Playwright Wants Musical To Be A Call To Innocence And Community

Eugene Dillanado wrote the musical, “Sigma Girl.” Photo provided by Eugene Dillanado.
Eugene Dillanado wrote the musical, “Sigma Girl.” Photo provided by Eugene Dillanado.

Playwright Wants Musical To Be A Call To Innocence And Community 

By Tia Carol Jones

Eugene Dillanado has been writing plays and musicals for a long time. Some of his plays’ themes revolve around historical dramas, featuring the music of that time. He believes that nostalgia can be a way of looking fondly back on the past, while moving forward to the future.

Dillanado’s wife is a member of the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.  She has been a member of the sorority for more than 50 years. He would attend conferences with her and would see the energy among the sorority sisters in the room and their dedication. He said it made him sit up and take notice.

“As I began to watch these powerful women get organized, I took on a different receptivity to what they were doing,” he said.

One night, a few years later, he said he was given the title, “Sigma Girl,” as a concept for a musical. The musical follows two little girls, growing up in 1959 in Woodlawn.  They decided that they were going to be in a sorority, and would become teachers like their aunties, who are already members of that sorority. Dillanado said it took him three weeks to write the play.

Dillanado said the play was staged a couple of years ago and the response was that people wanted more to the story.  Therefore he went back and made the story more engaging to hold the audience’s attention, not just with the dialogue, but also with the music. He also included more characters and more focus on the clothing of the time period. He said the goal of the musical is to rekindle the sense of community that was present during the 1950s and 1960s, which is something that is missing now said Dillanado.

Dillanado said people who saw the play previously were completely enthralled by the innocence of the time and the way it was portrayed by the actors. He said that type of innocence is more characteristic during that time, which is what he said has been lost.

He wants the musical to be a call to families and children to get back to the sense of community and innocence. He said he particularly wants women to get back to the type of innocence that was present in the 1950s and 1960s, as they move forward into the next step of their lives.

“I want audiences to identify with the characters and community, as it was then, as a blueprint for how communities like Chatham, Woodlawn, Englewood and Bronzeville are.  They all emerged from that type of innocence, from that type of family connection; that type of knowledge of who was in the community, both the young and old, and the roles they played,” he said.

Dillanado said that the 1950s and 1960s were a time when people were dedicated to keeping their communities safe and keeping their communities powerful and sustainable for themselves.

He said it was a time when there were institutions that were committed to providing jobs, and employment to members of the community. Dillanado said 20% of the proceeds from the musical “Sigma Girl” will go to the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority’s National Education Fund. He said the members of the sorority who saw the play said they were happy to see their sorority portrayed on stage.

Dillanado said the goal is to keep the play going for a long time. In this show, it starts with 1959, but he wants to explore other themes within the storyline. He said the story is designed to move forward.

“Sigma Girl” will be performed on Friday and Saturday, April 10th and 11th at the Morgan Park Academy, located at 2153 W. 111th St.

For more information about Sigma Girl, visit www.blackpagesinternational.com.

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