BOYS LIKE US

Cast of Characters

CENTRAL PARK FIVE

*Raymond Santana Jr., 14, new to New York, Puerto Rico native, lives with his father Raymond Santana Sr. and his grandmother in Harlem. His father was the one who told him to go to the park to stay out of trouble.

*Kevin Richardson, 14, the only boy in the family, has lived in Schomburg Plaza and seen Korey and Yusef in the same apartment building.

Antron McCray, 15, shy, good athlete, lives in Harlem with his mother Linda and stepfather Bobby McCray. His stepfather forced him to lie on his confession.

Yusef Salaam, 15, Korey’s friend. Korey and him both live in the Schomburg Plaza apartment building and have known each other for years.

Korey Wise, 16, Yusef’s friend. Korey is the oldest out of all the five. Yusef and Korey both live in the Schomburg Plaza apartment building.

*-Raymond and Kevin were arrested the night of Central Park West.

SCOTTSBORO BOYS (9)

Haywood Patterson, 18, main protagonist, He is the first person to meet the Central Park Five Boys. He traveled on the train with Andy, Eugene, and Leroy to find work.

Clarence Norris, 19, a laid off worker travels with Charlie Weems on the train to find work. He is the last surviving Scottsboro Boy.

Charlie Weems, 19, the oldest Scottsboro boy travels with Clarence Norris on the train to find better work. He was involved in the fight aboard the Southern Railroad freight.

Andy Wright, 19, Leroy’s older brother.

Leroy “Roy” Wright, 13, youngest brother of Andy and he was riding on the train with Haywood, Eugene, and his older brother Andy.

Olen Montgomery, 17, a practically blind struggling musician. He traveled to Memphis to get a job to buy a pair of glasses.

Ozie Powell,16, quiet, shy, and bashful, he wasn’t involved in the train fight but he witnessed the fight.

Willie Robertson, 16, raised by his grandmother until her death, he boarded the Southern Railroad to seek medical treatment. He suffers from gonorrhea and syphilis and could barely walk.

Eugene Williams,13, another youngest Scottsboro boy who traveled with Haywood, Andy and Leroy in the train.

RECURRING CHARACTERS

Victoria Price,21, one of women who accused the Scottsboro Boys of rape. Price is described very vicious and feisty.

Ruby Bates,17, Victoria’s quiet soft-spoken friend who also accused the Scottsboro Boys of rape.

Trisha Meili,29, New York female jogger who was brutally beaten and raped at Central Park.

Samuel Leibowitz, New York attorney representing the Scottsboro Boys.

Police (4),2 police officers for the 1980s, other 2 police officers for the 1930s.

White Teen Hobos (3),18-19, a group of racist teen Caucasian boys who tell Haywood and the Scottsboro Boys to leave the “white men’s” train.

____________________________________________________

Excerpt from Boys Like Us

Act 1 Scene 3

A scene from the Park of Dreams where the Scottsboro Boys and Central Park Five Boys start to get to know the difference with their time eras during the 1930s and 1980s.

RAYMOND Hey Haywood what happened in the 1930s? You know before we were born.

ANTRON Yeah before us. Before we were you know taken in the Precinct. What happened?

HAYWOOD During our time, in the 1930s, there were two events that happened: Jim Crow Laws and the Great Depression. During the Great Depression, in 1929, business was shattered. Many people were losing their jobs including black folks. In 1932, one in four Americans were out of work. Wealthy people weren’t even that lucky either. They were broke just like the rest of us.During the Jim Crow Laws, Black people or colored people.

LEROY or in white people's terms “niggers”.

ANDY Leroy, you know mama wouldn’t like it if you said that word.

LEROY Sorry. But it’s true.

CLARENCE We’ve been called niggers all our lives. Even when we leave home, we have to be careful when we encounter with them.

HAYWOOD Anyways, we had to live in separate neighborhoods away from the white families. We can’t go near them, nor can we ever be friends or have relationships with them or else.

KOREY Or else what?

CLARENCE Or else white men have you hanging by your necks or better yet prison. But prison is worse than that. They would keep you long behind bars with no food in your stomachs or better yet have us executed on the electric chair like the way they did to George Stinney Jr., and he was only 14 years old.

RAYMOND What did he do?

