Belizean Students Turn Nora Parham Tragedy into Musical

Two young Belizeans studying abroad are breathing new life into one of the country’s most painful, unforgettable stories. At Austin Peay State University, graduate students Cameron Tillett and Alysia Norales are bringing the Nora Parham tragedy to the stage, through an original musical they wrote, produced, and composed themselves. Their production revisits the life of Belize’s first and only woman ever executed, a mother wrongfully convicted and hanged decades ago. After years of research and long nights crafting every song from scratch, these two Belizean artists finally have the chance to debut their work at an upcoming university festival. It’s a moment they say feels both surreal and deeply personal.

 

Cameron Tillett, Belizean Student

“I actually think I had the idea for it longer than five years, probably around third form when I was going to Wesley. But, five years ago I put pen to paper and started writing and working on it. There are interesting ways to tell stories about history and one of the stories I always thought about was Nora Parham story. And I thought people don’t know about it and it would be the perfect story to adapt. The more we worked on it and the deeper we researched we learned more.”

 

Alysia Norales, Belizean Student

“So the musical pieces are going to incorporate a lot of bruk down, punta, mostly Belizean sounds. But it’s going to have a modern twist to it as well just to have the theatrical aspect in there. But for example, our intro song purely Belizean bruk down and we expand from there with the rest of the songs.”

 

Cameron Tillett

“This is a Belizean musical and it is the first Belizean musical done abroad and what is really cool is that we submitted it to our Theater Faculty and the chair told us that he is impressed by what we shared with them, especially considering we have no actual experience in theater. So. He is excited for people to see it.”

 

Alysia Norales

“With Nora this is completely us. We are in charge of the funding, the props, etc. Sadly we are international students, so in America we cannot work legally. So in our video we actually provided an email themusicalnora@gmail.com. This is where if anybody would like to make a donation you can reach us there and we can sort it out.”

 

Tillett and Norales will be hosting auditions on their school campus next week. They intend to one day bring the musical home to Belize.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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