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The Resurrection of Rubin Stacy

Theatrical Reading

A live theatrical reading about Broward's only public lynching in 1935 and a young woman’s path toward redemption and restorative justice.

The premiere theatrical reading of Jeff Rusnak’s fictional two-act play, The Resurrection of Rubin Stacy, will be presented on Sept. 10 at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale.

Admission is free and the stage reading with actors begins at 7 p.m., with an artist discussion to follow. Funding is provided by an Artist Support Grant from the Broward Cultural Division. Carey Brianna Hart will direct and Logan Green is cast to perform Rubin Stacy.

Seats can be reserved at: Eventbrite_The Resurrection of Rubin Stacy_Theatrical Reading

The Resurrection of Rubin Stacy is based on the lynching of Rubin Stacy on July 19, 1935, near what is now Davie Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. Rusnak’s play, his first, draws upon historically documented events of Broward County’s only known public lynching, and the iconic photo of onlookers, including a young white girl, casually gathered in a wooded grove as the body hangs from a tree.

Set in 1948, Resurrection centers around a recurring, fictional dialogue between Rubin Stacy and Ruby, a young woman who is represented as the last face Rubin saw before he was killed, when she was just 7 years old.

The Resurrection of Rubin Stacy gives voice to the victim of a racial terror killing while deconstructing the practice of white supremacy and vigilante violence that was common in the South in the Jim Crow era. The play goes further to show how a young woman breaks the cycle of violence in her family and creates a pathway toward personal redemption and restorative justice.

Rusnak began writing this script in November 2020, just months after George Floyd was murdered. He was inspired by a detail in a Page 1 article in the Sun-Sentinel, headlined, “A lynch mob killed a Black man in Fort Lauderdale in 1935. His name was Rubin Stacy.”

“Within the piece, it was noted by Broward Schools educator Roberto Fernandez that Rubin Stacy had two young children at the time of his murder,” Rusnak said. “This was the first mention in a published report that Rubin Stacy was a father, rather than a vagrant farm worker, as he was portrayed by the Broward Sheriff’s Office and the press at the time of the lynching.

“I was influenced as well by a visit, in 2018, to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and The Legacy Museum, located in Montgomery, Alabama, where Rubin Stacy is commemorated by Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) as part of its Community Remembrance Project. Though this play focusses on a single crime, it speaks more broadly to the thousands of Black Americans whose lynching is memorialized by EJI in Montgomery.”

Jeff Rusnak is a Broward County-native who has worked across two distinct career paths, first as a journalist and currently as a Grant Writer in the arts. He is a two-time Suncoast Emmy Award winner and four-time Telly Award recipient as Producer of the Hollywood Art and Culture Center’s Open Dialogues documentary film series.

See artscalendar.com//the-resurrection-of-rubin-stacy for more information.

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