Reflections of a Heart at the Clurman Theatre

New York's SteppingStone Theatre Company presents the world premiere of Reflections of a Heart ­ a new play written and directed by Christopher G. Roberts, opening at Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre on 17 Jun 2010, following previews from 11 Jun and running through to 27 Jun 2010.

Reflections of a Heart is based on the true story of Isaac Woodard, Jr., at one time the most highly decorated African-American WWII veteran whose 1946 beating and subsequent blinding by police, hours after being discharged from the US Army, ignited a heated civil rights battle in South Carolina and around the nation.

Set between 1946 and 1951, Reflections of a Heart takes place in the Bronx and South Carolina. Shifting between times, African-American WWII veteran Isaac Woodard, Jr. finds himself under siege by hard-hearted detectives, social injustices, racial prejudices, and his own missing memories. America welcomes back its native son, as a highly decorated war hero, with plans of starting a family. Things go horribly awry when he begins traversing his past and present. The fight for his country is over, as the fight for his life begins.

In February 1946, Sergeant Isaac Woodard, Jr. (1919-1992) was beaten by police in Batesburg, South Carolina, following an innocuous incident on a Greyhound bus. Blinded during the assault, Woodard became the first national symbol in the fight against racial injustice, and garnered support from the likes of President Harry S. Truman, Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte, Orson Welles, and the NAACP.

Although Woodard's story is nearly forgotten today, he inspired folk singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie to write the ballad "The Blinding of Isaac Woodard," using some of Woodard's own words: "It's now you've heard my story, there's one thing I can't see. How you could treat a human like they have treated me?".

The ensemble cast of Reflections of a Heart features Mary Ruth Baggot, Reginald L. Barnes, Gail Merzer Behrens, Chanel Carroll, Mark Ellmore, Kevin Green, Gillian Glasco, Jim Heaphy, Heather Massie, Jonathan Miles, Robert Spence, Michael Vincent and David Wirth.

Reflections of a Heart features set design by Jito Lee, costume design by Sarah Cubbage, lighting design by Kayla Globe and sound design by David Lawson.