Actor, playwright to explore Jackie Robinson's life

Actor and and playwright Mike Wiley will bring the story of a historic baseball player to life in his performance “Jackie Robinson: A Game Apart” on Friday at 7 p.m. in East Carolina University’s Wright Auditorium.

With February being Black History Month, “Jackie Robinson: A Game Apart” provides a brief account of Jackie Robinson's life and career. Robinson is best known for being the first African American baseball player in the Major League in 1947, during a time of segregation, according to the synopsis of the play on his website.

This theatrical play, written and performed solely by Wiley, exemplifies Jackie Robinson's perseverance, hard work and determination throughout his life and career, according to Wiley. Tickets range from $10 to $15 based on seating sections and can be found on the ECU events calendar.

Michael Crane, associate director of marketing and outreach for the College of Fine Arts and Communication, said he has previously seen Wiley’s shows in the past and thought it was the perfect time to bring him to ECU.

“We have a program called ‘Family Fare,’ which means we have shows and performances for families with young children,” Crane said. “So this title is appropriate for those ages and it is a great tie into the abuse of Americana, and it also addresses civil rights and American history in a very age appropriate way.”

Family Fare is a family-friendly event that allows individuals of any age to come and enjoy compelling theatrical performances. Upcoming events include “The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System” and “Bridge to Terabithia.”

Crane said Family Fare is one of two programs that work together very closely to bring literature based, interactive shows and events to ECU’s campus for all of the community. Arts Smart is the second program and is an educational service that can be provided to teachers in the area from grades K-5 with study guides and immergance into educational productions.

“It all starts with the quality of the artistry, but our mission is to bring primarily literature based, theatrical and musical performances for ages about five to 12, so we look at compelling and engaging theatre that will entertain that audience,” Crane said about the process of choosing the events to include in the programs.

Wiley said he hopes his solo performance will open the eyes of the audience to the pain and humiliation to the first African American baseball player. Once Robinson brought victories to the Los Angeles Dodgers, he was praised for his athletic talent, but when he stepped off that diamond, he continued to be ridiculed for the color of his skin, according to Wiley.

“I think it is the peculiarity of the emancipation of Jim Crow in the country, people so entrained and ensconced in their beliefs and what society says is right or wrong, especially in the Jim Crow south,” Wiley said. “They can say ‘I really admire Jackie Robinson but you are going to have to use that other bathroom’ by watching their parents and the society that they were brought up in.”

Wiley constructs and performs plays regarding African American history. According to his agent Stephen Barefoot’s website, he has 15 years of credits in documentary theatre for young audiences, plus film, television and regional theatre.

Among his plays are “The Story of Emmett Till,” “Brown vs. The Board of Education: Over Sixty Years Later,” “Blood Done Sign My Name” and many more. Wiley’s goal is to expand cultural awareness for all ages through dynamic portrayals based on pivotal moments in African American history, according to Barefoot’s website.

“I wanted to be able to hold up African American individuals lives’ as examples from our communities of everyday people doing extraordinary things and show them that, young people specifically, it takes a regular ordinary person to step out of the box, per say, and try to make change in their society,” Wiley said.

According to Wiley, he hopes young children open their eyes to the idols that are put on a pedestal in history, and understand that they had to endure a lot and that they were not perfect.

“You see someone like Jackie, who had flaws, who had a temper, and someone who managed to overcome that temper and go through what he went through to be the first black major league baseball player,” Wiley said. “A young person can aspire to be him because they think ‘wow he has flaws, I have flaws, I can do what he did.’”

Wiley also runs his own production company that performs all over the nation to provide students with the education of these pivotal people and moments in history, and build a universal human understanding. Mike Wiley Productions currently offers seven theatrical works for student audiences, according to his productions’ website.

“I was tired of waiting for an opportunity to act, and I knew the story of Henry Box Brown and I sat down and started researching and writing my first play,” Wiley said. “After that, it was premiered in here in North Carolina, and ever since then it has been my dream to carry this message to small theatres and schools, and now I devote my performances to that.”

For more information on other Mike Wiley productions and schedules, visit The Mike Wiley Production Company website.