Hillside Haulers present youth production of the dramatization of the O.J. Simpson Trial
By: Brooke Meadows, Community Reporter
Date: June 2022
The Hillside Haulers are proud to present their next production featuring their youth and children cast, OJ Simpson v. The People. The show is slated to run for two weeks with shows at the Garden Theater, as well as a special showing at the J.J. Jordan Nursing Home on Wednesday afternoons. The decision to adapt the American crime story to a children’s play was made by Artistic Director Jen Hillyard after seeing the success of the Amber Heard v. Johnny Depp Trial.
“What we’ve done is taken the gritty realism and emotion of classic plays like Twelve Angry Men and combined them with the entertainment value of the recent Amber Herd v. Johnny Depp Trial to retell this classic American story,” stated Jen Hillyard.
Stage Manager Hattie Emmanual stated, “Our amazing set designer really brought to life, not just the courtroom and grand jury chambers, but also the still-life recreation of the crime scene. It allows our young actors to really relax into their roles and become the characters.”
The Big Sandy Lazer was able to obtain a sneak peak of the production while it was in dress rehearsals. The play does make a controversial choice to start the production in the middle of the famous white Ford Bronco chase, among other potentially inflammatory directorial decisions.
County Judge Executive Bill Gardner, who is up for re-election, expressed his worries that the play would be too “woke” during the last fiscal court meeting, and stated he was considering protesting the production. In an effort to assuage any fears in the community and prevent any protest, Jen Hillyard iterated, “There is no need for the community to worry as the play was plenty enough racist to satisfy those concerned about its ‘wokeness’. I mean, we are trying to portray an already inflammatory trial of a prominent African American amidst the backdrop of the crack epidemic and racial profiling of the mid-1990’s with a youth cast from a county that is 97.4% white according the recent Census.”
Depending on the success of the play, a sequel is already in the works called The Turd Heard ‘Round the World: Johnny v. Amber.
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