It was April 26, 1913. Confederate Memorial Day was being commemorated with a parade in the streets of Atlanta, Georgia.
On that same day, the body of 13-year-old Mary Phagan was found in the basement of the National Pencil Company, where she had worked placing erasers on pencils. Leo Frank, the Jewish superintendent of the factory, was arrested and accused of the crime.
That story, a true-life murder mystery, is the inspiration for the musical “Parade,” being presented on the Ephrata Performing Arts Center stage through Nov. 1
“Parade” tells the story of the 1913 trial of Leo Frank and his 1915 lynching after his sentence was changed from the death penalty to life in prison.
“Parade” is a sobering musical, not a lighthearted show with singing and dancing and colorful costumes.
“This is the story of racism, antisemitism, child labor and sexism,” says the show’s director, Ed Fernandez. “It has to do with the impact after the Civil War, when the South was still suffering the effects from the devastation of the war.
“It might be a show set in the 1900s, but it is just as relevant today, more than a century later,” Fernandez adds.
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Historical accuracy
History that tends to run in a circular motion, ebbing and flowing from generation to generation, is a basic premise of “Parade.”
To ensure the historical accuracy of EPAC’s production, the creative team called on the expertise and knowledge of a dramaturg.
A dramaturg provides historical context to ensure that a play or musical has the authenticity and depth that painstaking research can provide. When a play is based on a historical event, the dramaturg helps to educate the cast and shape the narrative of the show.
For EPAC’s staging of “Parade,” Andrea Glass, an assistant professor of Women & Gender Studies at the University of Delaware and an EPAC board member, served as the dramaturg.
After doing research into the life and times of 1913 Georgia, Glass — who holds a Ph.D. in American studies from Penn State Harrisburg — was able to piece together the complexities of the headline-making murder mystery.
“It was an intersectional story of racism and antisemitism,” says Glass, explaining that when Frank, an educated Jewish man from the North, came to supervise the pencil factory, he was regarded with suspicion from the start.
Mary’s battered body was discovered by a Black night watchman, Newt Lee, who was initially a suspect. Jim Conley, the company’s Black janitor, was also a suspect.
Frank’s ultimate arrest for Mary’s murder lead to one of the most sensational trials of the 20th century. Frank’s conviction, the commutation of his sentence and his subsequent lynching captured the attention of the nation.
“It remains an unsolved murder mystery to this day,” says Glass.
The questions that have haunted the Frank case live on: Was justice served? Did Frank kill Mary, or did Lee, Conley or someone else kill the young teen, and escape punishment? Was the antisemitism and distrust of Northerners within the community stronger than the racism toward Black men who were from the South?
“Leo Frank was a Northern Yankee. He was Ivy League educated and he was not one of them,” Glass says. “His lynching was highly orchestrated after the governor commuted his death sentence to life in prison.”
Glass adds other factors also came into play. While there was a community of Jewish residents in Atlanta, Frank being from the North made him “the other,” representing the one-time enemy of the South. The victim was a girl raised on a farm and sent to Atlanta to work in a factory at just 13 to help her family.
“Mary became the image of Southern womanhood, with her purity and innocence taken from her,” says Glass.
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Understanding roles
Glass shared her research with the cast and crew before production got underway. In a workshop, she was able to help the cast slip into their characters and gain an understanding of the vast divide that existed in Georgia — not unlike the divide that exists in America today.
“Thanks to Andrea, I was able to understand my character better. It was very enlightening,” says Wes Wilson, who portrays Frank in EPAC’s “Parade.”
For Wilson, who has played Angel in “Rent” and Crutchie in “Newsies,” taking on Frank’s persona has been an emotional experience. He says it is the toughest role he has ever played. He has questioned whether or not Frank committed the brutal murder.
“Personally, though, I don’t think I could play Leo Frank if I didn’t believe in his innocence,” says Wilson, adding he feels his co-star, Kayla Capone Kasper, portrays his wife, Lucille Frank, with steadfast devotion for her husband. “She never remarried.”
Zach Haines, assistant director of EPAC’s production of the show, says he feels the cast is brilliant in their interpretation of the murder mystery surrounding Mary’s death — from Lucy Tibbs, who must bring a heartbreaking innocence to her role as young Mary, to Tony Zbrzezny who portrays Judge Roan, presiding over the sensational trial.
(Haines is a media solutions strategist for LNP Media Group, which publishes LNP | LancasterOnline.)
Other cast members include Michael Roman as Jim Conley and Reji Woods as Newt Lee.
“Parade,” with a book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, debuted on Broadway in December 1998, winning Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Original Score. The 2023 Broadway revival won two Tonys.
Its songs include the majestic “The Old Red Hills of Home,” filled with hope that turns to haunting despair, and “All the Wasted Time,” in which a husband realizes the selfless love and devotion of his wife.