Cast members rehearse a scene of “Just Beginnings,” a new musical created by southside Indianapolis resident Laura Krell, in March. The show tells the story of women forced to leave France for the New World in the early 1700s, and how they persevered. “Just Beginnings” will debut in June at Franklin College.
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History told a story of unspeakable cruelty and injustice, yet also strength, perseverance and love.
In the 1700s, King Louis XIV of France made a decision. Broke and in need of money, his advisors convinced him to focus on one of the country’s colonies in the New World — the area around the Mississippi River, including New Orleans. By cultivating the lucrative crop tobacco, France could rebuilt its wealth relatively quickly.
But they needed people to live in the colony.
“What grabbed me about this is, there’s 17 women, and 17 women’s voices who are very different,” said Laura Krell, a composer, singer, director and music teacher who holds a doctorate in vocal performance. “I just began hearing those as music. The stories gripped me so hard, I couldn’t get my head out of it for nine months.”
Krell was compelled by this piece of little-known American history. Now, the southside resident has brought it to life in her musical, “Just Beginning,” debuting this summer at Franklin College. Using actual first-person accounts and the words of the men and women forced together in the New World, the performance revolves around women, falsely imprisoned in Franklin, sent on a chain gang across the ocean to Mississippi.
“Any opportunity to bring art, culture, history and the community to our campus is amazing and beneficial for the college,” said Erik DeForest, voice studio director at Franklin College.
Musical compositions, verse, song, dance and aerial acrobatics help tell the story of these women, who went on to be founding mothers of the U.S. southern states.
“It happened almost 300 years ago, but the stories therein of those women were so real, and they’re still real today,” Krell said. “The show has women’s stories in ways I’ve never seen before on stage, ever. It’s the kind of stories that take people by storm.”
The idea behind “Just Beginning” was born from a Facebook meme, Krell said. She saw an historical fact about how in 18th century France, government officials would put a male prisoner and female prisoner in chains, proclaim them married and ship them across the ocean to Mississippi against their will.
“I thought, that can’t be true,” she said. “But it was true.”
In doing research, Krell found an emerging body of work examining this period of time, which played such an instrumental role in the early history of America. Piecing together the different accounts, a revolting picture came into focus.
At the time, France was in financial ruin, hampered by the construction of the Palace of Versailles and King Louis XIV’s reckless spending. Government officials came up with a plan to grow tobacco in its colonial holdings in the New World.
They were able to sell men on the idea of seeking their fortunes in Mississippi, using promises of fictitious villages and property they would find. But women were much more resistant to the idea.
The French government sent unmarried French women to Louisiana as potential wives for male settlers. These girls became popularly known as “cassette girls,” after the suitcase or cassette containing their possessions they carried to the colony, according to Mississippi History Now, an publication focused on the state’s history.
“They concocted this plan to go to the lady in charge of the women’s prison and see if she can give us any prisoners to send,” Krell said. “She was very corrupt, so it became like, paying for women to sentence. There was a huge roundup of all orphans, all marginalized people, immigrants to France at the time, children. That’s where my story begins.”
“Just Beginning” focuses on the first 17 women who were forced to become colonists. Krell sifted through historical records to get a sense of their lives and their situations.
One was a 9-year-old orphaned girl who had been arrested for stealing ribbon, and she was put on the chain gang. Another was a servant who had been impregnated by her master. Krell found an instance of a rich heiress who was arrested after her male relatives paid to have her incarcerated to get her money.
At the center of the musical is a love story between two of the women imprisoned on the boat.
“We have this melting pot of all of these classes within the prison, from high society to dirt poor. But they were all people they were paying to get rid of, or otherwise unwanted,” she said.
“Just Beginning” incorporates this disparate group into a heartbreaking but inspiring story. From their tragic beginnings, many of those who came to Mississippi helped establish it, becoming the first landowners, starting businesses and helping it gain a foothold.
“Every person in the show was real — every person. And it’s a huge cast, and I did that because the stories, you just can’t get out of it,” Krell said.
Over the course of months, Krell’s script came together. She blended primary documents to give the characters their voices. Songs and choreography help move the plot along, while aerialists, who were part of the historical story, add a dazzling aspect to the musical.
“It became my everything. I’m a musician, so I have a lot of music gigs all the time, but I just stopped them, because this grabbed me so hard,” she said. “I knew it was worth my all. It really is about people who were trafficked.”
The opportunity to perform at Franklin College in June came through DeForest. He and Krell had worked together in the past and known each other for years, and when “Just Beginning” had a script-reading party, he was taken by it.
“I love the fact that it is focused on female characters with a LGBTQ love story at the core,” he said in an email.
DeForest suggested that instead of renting a theater to show it, they bring it to Franklin College. He worked with the school’s theater department to make it a reality.
“Laura needed an affordable venue for her premiere, and I thought that our blackbox theater at Franklin College would be an excellent space for the show and all of the unique staging she is planning,” he said. “I was able to talk to the theater department and they agreed that it was an exciting project and said they could use it for their premiere.”
“Just Beginning” will feature six performances on June 7, 8, 14 and 15 in Theatre Margot inside the Johnson Center for the Fine Arts at the college.
Later this year, Krell has arranged to stage it in Greenfield in September and Hendricks Live!, a newly opened venue in Plainfield, in November.
“What’s really cool about doing it this way is, we’ll have three iterations, to give us a chance to grow the show, let everyone around hear about it and see it, and even speak into it,” she said. “We’d really like to eventually travel the show.”
AT A GLANCE
“Just Beginning”
What: A new musical telling the true story of seventeen women who were falsely imprisoned in 18th century France and sent on a chain gang across the ocean to Mississippi.
Who: Created by Laura Krell, a southside Indianapolis resident and composer, singer, director and music teacher who holds a doctorate in vocal performance.
When: The musical will be staged at 7:30 p.m. June 7, 8, 14 and 15, and 2 p.m. June 8 and 15, at Theatre Margot inside the Johnson Center for the Fine Arts on Franklin College’s campus.
Tickets: Early bird tickets are $30 for general admission. A VIP option for the June 8 and 15 shows includes front-row seats and cocktail hour with the composer and cast at 6:15 p.m.
Information and donations: justbeginningthemusical.com
