What is The Postman Walks and The Postman

The Postman Walks is the blog that supports the production of The Postman.  Here is where you will see that company members will blog about our experiences, the progression of the production and its accomplishments.

The Postman is a multi-disciplinary, site-specific, promenade-style work that explores the life and times of Albert Jackson, Toronto’s first African-American postman, through theatre and music. The play will take place in short sections along a route that echoes Mr. Jackson’s original delivery route in the lower Annex neighbourhood (Brunswick Ave, Harbord St, Bloor St. and Palmerston Ave). The plot will follow the chronology of Mr. Jackson’s life – concentrating on his journey from slavery with his family along the Underground Railroad to his appointment in the postal service and the many challenges he faced as an African-American in his professional and personal life.

How Will The Postman Production Be Delivered?

This project consist of two elements: the theatre piece and an accompanying responsive website. The production will consist of actors and musicians guiding an audience on foot along a pre-determined path through the lower Annex neighbourhood (bordered by Brunswick ave, Bloor St, Palmerston Ave. and Harbord St). The majority of the narrative will occur at 12 separate outdoor locations, where a short section of the play will be performed. This production will be developed and written in a workshop environment by members Appledore Productions. The cast of the play will consist of both members of Appledore and a variety of youth collaborators.

The responsive website will act as an information portal, navigation guide and box office. Accessible on mobile devices, the website will contain program information including cast and crew biographies, a plot summary and historical background information on the play and the neighbourhood. There will also be a page that contains the navigation guide or map of the different locations visited throughout the production and the path they will be visited in. This page will contain interactive elements – allowing users and audience members to explore additional material about the production and the company.

Why This Style?

The intention, creatively, for the artists is to explore the aesthetic of promenade collective creation with a politically focused and entertainment endgame in mind. How does ensemble work in this format? Project Director/co-creator David Ferry has done a fair amount of site specific and found space creation as well as outdoor theatre (former artistic director of Resurgence Theatre Company) and has been invited to participate in the ‘Making and Breaking’ workshop at 2012 Summerworks, which is a workshop in site specific and found space theatre. He will be using the experience working with practitioners from Canada and abroad to investigate potential solutions to challenges to this project. The eventual constituency for this project will be the whole city of Toronto, and in particular the African-Canadian community. We believe that this story is a great story of a community within a community and an inspirational one. We also believe that the piece will be important to the neighborhood we hope to eventually perform it in (an area bounded by Harbord, Palmerston, Brunswick, Bloor.) This neighborhood where Mr. Jackson delivered mail was also one in which he lived. He was an owner or six or seven houses in the hood over the years. We hope to include at least one of them in our promenade. There is also a ‘Albert Jackson’ lane that we hope to start and end our promenade in.

Who is Albert Jackson

Mr. Albert Jackson (1856-1918) was born in Miliford, Delaware to John and Anne Maria Jackson, a couple who worked on a large plantation. The youngest of nine children, Albert was barely three years old when his two eldest siblings were sold to another master in 1858.  Shortly after, John Jackson dies – presumably of a broken heart. Left to fend for herself and her family alone, Anne Maria decides to escape the plantation and make the treacherous trip to freedom. A difficult journey at the best of times, Anne Maria along with her remaining seven children, faces the prospect of capture, separation, starvation and death. Despite the odds being firmly against her, Anne Maria collects her brood and heads North. Albert is still a toddler and his eldest sibling is about 16. Miraculously managing to avoid the slave catchers, Anne Maria reaches Pennsylvania with her family through the help of some agents of the Underground Railroad. The Jackson’s continued their journey Railroad by travelling the nearly 400 kilometre journey all the way to St. Catherine’s, Ontario and freedom.

Once in Canada, the Jackson’s stayed briefly at the home of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn, fugitive slaves from Kentucky who had come to Toronto in 1834. Thornton, who owned Toronto’s first taxi business, and his wife helped freedom seekers get settled in Toronto. The Jackson’s moved to the neighbourhood around Osgoode Hall, then called St. John’s Gate. This area of the city housed many refugees from slavery and other immigrants coming to Canada to start a new life. To support her family, Ann Maria worked as a laundress, while Albert’s oldest brothers worked as hotel waiters. Growing up in Toronto afforded Albert Jackson the privilege of public schooling – something neither his parents or most of siblings ever received. Albert’s education and hard work opened many doors to him, but he was drawn to working for the Postal Service.

Upon completion of his schooling in May 1882, Albert applied to and was accepted for the position of postman. His assignment was met with protest by his white co-workers who refuse to train or work with him. Albert is demoted to hall porter in an attempt to defuse the tension. This move was met with an outcry by Toronto’s African-American community – led by Jackson’s brothers John Jr. and Robert, a barber to many prominent figures in Toronto. The debate raged for weeks until the African-American community eventually escalated the issue to the Prime Ministers office, and urged John A. McDonald to intervene on Jackson’s behalf. McDonald realized the significance of the issue to the African-American population and stepped in: Albert Jackson was returned to his original job as letter carrier. He remained in this position for the rest of his life, until his death in 1918.