Project: Humanity's FREEDOM SINGER Tour to Stop at the Citadel This Autumn

Citadel Theatre will welcome Project: Humanity's acclaimed production of Freedom Singer to The Club, October 25 to 29, 2017.

Co-created by Juno nominee Khari Wendell McClelland and Project: Humanity's Andrew Kushnir, Freedom Singer is a rare musical journey through the history of the Underground Railroad and the songs that carried freedom seekers northward to Canada.

Performed by McClelland, along with Juno nominee and Toronto soul singer Tanika Charles and acclaimed Vancouver guitarist Noah Walker, the production's fall tour included stops in Vancouver, Whitehorse, Dawson City, Gananoque, and Windsor before its arrival in Edmonton.

In 2015, McClelland retraced the steps of his great-great-great grandmother, Kizzy, and discovered the songs that likely accompanied her and thousands of others as they escaped U.S. slavery (as documented by journalist Jodie Martinson on CBC's The National and Tapestry). In sharing this music - which is reinvented through contemporary styles like hip hop, funk and soul - McClelland is brought face to face with his own "unrecorded" heritage, and the realities and myths of one of our quintessential historic narratives: the Underground Railroad. Freedom Singer had its World Premiere in Toronto during Black History Month (February 2017) and then toured to Regina, Calgary, Winnipeg, Halifax, Montreal, and Ottawa.

The show is directed by Andrew Kushnir of Project: Humanity, a Toronto theatre company that uses journalistic research and verbatim texts to explore social issues. "You can physically feel this music right now as it may have been felt in the 1800s. History becomes animated; history becomes a verb instead of a noun," says Kushnir. "These were songs of survival for those singing them - for those who escaped, but also for those who endured or succumbed to the tyranny of slavery. They are songs of dignity forged in the face of inconceivable indignity. They stir the collective memory, the collective imagination - and they need to live on."

With set and costume design by Joanna Yu, lighting design by Oz Weaver, and sound design by Debashis Sinha, Freedom Singer will transport audiences through history using modern music and magnetic storytelling.

Freedom Singer runs October 25 to 29, 2017, in The Club at the Citadel Theatre. Tickets are available at www.citadeltheatre.com and 780.425.1820. Tickets start at just $30 plus fees and GST.

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