History of Arguable Consequence: The Undertold Stories of the American Civil War
MarcLaroy for J. Stanley
J. Stanley ($25): Lead/Male/YoungAdult to Late-Middle-Aged. North American/American with a light Midwestern accent. We don't know anything about J. Stanley, except that he was probably a member of the Young Men's Literary Association, and/or a parishioner at Bethel Church in Chicago. He is intelligent, articulate and highly moved by his message, which centers around the ability and contribution of black soldiers, and the abolition of slavery. We're flexible with casting for this role -- because we know so little about J. Stanley, we can cast from young adult to senior. The most important thing to have here is conviction and passion -- to be able to deliver these lines from your gut.
ABOUT THE ROLE: Stanley is at Bethel Church in Chicago, giving a tribute to Joseph D. Wilson, a sergeant in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment Volunteer Infantry after Wilson was killed at the charge on Fort Wagner.
Along with Stanley, voice actor awarded this part will also be asked to perform lines for other minor characters (fifer, voice in a crowd).
When the Commonwealth of Massachusetts sent her agents to Illinois to recruit men for her colored regiments, Joseph Wilson was the first to enroll his name for the gallant Fifty-fourth. Need I tell you, fellow-citizens, that the Fifty-fourth have won for themselves and their race imperishable honor? Need I tell you they have forever settled the question that colored men can and will fight?
Imagine you see the commanding general placing to the right and advance of the column a regiment of colored men that has never seen service nor stood in front of an enemy? Why was such an honor conferred upon black men? And why were they selected from among the thousands of their white companions in arms, who had fought on many a field of battle? What motive prompted General Gilmore to place Colonel Shaw’s command where death and destruction awaited them? . . .
On many a bloody field, at the head of many a desperate charge, in many a hazardous venture, their regiments have done deeds that white men, with all their boasting, might envy. Their true heroism is as much in their mercy and forgiveness of centuries of intolerable outrage and injury as in their readiness to encounter a new and more infernal slavery, the torture of the whip and switch, and a lingering and cruel death in defense of the right.
Well done sir :)