Professor writes her ‘off-Broadway’ Baby

Music professor Deborah Pittman never imagined that her whimsical idea for a play would become a reality on the New York stage.

Having previously written children’s plays and composed music for other productions, Pittman tackled the task of writing a play inspired by two of history’s great women—Anne Frank and Harriet Tubman—and their personal struggles against racism.

A visit by Pittman to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam sparked the idea for the production Harriet and Anne, which made its New York debut last Sunday Sept. 25 at the Producer’s Club Theater in Manhattan.

“When I visited the Anne Frank House, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be something if Harriet Tubman could have rescued Anne Frank?’" Pittman says. "Laurie Friedman (Pittman’s collaborator) and I thought the idea was a little far-fetched, but I found out later that she had written something on the idea, and so had I.”

Thus started a 10-year collaboration on a performance piece that was funded by a Sacramento State sabbatical, leading to an on-campus performance and workshop with choreographer and Sacramento State professor Linda Goodrich and Sac State theatre, music and dance students.

The play is comprised of monologues, one from an African American woman and another from a Jewish woman, whose personal stories ring true to those of Pittman and Friedman.

“The women reach a point of a crisis with racism and hatred in their lives, and at the moment of crisis they are transported to a place called the 'Endless Boundary,' where they are given the seeds of peace to take with them back to our world,” Pittman says.

The characters are inspired by the words of Frank and Tubman.

“I wrote the monologue of the black woman, and Friedman wrote the one about the Jewish woman, and we both wrote the music for each character,” Pittman says. “We drew inspiration from the indomitable spirits of Harriet Tubman and Anne Frank, who both continue to inspire millions.”

African drum music and traditional Jewish songs are peppered throughout each character’s monologue, with images of historical events relating to both Tubman’s and Frank’s lives projected onto the stage.

After pitching the script to numerous production companies, the director of Vita Nova Productions finally agreed to produce the play. She believed in the story’s message so strongly that she agreed to fund 50 percent of the exorbitant costs of staging an off-Broadway production right off Times Square.

While Pittman has been teaching at Sac State this fall, her collaborator has been busy working on casting and production for the New York opening. “I’m waiting for a surprise, but I trust Laurie and her standards. I’ll see what happens when I get there,” Pittman says.

Pittman says she hopes that publicity from this production will allow her to sell it to local venues. “That’s my big hope,” she says. “We are looking forward to finding funding and a home to mount the full production, which includes dancers and special lighting design.”

— Jaclyn Schultz