by Charlie Barnett | May 30, 2026 | Theatre
Book by Robert P. Young III and Richard Lasser
Music and Lyrics by Charlie Barnett
Synopsis
Ridgewood, New Jersey, March 1965. Seventeen-year-old Dawn Jacks hears Dr. King on the radio and packs a bag for Selma, Alabama. She talks Rose Shapiro, the Jewish widow whose house she grew up in, into coming along. Dawn’s mother, Mary, has been Rose’s cook for nineteen years, and Mary’s brother Terrance, a World War II veteran, is Rose’s driver. Mary fled Mississippi and never wanted to go back, but she will not let Dawn go without her. So the four head south in Rose’s 1963 Buick with sandwiches, maps, and the Green Book.
A gas station attendant wants to see their money before he will pump the gas, then turns polite the moment Rose speaks up. The travelers keep their spirits up with songs and jokes. At a Green Book motel outside Charlotte, they promise to stick together as a family.
That night the radio reports that Jimmie Lee Jackson has been shot dead by an Alabama trooper at a voting rights march. Mary tells Rose they are going home. Rose refuses, and the fight turns ugly. Rose says she kept Mary on when Mary “got herself pregnant.” Mary answers with the truth: Rose’s late husband, Patrick, forced himself on her when she was seventeen. Dawn overhears. Patrick, the man she called Uncle Patrick, was her father. Mary kept the secret in exchange for his support. Terrance knew. Rose half knew and looked away. Dawn turns on all of them. In the morning she says she is going to Selma, with them or alone by bus.
They drive south in silence. A South Carolina state trooper pulls them over and orders them out of the car at gunpoint. An emergency call on his radio pulls him away before he shoots. In Selma, Terrance gives Dawn straight answers. Rose cannot. Mary says she will walk beside her daughter whether Dawn speaks to her or not.
On March 7, the four join hands and walk onto the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Troopers attack with tear gas, clubs, whips, horses, and dogs. The four get back to the car beaten and bleeding. Terrance has a concussion and thinks he is back in the war. Dawn, who has no license, takes the wheel. A white hospital will treat Rose but not the others, and Rose refuses to go in without them.
In the parking lot of a colored hospital at daybreak, Mary tells Dawn that every choice she made, she made for her. Rose admits she chose what not to see. Dawn takes the car keys from her mother and sits behind the wheel. The four are still together, though none of them knows yet what kind of family they will be when they get home.
Production History
Audio and Video
by Charlie Barnett | May 1, 2026 | Charlie's Blog, News
My roots and folk music band, Barnstorm, is hitting the road. I’m finding that the band feels most at home in small listening venues, where we can really connect with an audience — and, hopefully, get them to sing along with us. We’ve got two such gigs coming up. If you’re near one of them, I hope you’ll consider joining us.
We will be playing in Northeast Baltimore on May 16th at The Four-Hour Day lutherie, an instrument-making shop and music studio located at 4305 Harford Rd., in the Arcadia neighborhood. The gig starts at 7:30pm, and tickets cost $20. For information, email [email protected].
Then on May 24th, we’ll be in Staunton, Virginia, at Queen City Music Studios at 16 W. Beverly Street (second floor). It’s a 7pm show, and tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. For information or tickets, visit queencitymusicstudios.com.
by Charlie Barnett | Apr 4, 2026 | Theatre
By Charlie Barnett
Synopsis
A two-act play inspired by the story of Briseis in Homer’s The Iliad.
Bree (Briseis) a mysterious classroom auditor at Ilium College in upstate New York has been assigned to Classics 101, a freshman survey course in Greek mythology. The professor adjunct, Harrison Robb, has a past of misconduct with his female students. We immediately find out that he can neither see nor hear Bree, although all the other students can.
Bree can sense that Harrison has already chosen his next victim, Christina, and Bree has made it a point to protect Christina. Meanwhile two recent alums, Josh and Hamilton arrive at the college to gift the school with a 20 million dollar classics wing, but the tangled web of Harrison creates obstacles to accept the gift. Meanwhile, Christina’s roommate, Tara, falls for Hamilton. While the story unfolds and we learn more about how Harrison takes his obsession with Christina to a new and dangerous level, questions about who (or what) Bree is begins to unravel.
Production History
by Charlie Barnett | Feb 1, 2026 | Charlie's Blog, Home Page, News, Uncategorized
There are 27 different institutes at the National Institutes of Health, and workers at every one of them have been impacted by the chaos of the current administration. Since the beginning of last year, roughly 10% of NIH’s workforce has been terminated without notice, encouraged to retire, or fired over email. Some former NIH workers created a group called 27 UNIHTED to support one another and advocate for a better future for biomedical research.
My folk band, Barnstorm, is proud to be playing a benefit show on February 15 to support 27 UNIHTED’s programs and advocacy. My bandmates are terrific: Greg Watkins on bass, Mark Carson on drums, and Michael Robert Taylor on fiddle and mandolin. And I’m delighted to reveal that our opening act is none other than the folk singer Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., former director of the NIH and, before that, of the Human Genome Project. Since his retirement from NIH last March, Collins has devoted himself to his music. The week after our show, he’ll be performing at the Lincoln Center in New York with soprano Renée Fleming!
The benefit show will take place at The Alley at Bethesda Boards, 7900 Woodmont Avenue, Bethesda, Maryland, on Sunday, February 15. It’s a BYOB situation and also BYOF (bring your own food). Tickets will be $40, with proceeds going to 27 UNIHTED, but laid-off federal workers are invited to come for free. It’s an early show: Doors open at 5pm and the music starts at 6pm. Hope to see you there!
by Charlie Barnett | Jan 15, 2026 | Charlie's Blog, Home Page, News, Uncategorized
I was recently commissioned to write a setting of Psalm 19 for the choir of Saint Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church on Sanibel Island in Florida. Of course, being the profound agnostic that I am, I had to look up the psalm. It’s the one that starts “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
In a couple of weeks, I’ll be traveling to Florida for the piece’s premiere. And I’m taking my guitar, because while I’m down there, I’ll play a sing-along concert from the Barnstorm songbook, accompanied by local accordionist Tom Cinarusci percussionist Doreen Bolhuis.
If you’re in the area, please come to the church (2304 Periwinkle Way) to hear the psalm piece during the 10:30 a.m. service on Sunday, January 31. Or come for a Barnstorm-lite show at 1:30pm the same place, same day. There’s no charge for either event.
