'Underground: Hear the Sound of Freedom' Brings New Life to the Avram Theater Stage

What’s the first thing you think of when someone brings up Stony Brook Southampton? It might be the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences that researches aquatic life and the global climate. There’s also the Lichtenstein Center that nurtures students with hopes of creative writing in their future.

But something that deserves a little more time in the spotlight is the campus’s Avram Theater, which in recent years has not seen a lot of action. For Wendy Pearson, Stony Brook University’s new Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and executive director of the Southampton campus, the Avram can be a great way to welcome people to the university’s Hamptons extension.

“People think of athletics often as the front door of a campus,” Pearson said this month. “I like to think of the arts as the front door because not everyone is into sports, but they might want to see a performance.

“We had been trying to find a way to revive that theater with the season from about January of last year,” she added. “This is our first effort that’s coming to fruition, but we really want a full and vibrant season for the Avram.”

That first step to vibrancy is bringing the play “Underground: Hear the Sound of Freedom” to the Avram from Thursday, January 30, through Sunday, February 2. Created by Akil DuPont, this musical follows three enslaved people in 1850 escaping the ruthless grip of their enslaver in the hopes of finding the Underground Railroad. On top of being the newest theater experience for local residents, Stony Brook Southampton will also welcome 600 local high school students from East End districts to two daytime performances of “Underground.”

“People have heard of the Underground Railroad, they think they know the story of it,” Pearson said. “When you think about the Underground Railroad and all the inherent risks to it and the intricacy of it and the instructions and how many partners had to be involved to make it work, it’s a fascinating story. I think it’ll always be an American story that resonates with people.”

“There are people who don’t want this story told as much in education spaces nowadays,” DuPont added. “I think it’s up to us artists to make sure that we are expressing this through our platform and our venues which aren’t necessarily tied to education and public funding in that way.”

Though “Underground” was always a musical, the stage play is actually its second incarnation. DuPont said earlier this month that the piece was first a short film released in August 2010 that featured one original song and five traditional songs. The play now has 14 traditional songs and 18 original songs, with lyrics by DuPont and music from composer Lililita Forbes. DuPont said the genesis of doing a musical retelling of the Underground Railroad was born all the way back in 2007, when he heard an a cappela version of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” which is referred to as a spiritual song (combining tones of religion and folk) that were common in the 1800s.

“We’re actually telling this story with the first form of music that was born in America, which is the spiritual,” DuPont said. “Inside these spirituals, there were instructions inside them to navigate the Underground Railroad. Something like ‘Wade in the Water,’ that was a message to try to tell the people that were enslaved, ‘If you’re being chased and there are dogs and things after you, if you wade through that water, the dogs will lose your scent and that’s a way to be able to escape.’”

Forbes was all-in on DuPont’s spiritual sonic vision, putting together the original music for the play in just four-and-a-half months after being contacted about the project in the spring of 2015. The composer, who was also in the ensemble for the short film, said she created and tracked every vocal arrangement for the music any time she could at any place she was at before its world premiere at the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival that October. Though the spiritual sound was at the heart of every song, the new music has tastes of other genres including jazz, gospel and, as Forbes noted, Caribbean.

“The African diaspora of course spreads out throughout the Caribbean,” Forbes added. “For generations, the sound evolved so you have jazz, you have soul music, you have Caribbean music. All of them have stories and they all exist in certain times where the Africans, or the descendants of Africans, or the Americans and the Caribbean people all had similar experiences, but we were all in different places.

“As a Caribbean person myself, I wanted to make sure that all the African diaspora were in the songs so you’ll hear the diversity of sound in the music.”

“Underground” has been successful in both its iterations. The short film played in over 60 countries and won 21 awards, including two Student Emmys. The play has also stepped onto a variety of stages, including the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Sankofa Concert in Tallahassee, Florida. Though he’s put his show on multiple stages, DuPont knew the Avram was special right from the first visit.

“Wendy and Stony Brook University were a wonderful introduction to the Avram Theater, and to that piece of Long Island,” he added. “When I walked into the Avram, we were still contemplating the project. They had a big display of ‘Underground’ on a projection screen all the way in the back, I was like, ‘Oooooo, y’all just sold me!’ It strikes me as a very elegant theater. When I walked in, the size of it was impressive. It felt voluminous in the best way.”

Pearson said she first met DuPont when “Underground” was in its short film days at the 2010 San Diego Black Film Festival. The two stayed in contact since then via social media, but hadn’t actually seen each other in-person since 2010. When Pearson started working at Stony Brook Southampton with goals of revitalizing the campus, she marveled at the Avram Theater and wondered why the university wasn’t utilizing the space more.

“There was no conversation about the Avram when I was hired,” she added. “When I walked in there, I was stunned for a good five minutes. I was like, ‘This is a beautiful space, what’s happening in here?’ And the answer was, ‘Not much of anything.’ It became a goal of mine to change that from day one.”

Though the building itself has been around since the 1980s, the Avram didn’t get its namesake from Dr. Morrell “Michael” Avram until 1998, when it was still part of the former Southampton College of Long Island University. The campus, along with the theater, was purchased by Stony Brook University in 2006. Dr. Avram and his wife, Maria, were longtime patrons of arts in the Hamptons, so much so that they made a multi-year gift to the theater to help pay for its renovations in 2007. Those updates included new seats, modernized lighting and improved sound equipment.

Since the completion of those renovations, the Avram had been rented for various events. However, the “Underground” performance will be the first event to be actually sponsored by Stony Brook in 17 years. To bring in new patrons and ensure the Avram’s longevity, Pearson said the theater’s roof was repaired and the building underwent other renovations to make it ADA compliant. She added that Stony Brook is planning to sponsor one more event at the theater before the busy summer season brings in other events from outside sponsors.

“I’m excited about demonstrating what can happen in that theater,” Pearson said. “I’m excited about people coming and seeing that space and thinking about the possibilities in that space and Stony Brook Southampton’s role in bringing people to the East End, particularly in the off-season. I’m looking at ‘Underground’ not just as an opportunity to show original work and to engage folks in thinking about the role of Black history in American history, but also thinking about what the role of the Southampton campus can be in the East End.”

“Underground: Hear the Sound of Freedom” runs Thursday, January 30, through Sunday, February 2. Shows are at 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $55 ($44 for Stony Brook staff, $27.50 for students) at stonybrook.edu/southampton/. The Avram Theater is located on the Stony Brook Southampton Campus at 39 Tuckahoe Road, Southampton.