As part of their Echo Reads series, Echo Theatre will present Bourbon at the Border by Pearl Cleage.

When May and Charlie went to Mississippi in 1964 for a massive voter registration drive, they had no idea their lives were about to change forever.  White supremacists responded with violence that left three civil rights workers dead and many more psychologically scarred. Decades later, May and Charlie are still searching for a way back from the damage that was done to them during that long ago “Freedom Summer.”

May is unable to confide even in her best friend, Rosa, about the demons that haunt her dreams and twist Charlie’s love for her into something she can no longer recognize.  Rosa’s boyfriend, Tyrone, gets Charlie a job as a truck driver, but May is convinced that if she can just get Charlie to leave Detroit and cross the bridge to Canada, they can start a new life. But when the two couples hear about a serial killer targeting white people in Detroit, the madness of that summer bubbles over until it threatens all of their very lives. 

In Echo Reads, directors lightly rehearse readings of plays with professional actors who carry their scripts as they perform for the audience. After the Zoom reading, the audience is invited to stay and discuss the play with the actors, director, and Echo creatives in a casual conversation online.