SOLD OUT! Anna Kingsley story at Amelia Musical Playhouse

Special to the Observer
January 20, 2020

Effective January 21, 2020 this production has sold out.  No future performances have been scheduled.

Turning Tides: The Life and Times of Anna Kingsley, an historical play about the early days of northeast Florida and Fernandina, will debut at the Amelia Musical Playhouse Friday and Saturday evenings, Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. Written by local historian Jennifer Harrison an sponsored by the Amelia Island Museum of History, the play is the story of Anna Kingsley, an African princess sold into slavery who became a leading plantation owner in her own right.

A dramatic reading, Turning Tides features many of the colorful characters of Fernandina’s rich cultural history. There is Felipe the Witch (played by Thea Seagraves), courtesan Isabella of Ladies Street (Buffy Wells), the pirate Louis Aury (Will Holder), surveyor George Clark(Dave Roeser), retained by Spain to bring order to the new town of Fernandina who clashes with Fernandina’s first mayor, Charles Seton (Larry Myers).

There is the story of Maria and Domingo Fernandez (Jane Sandhaus-Packer and Paul Lorre) whose Spanish land grants encompassed what is much of today’s Fernandina Beach Historic District, and the invasion of Fernandina by rebels, adventurers and the covert effort of U.S. President James Madison to take control of Spanish Florida.

Through it all is the story of Anna played by Abria Richo (teen-age Anna), Lynell Everett (young Anna), and Shalene Raysor (older Anna ), how she manages Zephaniah Kingsley’s (Don Bingham) plantations and foils an invasion from northern aggressors. Two social issues are explored in the play:

• The differing Spanish and American attitudes toward Africans that led the Kingsleys to emigrate to Haiti to help create a new country built by former slaves;
• British common law adopted by the early American states that held women were chattel of their fathers and husbands and could not hold property which Anna successfully challenged in the U.S. courts.

The play is narrated by Arlene Filkoff in the role of author Madeleine L’Engle whose ancestor, a friend of Anna, passed down stories of her “African Princess.” Other members of the cast include: Neil Frink, Karen Antworth, Richard Smith, Deena Raysor, Osvaldo Medina, Susan Bonnett, Laura Giordano and Joshua Whitfield. The play is directed by Bob Weintraub noted for his direction of the recent AMP productions of To Kill a Mockingbird and Twelve Angry Men. Linda Janca is stage manager.

The performance is sold out, so tickets are not available.