EAST PEORIA, IL -- In the oddest program yet, the Heartland Festival Orchestra on March 1 at the Illinois Central College auditorium was reduced to accompanying a play about an 18th century musician, Joseph Bologne.
The play Saint-Georges' Sword & Bow by Gill Sotu was performed by two actors from Chicago, Kelvin Roston Jr. and Dmetra Dee. There was fencing and music, as the teenage Dee was transported from now back to the 18th century to learn to appreciate classical music.
Both actors were Black, and their color and status as slaves was also an issue in this otherwise light-hearted play.
The performances were well done, but the hour-long play offered scant music in the background, by Bologne, Mozart and others.
Bologne was a real person well known in his time, and remarked on by the U.S. president John Adams, according to program notes. The play was amusing, but the music was too brief, perhaps for the many children in the audience.
-- Elaine Hopkins