Silver Spring Theater Presents Opera 'Love Songs from the Liberation Wars'

SILVER SPRING, MD — The Tommy Douglas Conference Center theater is presenting a jazz/opera titled Love Songs from the Liberation Wars: the 1940s Tobacco Workers Struggle from March 30 to April 1.

This jazz, opera, comedy and history production features an 18-member cast to tackle the history of black and white workers' struggle to form the original tobacco workers' union in North Carolina's R.J. Reynolds cigarette plant in the late 1940s.

The Love Songs production discusses Jim Crow segregation, and presents the moving, true circumstances in which the song "We Shall Overcome" became part of our national consciousness.

"It's an important story of the past that reminds us of the work, dedication, love and courage for the times we face now," director Elise Bryant said in a statement.

The story was inspired by the book "Civil Rights Unionism" by Duke University Professor Robert Korstad. The book describes the strike led by African-American woman at the R.J. Reynolds factory in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The jazz/opera will run just four performances of Love Songs. Catch the show at 10000 New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring. Tickets are available now.

Photo: Tommy Douglas Conference Center, Google Map View