But before they could throw themselves into the classic protest anthem, which opens the production, award-winning actress Regina Taylor—the play’s director and playwright— had a few guidelines.

“I want your total commitment to every moment,” said Taylor, who is the Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre. “Your total commitment is very important as we are piecing things together.”

Accompanied by the sounds of folksy guitar and ukulele riffs, the young actors clapped and stomped powerfully as they sang.

Some lyrics were as moving as they were prophetical: “There’s a battle outside/And it is ragin’/It’ll soon shake your windows/And rattle your walls/For the times they are a-changin’.”

For Taylor, the song sets the tone of Magnolia, which opens at Pope Auditorium on Oct. 5 and has performances on Oct. 6, Oct. 7, and Oct. 11 through Oct. 13.

 She wrote Magnolia during the 2008 presidential election when Barack Obama made history as the first black president of the United States. It originally premiered at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, where the Golden Globe winner, whose credits include I’ll Fly Away, Courage Under Fire, and Romeo and Juliet, has served as an artistic associate for 20 years.

A Season of Social Consciousness

Though set in 1963 Atlanta, Georgia and inspired by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s 1903 play, The Cherry Orchard, Taylor believes Magnolia challenges viewers to examine issues on race, gender, and class in today’s society. The play is part of Fordham Theatre’s mainstage season, What Does It Mean to Be an American?, and is one of many plays that Taylor is producing outside of the Fordham community this season that centers on resistance.

“It’s a privilege to be a writer in these times [and]sieve through the great changes happening right now to create work tied to social consciousness,” said Taylor.

While Magnolia’s main characters—Thomas, a black businessman and Lily, a white heiress— seem like they come from different walks of life, Taylor said they have more in common than you’d think.

Lily, played by Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) junior Addison Thompson, is a bohemian who was born on the Magnolia estate. She leaves Atlanta to escape the confines of being a white woman in the south 1963. When the matriarch of the family falls ill, Lily must return to confront her complicated legacy and try to save the estate from foreclosure.

Born on the same estate is Thomas, played by FCLC senior Eric Taylor. He now lives in segregated Atlanta Georgia in the affluent black neighborhood of Sweet Auburn.

Thomas vows to never return to Magnolia because of its memories. It is where his great grandparents were slaves and where his brother was lynched.

“He wants to chop down every one of those [magnolia]trees, and burn down the plantation where he came from,” said Taylor.

Getting at the Root

Taylor said the magnolia trees are symbolic because it also calls attention to the deeply layered and tainted soil that both Lily and Thomas come from.

She emphasized that the magnolia trees have a root ball intertwined with several shoots, which then bear trees of several hues.

Like the root balls, we are all joined sharing the struggles of freedom— both good and bad.

“Even as we try to chop, burn, or erase the awful parts of the past, we may not be able to dig up all the root balls,” she said. “They shoot back up in time. Each generation must wrestle with the past and the struggles of freedom and equality.”

National acrimony was evident during and after the 2016 presidential election, and it became even more apparent after white supremacists and neo-Nazis staged a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia this summer, said Fordham Theatre’s director Matthew Maguire. President Trump’s casting of blame on “both sides” for the Charlottesville violence may have made it tempting for many to dismiss Trump supporters, but Maguire feels conversations should continue.

Fordham Theatre’s mainstage season, What Does It Mean to Be an American?, is meant to be a nudge in that direction.

“In his farewell address, Barack Obama said ‘If we want change, we have to go the long route, which is to talk to each other,’” Maguire said.

“I hope audiences come away from these plays feeling that they want to pick up the mantle and engage with others who they might otherwise be tempted to shut out.”

The plays include:

Magnolia, written and directed by Regina Taylor, the 2017 Denzel Washington Endowed Chair in Theatre;

October 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13

The Way West, by Mona Mansour, directed by Caroline Wood;

November 8, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18

Beautiful City, by George F. Walker, directed by Elizabeth Margid;

February 22, 23, 24, 28 & March 1, 2

Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, directed by Dawn Akemi Saito.

April 11, 12, 13, 19, 20, 21

Magnolia, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard set in Atlanta in 1962, touches on issues of both race and class, and features a newly elected mayor who has overseen the construction of a wall between a black and a white neighborhood.

