THE HISTORY OF A SPIRIT WARRIOR'S DREAM

 

Who do you trust - a person, place, or thing - to protect your spirit in times of trouble?

 

 That question went out to the entire college community. The responses came back: my mother, my family, Jesus, music, my dog, myself.

 

In the spring of 1987, Ricardo Pitts-Wiley was an adjunct professor at the University of Rhode Island tasked with teaching theater and producing a show that would combine the theater and music departments. 

 

His vision of a Spirit Warrior caught the imagination of the students and, combined with the dozen or so songs he conceived, fired up the imaginations of a group of musicians and performers that included his creative collaborator Bob Schleeter, New York pianist Diane Moser, graduate student saxophonist and arranger Steve Correia, and middle-aged high school principal and take-your-breath-away baritone Leland Brown, to name a few. All told, eight players backed up twenty-two singers, supported by an exuberant student tech crew.

 

The show resonated with the students and public and packed houses soon followed. This was to become a hallmark of all Pitts-Wiley/Schleeter endeavors: the creation of community through the theater.

 

More to follow