Cast of ” The Jackson Rooming House: Music’s Resting Place.”
When I think of great musicians like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, Count Basie and Cab Calloway, Muddy Waters and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, I can’t picture any of these colossal stars in my hometown. But back in their heydays, all played Harrisburg venues as they worked their way up and down the East Coast.
This month, their journeys through Harrisburg will be highlighted in Sankofa African American Theatre Company’s original play, “The Jackson Rooming House: Music’s Resting Place.” Sharia Benn, Sankofa’s executive artistic director, and Clark Nicholson, Gamut Theatre’s founding artistic director, co-authored this musical drama to celebrate Black History Month.
The play’s plot features the journeys of trailblazing Black artists who brought their legendary jazz, gospel, blues, country and western, and rock ‘n’ roll music to towns all across the country. It’s set against the historical backdrop of Jim Crow-era segregation, when mainstream travel wasn’t considered safe for Black people.
“Their music formed the contemporary music we enjoy today,” Benn said. “It became America’s music, enjoyed by all races and generations of people.”
The play opens with three young Harrisburg residents, who find themselves in the ruins of the Jackson Rooming House on N. 6th Street. When they cross over a magical portal, their surroundings transform into the hotel’s former glory during its primetime.
The young people learn directly from former owner, German Jackson, and present-day guides not only about the music that influenced the generations, but about how Black performers were afforded safe and dignified transportation and lodging by using The Green Book, a Black-friendly travel directory. From the 1920s through the 1970s, the Green Book listed the Jackson Rooming House, among other Harrisburg landmarks and Black-owned establishments.
Even if you’re only familiar with the present-day burger joint next door of the same name, this play will reanimate the Jackson Rooming House as a lively scene, complete with well-appointed rooms and concierge-level service. (Some of the musicians mentioned were even painted on the building’s mural before it collapsed in 2021.) And audiences will learn about the wonderful world of local rooming houses that hosted these famous entertainers so long ago.
Although Benn and Nicholson researched and wrote the play with middle school and high school students in mind, people of all ages will learn some important local history, as well as the greater message. And if education isn’t why you usually attend live theater, don’t worry—the play features a great live band you can skip, scat and doodle-do to.
Local actors play all the roles, many performing in previous productions for both Sankofa and Gamut.
“Local is part of Sankofa’s mission,” Benn said. “We have talent here that needs to be mined, developed and encouraged. When we do have talent, they will go away [from Harrisburg], but I want them to have something to come back to—and for.”
Marking the sixth year of Sankofa and Gamut collaborating, Gamut Theatre’s Executive Director Melissa Nicholson values this partnership in support of Gamut’s mission to tell stories in new and exciting ways, to bolster their educational programs, and to be able to share history with student groups.
“It’s important to Gamut that we cherish classic stories, stories from the past and to share with future generations where we fit into history, especially Black history,” Nicholson said.
Benn is hopeful that this play will help to promote a sense of safe belonging for young people, especially “under the shadow of the pandemic and political unrest.”
Directly following each show, talkbacks will give attendees the opportunity “to ask questions, learn and share in a community where we find ourselves divided politically, culturally and socially,” Benn said.
“Music has a unifying spirit, bringing us together, allowing us to level set, to come out stronger, more respectful, more peaceful than when we went in,” she said.
Benn’s other challenge: “Sit next to someone you wouldn’t otherwise.”
And a postscript—Benn feels a special connection to Gertrude “Ma” Rainey because she portrayed her in Open Stage of Harrisburg’s 2012 production of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” earning Benn a “Best Actress in a Play” award from Broadway World.
“The Jackson Rooming House: Music’s Resting Place” runs Feb. 10 to 25 at Gamut Theatre, 15 N. 4th St., Harrisburg. For more information and tickets, visit www.sankofatheatrehbg.com or www.gamuttheatre.org.
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