A GOOD BOY

Standing before us, applauding, whistling, weeping, was an audience of 450 students, community members, and families of men living on death row. They had just witnessed a performance of their loved ones’ stories. The families were in tears; they’d never imagined an audience caring. Nor had they ever met another family with a loved one sentenced to execution. As they left, one mother turned.

“What I want to know is, when are you going to tell OUR story?”

Stunned, we didn’t respond. But the air was electric with the “NOW” of an incarnating idea.“I don’t know,”we replied. “But I promise you, we will.”

The mothers’ emotions — the love for their children, the grief over the crimes or innocence — were so deep and transcendent, we knew immediately the piece required the powerful witness of the sung word.

After one performance of COUNT, Kathryn Hunter Williams (Director) and Lynden (Playwright) finished notes with the actors and walked into the now — dark lobby. A tearful woman was waiting. She said, “You got it exactly right.” Her brother had been executed in April. When she learned we were meeting with family members, she asked to participate.

Our collaborators on death row invited their own families. Over the next two years, Lynden met with family members in person, by phone call, text, and Zoom.

It was through those conversations that the title of the piece took form, as mother after mother said, “He was a good boy.”

We knew these lived experiences would intimately shape the dialogue between story and music. At this point, Marc Callahan, opera singer and director, joined the creative team. Together we explored how the geographies, histories, and complexities of the families’ experiences called for various stylistic lenses — blues, worship and praise, country, hip hop. It became clear that the whole diasporic American sonic landscape was integral to telling these stories.

We also knew women composers were underrepresented, and since mothers were the inspiration for this work, we wanted to work with a female composer. Once AJ Layague joined the project, the creative team was complete.

Since 2018, the creative team has participated in four residencies exploring the stories, characters, soundscape, and music with professional performers and musicians. What has emerged is a full-length musical theatre piece that connects us to the families of those we execute and challenges us to reconsider our assumptions about exactly who is allowed to be “a good boy.”

In 2022, the Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition (a collaboration with the Equal Justice Initiative) invited Hidden Voices to present as part of their annual gathering. It was the perfect opportunity for the first public presentation of some of the songs from A GOOD BOY, as well as story excerpts from the book Right Here, Right Now: Life Stories from America’s Death Row (Duke University Press, 2021).

When we were considering what to call the presentation, the words “Of Liberation and Love” came to mind. Because that’s really what we’re doing: liberating each other through the power of love. Love welcomes each of us, as we are, and opens up a communal space to learn, to grow, to transform, and finally to act toward our own liberation.

So, welcome to stories and songs of liberation and love.