Continuing our series of guest posts is Felicia Hunter, composer, book writer, and lyricist of the new musical Fannie Lou. Telling the story of voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, Fannie Lou is not only a powerful work of musical theatre, but an important one as well. With their first New York performance coming up on October 6th, the 95th anniversary of Fannie Lou's birth, Felicia Hunter shares the story of her show's journey (and be sure to go to the end of the post for an exclusive discount for readers of this blog).
Fannie Lou was inspired by the life of voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. The daughter of Mississippi sharecroppers, she grew up poor and had to leave school before reaching the seventh grade to help her family make ends meet by working in the fields. At the age of 44, in August of 1962, Mrs. Hamer decided to register to vote. She had never voted before, and was determined to exercise her right as a citizen. She, and others in the group of prospective voters that day, were turned away. Thus began Mrs. Hamer’s public life as a voting, civil and human rights advocate.
In my writing process for Fannie Lou, many of the songs came first; I started by telling different elements of the story through the music and lyrics. The book followed. As characters and personalities developed while I went through the intricacies of completing the book, more songs were written. A few more came afterward.
Although I was aware of Mrs. Hamer and her work, the idea to create a musical came while I was reading a biography about Mrs. Hamer written by Kay Mills, titled This Little Light of Mine. What I learned about her was so inspirational and motivating that I thought her life and determination would translate well as a theatrical work.
One of several musical influences for Fannie Lou is the compelling work Jesus Christ, Superstar. I'm amazed at how the writers succeeded in retelling an age-old story through the eyes of the antagonist and, at the same time, made that story palpable for modern audiences. Because Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice even attempted -- much less succeeded, in my opinion -- to walk that intricate tightrope makes Jesus Christ Superstar one of my favorite musicals of all time.
What they did is what I wanted to do with Fannie Lou. I wanted to utilize artistic conventions to tell a story of heroism, dynamism and personal sacrifice in an unconventional way. And, at the same time, even though we know the ending (although arguably the voting rights story is still being written), take audience members on such an intriguing journey that they wonder what will happen next.
