Historical drama has never been so enlightening. An extraordinary theater troupe is ready to entertain and educate audiences in the park at a free performance tonight.

The Langston Hughes Company of Players is a professional theater company founded in Des Moines. The group is named for the black poet and writer, Langston Hughes. Hughes is renowned for opening the way for realism in African-American literature.

True to its namesake, the company has been opening people’s minds throughout the Midwest. The players use song, dance, music and theatrical presentations to bring history to life.

Tonight’s performance will include a “hodgepodge of songs, poetry, and interpretative vignettes from each era. The skits describe what it is is like to be black in America,” director Odell McGhee explained.

“We talk about how people felt, what they did, and how they reacted to their surroundings. We also try to bring the music of the period alive, along with their hopes and aspirations,” McGhee said.

The company presents the story of a slave mother and her thoughts as she sees her children sold. They sing the song of enslaved people and the battle songs of the civil rights era. Their message may have you laughing in one vignette and crying in the next, a recent press release stated.

The program presented will focus on putting the audience in touch with the endurance, adversity, trials and tribulations of Black America, the release explained.

The group concentrates on four different periods of African-American history: Slavery, Jim Crow, Harlem Renaissance and Modern Times, the press release stated.

“We are a theater troupe that works with the written word. The four phases we use have defined the progression of African Americans in this country,” McGhee said.

The company is made up of about 15 members including behind the scenes personnel. They are all professionals or students and have two things in common: a genuine love of black people and a commitment to keep the history and dreams of their people alive, the press release stated.

The troupe has been in existence since the late 1970s. The players started in April of 1978 with Take Back the Night in Des Moines. Ten African-American women were solicited to develop a production concerning the plight of black women in America, the press release stated.

“After Take Back the Night we found that there was a great need for this type of theater. As a group we began to concentrate on the whole black experience, not just the woman’s point of view,” McGhee explained.

Langston Hughes Theater Company will be performing tonight on the Showmotion portable stage at Whitmer Park, located at East 6th and Lyon in Des Moines. Performance is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Audience members are encouraged to bring blankets and lawn chairs. The performance is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Metro Arts at 280-3222.