Parade, a historical musical about the trial and murder of a Jewish man, opened last Thursday at the UCF Conservatory Theatre under the direction of Kate Ingram.
Set in 1913 Atlanta, the show deals with several issues surrounding crime, justice, racism and prejudices, and even child labor.
"I think the show was addressing a lot of issues when it came to the conditions and culture that existed in the South in the early 20th century," said Luis Segui, a UCF theater major.
The show develops around Leo Frank, a Jewish Yankee factory owner who can't understand southerners and their attitudes toward blacks. Everything about the town and its people makes him uncomfortable, and it is evident even to his Georgian wife, Lucille.
Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old girl, is found raped and murdered. Her friend, whom she was supposed to meet at the movies that day, tells the police that she was going to pick up her pay from the factory where Frank was working alone.
Officers arrest the black factory night guard, Newt Lee, and the factory's owner, Frank, as suspects.
Mareeka Lodge, an interpersonal organizational communications major, said she saw the show as a requirement for a class.
"I felt like they tried to prosecute anyone who wasn't like them," Lodge said.
The authorities soon release Lee, but prosecutor Hugh Dorsey takes Frank to trial for the murder and rape of Phagen. The police interview Jim Conley, who works at the factory as a janitor. After he admits that Frank would never harm anyone, the cops threaten to send him back to jail because he's an escaped felon.
Conley agrees to testify, and his song, "That's What He Said," along with the testimonies of the other witnesses, lands Frank in prison. At the end of Act I, Frank is found guilty and receives the death penalty.
Jae Oh, a molecular and microbiology major, said he didn't know if Frank was guilty or not.
"I couldn't really determine it," Oh said. "I thought he was guilty from the part he acted out, but from what he said, I thought he was innocent."
The play goes into the ups and downs and twists and turns of a usual courtroom drama.
Shayla Shack, an interdisciplinary studies major, said she was really touched by the ending.
Shack said there was a part in the ending that made the play spiritual.
"It made the play about something greater," Shack said.
The production of Parade ended on a cliff-hanger as the murderer was never revealed, but anyone who sees the show can try to guess who committed the crime.
Senior Chadet Aleem, a theater studies major, said she sees this musical as an important piece of history.
"There's so much historical stuff we don't know," Aleem said. "We can learn from this situation, and I'm going to go and look it up because it fascinates me."
Parade will be playing until April 6 with shows at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, call the box office at 407-823-1500.
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