In the latest of the Discovery Theater series “The Greatest Stories Never Told,” we celebrate African American contributions to the spirit of free enterprise, invention and successful endeavor in a show filled with terrific characters and interactive fun.

The original play by Jackie Lawton is filled with power point images and actual quotes from historical giants that help bring to light the little known lives of amazing African Americans that overcame immense odds to succeed.  Beauty innovator Madam C.J. Walker, agricultural chemist (and painter) George Washington Carver, academic giant Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Institute , and even potato chip inventor George Crum, prove that nothing can stop creativity—and their words and lives are funny, inspiring, and deep.

Did you know that Chicago was established as a trade settlement—by Haitian American Jean Baptiste Point du Sable and his Native American wife, Kittahawa? He was finally honored in 1968 as the “Father of Chicago, Illinois”.

Did you know that John Murphy, a freed slave, started the newspaper The Afro-American after he merged it with his church’s Sunday paper—he and his family grew it to be one of the most influential publications of the early twentieth century?

They’re all here, and more --- A funny prophetic dream, the patent on Prince’s guitar and an interactive science exhibit featuring George Washington Carver’s peanut products make this museum theatre a must experience for Black History Month.  The play inspires the dreamer and achiever in all of us.

A Closer Look – About the Series: “The Great Stories Never Told”

Lions of Industry, Mothers of Invention is part of a series of interactive plays created by Discovery Theater for Black History Month.  Today, there are six titles in the series: Nat Love of the Wild, Wild West; Black Diamond: Satchel Paige and the Negro Leagues; How Old is a Hero? The Young People of the Civil Rights Movement; Going the Distance: Wilma Rudolph and Jesse Owens; Lions of Industry, Mothers of Invention; and Bessie Coleman: On Freedom’s Wings.

Here, from a 2008 Montgomery County Gazette article by Chris Slattery about How Old is a Hero?, playwright and Discovery Theater Director Roberta Gasbarre talks about the creation of one the theater’s most successful initiatives…

“How Old is a Hero is part of a series we started,” says Roberta Gasbarre. “Raquis Petree and I sat down in the summer of 2000 and said, ‘Discovery Theater needs to present the aspects of black history that people don’t know about.’  The Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King — all great stories.  But we created the ‘Greatest Stories Never Told.’  They started with black cowboys — Nat Love of the Wild West — and moved on to Satchel Paige and baseball’s Negro League — Black Diamond.”  “Then,” says Gasbarre, “the teachers on the theater’s advisory board asked for a musical about the Civil Rights Movement.  It [How Old is a Hero] started as a musical, but it wasn’t a good fit,” says Gasbarre.  “The music we wrote was never as exciting and evocative as the archival music of the time.”  She notes, “Great music tends to go hand in hand with protest movements.  And this being Smithsonian Associates’ Discovery Theater, the show uses actual archived recordings from the Smithsonian Folkways collection.  You’re hearing the original marchers singing ‘This Little Light of Mine,’” says Gasbarre. ‘‘You’re hearing the African American spirituals that speak of deep troubles and sorrows, actual quotes from historical figures.  When you go to a museum, you have a personal interaction with the object itself,” she adds. “Face to face, ear to ear: the museum-theater experience.”

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