\u201cThe Face of Emmett Till\u201d will premier for the first time in Ohio at the Xenia Area Community Theater (X*ACT) as a joint effort between the theater and the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Showtimes are Feb. 14, 15, 21 and 22 at 7:30 p.m. with a matinee on Feb. 23 at 3 p.m. All showings are at X*ACT Theater, 45 E. Second St., Xenia, Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The play is written by Emmett\u2019s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley and David Barr III and details Emmett\u2019s brutal death at age 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emmett grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in South Chicago. He attended McCosh Grammar school, where it was said by friends that he was a gregarious guy who was easy to befriend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0“Emmett was a funny guy all the time. He had a suitcase of jokes that he liked to tell. He loved to make people laugh. He was a chubby kid; most of the guys were skinny, but he didn’t let that stand in his way. He made a lot of friends at McCosh,\u201d said Richard Heard, a childhood friend of Emmett.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi when he was accused of whistling at Carolyn Bryant, a white grocery store clerk at Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Four days later, Bryant’s husband Roy and his half-brother J.W. Milam kidnapped Till kidnapped Emmett from his uncle\u2019s home. They then beat him and dragged him to the Tallahatchie River, shot him, tied him with barbed-wire to a large metal fan and dropped his body in the river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n