Welcome to the dramaturgical website for the University of Central Florida Conservatory Theatre's production of PARADE (book and lyrics by Alfred Uhry and music by Jason Robert Brown). The purpose of this website is to serve as a study guide to the historical events and forces and behind the story and characters presented in PARADE. It is mainly a broad outline of subjects related to PARADE, with links to web articles and writings of interest on these subjects.
For historical articles and biographies, click "INFORMATION". For additional information on UCF Conservatory Theatre's production of PARADE, click on "PARADE". For a bibliography and extras, click on "SOURCES". Thanks for visiting!
A good, brief summary of the murder of Mary Phagan and the trial and lynching of Leo Frank and related issues from the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
CLICK HERE
An excellent, longer article on the Phagan/Frank case, from Wikepedia, with photos of and biographical information on Leo and Lucille Frank, Mary Phagan, Jim Conley, Leo Rosser, Hugh Dorsey, Tom Watson and others.
CLICK HERE
A detailed chronology of the Phagan/Frank case, including a day-by-day account of the trial, and subsequent hearings and developments, with bibliography and links to related sites.
CLICK HERE
Biographies of many of the main personages in PARADE.
CLICK HERE
Article on Thomas Watson.
CLICK HERE
Article on The Jeffersonian, Tom Watson's publication.
CLICK HERE
Biography of Fiddlin' John Carson.
CLICK HERE
Biography of John Slaton.
CLICK HERE
The tombstone of Mary Phagan,
CLICK HERE
with an inscription said to be by Tom Watson:
"In this day of fading ideals and disappearing landmarks, little Mary Phagan’s heroism is an heirloom, than which there is nothing more precious among the old red hills of Georgia. Sleep, little girl, sleep, in your humble grave. But if the angels are good to you in the realms beyond the trouble sunset and the clouded stars, they will let you know that many an aching heart in Georgia beats for you, and many a tear, from eyes unused to weep, has paid you a tribute too sacred for words."
Article on actors playing Leo and Lucille in a Boston production studying the actual letters Leo and Lucille wrote to each other, in the Brandeis University library.
CLICK HERE
History of Atlanta.
CLICK HERE
Confederate Memorial Day in Georgia.
CLICK HERE
Race Riot of 1906.
CLICK HERE
Article on the history of the Jewish community in Atlanta.
CLICK HERE
Article on the history of the Black community in Atlanta.
CLICK HERE
An article on Atlanta during the Civil War and Industrial Era.
CLICK HERE
Regarding 1914 Fulton Mill strike.
CLICK HERE
Article on a major child labor law passed in 1914.
CLICK HERE
Photos of Lewis Hine, who photographed for the National Child Labor Committee, here from 1908-1912. Very moving photos of children working in factories, mines, etc. throughout the U.S., including the South.
CLICK HERE
Contemporary article on Child Labor from 1916.
CLICK HERE
A chapter on anti-semitism, its general development and its manifestation in Georgia up to the Frank case. Entitled, "The Prejudice," from The Silent and the Damned: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank. By Robert Seitz Frey and Nancy C. Thompson. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2002.
CLICK HERE
From Black-Jewish Relations on Trial: Leo Frank and Jim Conley in the New South, by Jeffrey Melnick. In this first chapter, "Leo Frank, the Musical", Melnick argues that Leo Frank has become a martyr for todays Jews and others, whose innocence is uncontestable. He argues that a more nuanced evaluation of the Frank case is actually more helpful to the full understanding of the prejudices of all kinds that permeated the case and aftermath.
CLICK HERE
Lynching, in the South in general, with a focus on Georgia.
CLICK HERE
List of the alleged members of the party that lynched Leo Frank.
CLICK HERE
Article from New York Times, 1915, detailing the widespread petitioning, nationwide, for a commutation of Frank's death sentence, and how most of the establishment of Atlanta (if not the general population) had, by 1915, similarly come to urge a commutation.
CLICK HERE
The furor over the Phagan murder and Frank trial led directly to the revival of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915, at the center of which were some of the Knights of Mary Phagan, the group from Marietta that organized the lynching of Leo Frank.
CLICK HERE
back to the top
Below you will find articles and information pertaining to PARADE, a Broadway musical about the murder of Mary Phagan and the trial of Leo Frank. If you would like additional information about UCF Conservatory Theatre's production of PARADE please click here.
Wikipedia entry for PARADE, quite useful in outlining a history of the original production, the popular and critical response, and subsequent major production history.
CLICK HERE
Review of the original Broadway production of PARADE, by Ben Brantley, in the New York Times. The show was not a hit (39 previews/84 performances) but won Tonys for best book and best score. This review is critical of the work and may give some insight into why it wasn't a hit, and the review itself may have contributed to the show's relatively early close.
CLICK HERE
A more positive review of the original Broadway production of PARADE by Dan Hulbert of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
CLICK HERE
Excellent interview with Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown at Lincoln Center about PARADE, a year after the original production.
CLICK HERE
Jason Robert Brown's website: history of PARADE, discussion of Atlanta 2000 revival.
CLICK HERE
Review in Playbill of Donmar Warehouse's recent revival of PARADE (2007), with half the number of actors, and a simplified score.
CLICK HERE
back to the top