CLARENCE He was accused and convicted for murdering two young white girls, Betty June Binnicker and Mary Emma Thames. They were both found dead in a ditch after they failed to return home. They believed George Stinney Jr. had the hands in their deaths. George pleaded that he was innocent and had nothing to do with it. But the judge and the verdict says otherwise since George was a young Black boy and they all found him-

SCOTTSBORO BOYS Guilty!

HAYWOOD Guilty as charge. All white juries gave him the guilty verdict. Sentenced him to death. And just like that. He was given the electric chair.

KEVIN (slightly nervous) They can do that do to you?

HAYWOOD Yeah. We done told y’all about our time. You might as well spill yours.

YUSEF Well, in our time, the 1980s, in New York, wasn’t easy for us either. The streets of New York City had some ups and downs. Well, strike that mostly downs. The downs, New York City was on the verge of bankruptcies. Where we live, we lived in the projects filled with homeless people were living in the streets, trash laying on the streets and all over the roads, graffiti and subway stations, crack was taking over the streets whether selling it or snorting it. Or smoking it. I don’t know what they do.

ANTRON Living in New York was very barbaric. Every Black and Latino are the targets of the state of New York. Violence was a part of an everyday life. 

KOREY New York was so racist it was filled with mad racist people even though segregation was no around, we still deal with racism and discrimination, yet we keep hearing it on the news. Like Michael Stewart, he was killed by the police for spraying graffiti on the First Avenue station.

RAYMOND He was 25 years old. He wasn’t even boy; he was a man. A grown ass man.

KEVIN Many residents living in Harlem and other minority neighborhoods see the police as a threat. Most of us including blacks and Latinos were fearful for their lives especially the teens. We get harassed by the police every time when they see us walking down the street of Harlem. They would stop us, pat us down than protect us from a gang who wanted to steal coats or shoes.

YUSEF In the 80s, New York was heavily gang related. There are always wondering around the streets looking for teens to jump, fight, or steal anything from you.

RAYMOND Whether it’s money in your hands or your pockets, jackets, shoes, or whatever you have they’ll take it from you. Don’t give it to them, they’ll just beat you down and leave to the streets.

YUSEF While I was in LaGuardia, I was kicked out of school because they found my pocket knife but I wasn't going to use the knife on anybody.

CHARLIE What were going to use the knife for, Yusef?

YUSEF Protection. I was going to use the knife to protect myself in case they tried to jump me.

WILLIE What about white teenagers?

RAYMOND Tsk. There ain't no white teenagers around in Harlem, not even in Brooklyn or the Bronx. The only thing the Police would do is protect them over us.

LEROY Just like the white boys on the train. The way the Sheriff protected them from the train.

YUSEF And then there was this kid. He was the same age as Korey. You know what his name was? Yusef Hawkins.

EUGENE Hey, he has the same name as yours, Yusef.

YUSEF Yeah but I don’t know the guy.

KOREY Me too.

RAYMOND Me either.

ANTRON Never seen him before.

KEVIN Same here. But we have heard about him. Poor Yusef.

YUSEF Yeah, poor Yusef.

EUGENE What happened to Yusef Hawkins?

YUSEF Yusef was shot and killed twice by one of the Italian American mobs outside of Brooklyn when he was looking at a used car. As soon as after he was killed, it became a racial war-zone between the Italian Americans and African Americans.

ANTRON Most of our lives we stayed out of trouble just protect ourselves.

to be continued....

References in the play:

In the 1930s, two events happened: Jim Crow Laws and Great Depression.

Information on Jim Crow Laws and the Great Depression from History.com

George Stinney Jr was an African American teenage boy was convicted for murdering two young white girls: Betty June Binnicker and Mary Emma Thames who were ages 7 & 11.

Living in New York was very barbaric. Every Black and Latino are the targets of the state of New York.

According to the Central Park Five Documentary, New York was racial divided and blacks and Latinos were most likely to get killed in the streets of New York.

Michael Stewart was an African American man who was killed by Police while he was writing graffiti on the wall on the Subway at the First Avenue station.

Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School where Yusef attended.

Schools website page 👇 👇👇

https://www.laguardiahs.org

Yusef Hawkins 16-year-old black teenager from the neighborhood of East New York, in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, who was shot to death on August 23, 1989.

Full Script COMING SOON!!!!!!

The Opening & "Just Like Them, Just Like Us"👇👇👇👇👇👇

If you guys want to help support for Boys Like Us and future plays and musicals I plan to work on. Subscribe on my Vocal Media, Pledge on my page or on my Paetron page or feel free to leave a tip on this page.