Freedom’s Song: A Tale of the Pilgrims and the First Amendment

Utilizing a Greek Chorus speaking poetry in the great tradition of Shakespeare, who was writing and performing during the period of Freedom’s Song, Antoinette J. Kuhry puts her historical characters, speaking sometimes in their own words, and the details of their journey into dialogue and action. The result is a courageous call for liberty. As the Chorus says: Pilgrims formed a steadfast breath, of brave new right to age-old wrong, with freedom, freedom, freedom’s song. The California Mayflower Society presented Freedom’s Song on stage in November 2019.

About the Author

Antoinette J. Kuhry, of Sonoma, California, has spent most of her life connected to the theatre and music as a singer, opera producer, poet, and now playwright. Freedom’s Song represents her love of the theatre as she strives to tell a tale of her Pilgrim ancestors and the struggle for religious freedom in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

A member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in California, Ms. Kuhry saw the 400th Anniversary in 2020 of the arrival of the Mayflower as a grand opportunity to tell a story in the form of a play with great historical significance, and to express her tremendous excitement in the project. From Queen Elizabeth’s court with this dynamic and grand personage, where her ancestor, William Brewster, served in the 1580s, to the signing of the Mayflower Compact aboard the ship upon arrival in 1620, Ms. Kuhry found the real story to be exciting, inspiring, and most of all, great drama.