Curriculum Connections
Storytelling, oral history, African American history, American immigrant narratives, social-emotional awareness.
California State Standards
RL.8.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
RI.11-12.6: Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text, in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.
California State Arts Standards
4.TH:Cn10 Imagine and identify the ways drama/theatre work reflects the perspectives of a community or culture.
Performance Description
Finding North tells the true story of the remarkable and powerful life of John P. Parker, a formerly enslaved man who worked hard as part of the Underground Railroad, to liberate more than four hundred enslaved people and deliver them to (relative) safety. Intertwining through the production are stories of current immigrants who share their own heart-touching, and harrowing, stories of how they came to the United States to live a better life.
Text and music by David Gonzalez
Performed by, and additional text by, Daniel Carlton
Finding North was commissioned by the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park to commemorate the opening of the Underground Railroad National Freedom Center
"A brilliant and powerful piece for all ages and races." – Michael Griffin, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
