The Fertile River by Vincent Terrell Durham

It’s the summer of 1958 and Mrs. Sarah Woods is on a mission from the state. The state social worker has been visiting colored families in a small rural North Carolina community. Cora Lee Burden is the latest to receive an appointment notice from Mrs. Woods. The sixty-four-year-old grandmother of a mentally challenged child has no idea what a white social worker from the government would want with her family....
It’s the summer of 1958 and Mrs. Sarah Woods is on a mission from the state. The state social worker has been visiting colored families in a small rural North Carolina community. Cora Lee Burden is the latest to receive an appointment notice from Mrs. Woods. The sixty-four-year-old grandmother of a mentally challenged child has no idea what a white social worker from the government would want with her family. But being a colored woman of the south she knows the visit is a call for caution.
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The Fertile River

Recommended by

  • Premiere Stages:
    5 May. 2023
    “ Premiere Stages, the professional Equity theatre in residence at Kean University, is pleased to recognize “The Fertile River” by Vincent Terrell Durham as a Semi-Finalist for the 2023 Premiere Play Festival. “The Fertile River” rose through a competitive selection process conducted by Premiere staff and a panel of outside theatre professionals to become one of 40 Semi-Finalists out of 701 submissions. The panel was particularly impressed by the deeply gripping story, and the deftly-crafted characters and environment. Our congratulations and thanks to Vincent. ”
  • Ky Weeks:
    7 Jun. 2021
    “ There's a powerful and ominous use of language in this play. The way it's learned, controlled, restricted, and ultimately used to paint over a sickening truth, are all explored and shown in a riveting and painful light, before that truth is pulled back and shown for exactly what it is. And, fittingly, the word choices in the script are impeccably crafted. The history here is confronted head-on, as it needs to be. ”
  • Rachael Carnes:
    29 May. 2021
    “ Training a bright light on an oft-ignored yet utterly shameful - and lengthy - and *continuing* chapter in American history, the Eugenics movement and forced or coerced sterilization, this play grounds a horrific concept in the physical, in the emotional, creating a world that builds, pressurizing each moment to a crescendo of fear and pain and loss. I had the pleasure of seeing a reading of this work at the 2021 Great Plains Theatre Conference, and I cannot recommend this play more highly. Miss Cora, Uncle Jesse, Arthur and River, in particular, are indelibly beautiful, and deeply felt. Stunning work. ”
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Character Information

  • Cora Lee Burden (Mama Cora)
    64,
    Black American
    ,
    Female
    Black, poor, illiterate. She is a powerful presence and a problem solver inside her home. Outside the home she conforms to the role required of Colored people in a Jim Crow South.

    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      50s, 60s, 70s+
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Black, African, Caribbean, or African American
    • Gender: 
      Female
  • Sarah Woods
    28,
    White
    ,
    Female
    White, married, college educated. She is a eugenicist and a social worker for the Eugenics Board of North Carolina. She is well aware of the privilege and power she holds as a white woman in a Jim Crow South.

    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      20s, 30s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      White
    • Gender: 
      Female
  • Jesse Lee Johnson
    60,
    Black American
    ,
    Male
    Black, Cora Lee's younger brother. His lower left foot is mangled from a World War I injury, causing him to walk with difficulty. He's constantly pushing back against the rules of a Jim Crow South.

    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      50s, 60s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Black, African, Caribbean, or African American
    • Gender: 
      Male
  • River
    22,
    Black American
    ,
    Female
    Black, Cora Lee's granddaughter. The terms of the period, feebleminded, slow, or mentally retarded would be used to describe her. She is the mother of a 9 year-old boy.
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      Teens, 20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Black, African, Caribbean, or African American
    • Gender: 
      Female
  • Arthur
    9,
    Mulatto
    ,
    Male
    Mulatto, River's son. He is highly intelligent, precocious, and inquisitive. His dictionary is his best friend. He has an insatiable appetite for learning new words. Despite his intelligence, he's still a child and doesn't always understand the implications of the words he learns or the conversations he overhears. The parent child roles are reversed when it comes to his mother.



    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      Child, Teens
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Black, African, Caribbean, or African American
    • Gender: 
      Male

Development History