Musical Programs

Climbing Jacob’s Ladder musical drama program, April 24, 1968.

The Uniting Conference of 1968 included two stage shows. The first, Climbing Jacob’s Ladder, was held in Dallas Memorial Auditorium. The production was a musical pageant celebrating the centennial of the founding of Methodist educational institutions for African Americans. The script was written by Dr. James P. Brawley, president emeritus of Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia, with music by Frederick D. Hall of Dillard University. The cast included 150 students from ten Historically Black Colleges in the South.

The New Wilderness musical pageant program, April 27 and 29, 1968.

The second show, The New Wilderness, was held in Southern Methodist University’s Moody Coliseum. The production was “a musical dance-drama sketching the historical streams of the sons and daughters of Wesley, Asbury, Otterbein, and Albright.” The pageant was written by Kermit Hunter, dean of the School of Fine Arts at SMU, directed by SMU professor of dance Toni Beck, and featured songs by SMU alumnus Bob Farrar.