshop one of Redfern’s better educational offerings, and, as far as the concert was concerned, the feeling the contralto singer conveyed "reminded me of my mother singing when I closed my eyes and listened; what a moving experience!"

Presenters Bob Shea — Director of Saint Anselm College’s Dana Center in Manchester, New Hampshire — and Maureen Lanigan — Director of Merrimack College’s Rogers Center for the Arts in North Andover, Massachusetts — were also pleased with their concert tour engagements. Lanigan noted that, out of 224 people in attendance, 150 were made up of groups from two churches. "It was a moving performance," Lanigan said, "filled with drama and emotion."

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