Tera Roberson
Staff Writer
Review
The involvement of black leaders and citizens during the Civil Rights movement thrust many into the spotlight and secured most them a place in history. One of the most memorable women was Rosa Parks.
But only a few may know that nearly 100 years before Rosa Parks boarded the bus for home back in Montgomery, Ala., Mary Ellen Pleasant took a trolley ride that didn't make history. The Ensemble Theatre combines the story of the two women who are both known as the Mother of Civil Rights with its presentation of Denise Nicholas' Buses.
The small stage inside the Ensemble provides a wonderful atmosphere for a trip back in history. In an instant, the audience is back in 1961 (or is it 1861?), at a bus stop at the corner of Central Avenue and Rosa Parks Boulevard (or is it a train stop in San Francisco?). Rosa Parks, played by Joyce Anastasia, and Mary Ellen Pleasant, played by Jean Donatto, are thrust together to rewrite history, at least get it correct.
Donatto's portrayal of Mary Pleasant is superb, and her beauty, is mesmerizing. She appears to glow and illuminate while on stage. Although Parks has always been presented as a mild-mannered woman, Anastasia is not convincing in the first act of the play. She appears so timid and calm that she is not believable. However, in the second act Parks come alive as she dances around and releases the fury that she has held inside because her life has been overshadowed by her bus ride home in 1961.
The play goes back and forth, with the two women describing their lives. Pleasant, a self-made millionaire, helped shape San Francisco in the 1860s, but no matter how many contributions she made to John Brown to help abolish slavery, her life is still worthless if no one knows. Knowing that epitaphs are written by the living, Mary Ellen Pleasant has only one request of Parks before her own soul is at rest for good. She asks Parks to make sure her story is told as she lived it, and just as she appeared out of darkness, Pleasant fades away, knowing Parks will take care of her name. Nicholas is very clever in relating these issues to the audience.
Buses plays at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays, through April 26 at the Ensemble Theatre, 3535 Main. Tickets are $12 - $25, and students and seniors are $10. Call (713) 520-0055 for more information.