Mean to be Free

This is the story of an escape from slavery in the deep south of America. A group of young people flee the harsh life of the plantation and are led to freedom by Harriet Tubman, herself an ex-slave. The play includes original source material as well as spirituals, ballads and poems. The "Play plus" series provides scripts for reading aloud in the English classroom as well as for improvisation and performance work. Each play is followed by resource poems, extracts, photographs, original documents. These explore topics related to the script and provide starting points for improvisation, discussion and creative writing.