The Way West revolves around a family matriarch who is an absolute believer in the pioneer spirit of the country, and who maintains a steadfast faith in self-reliance even as her world disintegrates. Maguire said the character will resonate with those who don’t believe the country needs a social safety net.

“Self-reliance is one of the founding myths of our culture. There are plenty of places in the United States at the moment that are still fueled by the nostalgic myth,” he said.

“Is the America that we once knew ever going to come back? And how do we reinvent ourselves? This is play that might get people from two sides talking to each other, because there is a spirit in it that’s indefatigable.”

The spring semester will kick off with Beautiful City, which follows the story of a rapacious landlord trying to take over a whole neighborhood, and the people who, in their fight to stop him, enlist the help of a woman who has magical powers. Befitting its tradition of performing at least one play that is a classic, the season will conclude with Macbeth, whose focus on the abuse of power speaks for itself, Maguire said.

“What does it mean to be an American? Is there an allegiance to a wider abstract? If you’re an oil worker in the bayou, a lobsterman in Boston, a Cajun, a Wasp, or if you’re Thurgood Marshall, what’s the commonality? What makes an American? It’s not so simple to say an allegiance to the Constitution, because that’s too abstract,” he said.

“Plays should be able to change people’s lives, so that when they leave, they see the world differently, and they decide to do something. These plays do that—and are all enormously entertaining as well.”

Taylor is known for her role as Lily Harper in the acclaimed 1991 series I’ll Fly Away, where she received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Drama in 1993. She most recently starred in the CBS crime drama Elementary, and in Damon Cardasis’ indie flick, Saturday Church, which had its world premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.

“I’m very excited about working with Fordham University as the Denzel Washington Chair,” said Taylor. “I’m honored to join the amazing people who have taken this chair in the past and whose work I’ve admired, from Stephen McKinley Henderson to Phylicia Rashad.”

In addition to roles in TV shows such as The Unit and Dig, the Dallas-born actress has also starred in films such as The Negotiator, Losing Isaiah, Lean on Me, and the thriller Courage Under Fire, which also featured Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington, FCLC ’77. An accomplished playwright and artistic associate of Chicago’s famed Goodman Theatre for 20 years, Taylor has worked on several Broadway and off-Broadway productions. They include As You Like It, Machinal, Jar the Floor, The Illusion, and Romeo and Juliet, where she was the first black woman to play Juliet on Broadway in the classic William Shakespeare play.

Matthew Maguire, the theatre program’s director, described Taylor as a “triple threat” that the Fordham theatre community can learn a lot from.

“Her bio is one of the most important reasons why we selected her for the Denzel Washington Chair,” he said. “She is a major artist, and most importantly, she works in every medium—theatre, film, and TV. But no matter what she’s doing, she always returns to the theatre.”

Taylor will help to kick off the theatre program’s 2017 season by directing a production of her 2009 play, Magnolia, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.

 Set during the civil rights movement in Atlanta, Georgia in 1963, Taylor’s play chronicles the tensions that sprout after the city’s new mayor builds a wall to prevent black home owners from moving into a white neighborhood. In the midst of this controversy, Lily, a white landowner, returns from Paris to find her family’s Atlanta estate in foreclosure, as businessman Thomas, a descendent of former slaves to the estate, has already made plans for its future.

In her role as director, Taylor will guide and train the Fordham actors who will star in the play, which is a new approach to the Denzel Chair, Maguire said.

“Regina is vastly experienced,” he said. “Students will see her working with designers and other actors. They will also see the freedom with which she approaches a classical work [like The Cherry Orchard through Magnolia].”

Taylor said that although it is set in the sixties, Magnolia speaks to the current political and racial climate.

“Back then, there was a wave of change where you didn’t know what institutions would survive—what needed to change, what we needed to hold onto, or what we needed to let go of,” she said. “It’s the same now. There are great debates happening on all sides.”

Taylor said she hopes the Fordham production of Magnolia will challenge people to think deeply about how we we’ve progressed as a nation.

“I’m looking forward to the conversations and dialogues that I hope this piece will provoke and invoke,” she said.