Big premieres are hard to come by. But this year, the Theater and Interpretation Center managed to claim a couple for Northwestern. In February it offered audiences the Chicago debut of Stephen Schwartz’s “Children of Eden,” and tonight it boasts the world premiere of the children’s story “Mirandy and Brother Wind.”

The play continues NU’s long history of children’s theater. Faculty adviser Rives Collins said the School of Speech has been “a haven and innovator of theater for children since the 1920s.”

“Mirandy” is based on the book by Patricia McKissack, who according to Collins is “the only author I know of who has won the grand slam of children’s book awards: the Newberry Award, the Caldecott Medal and the Corretta Scott King Award.” Playwright Gloria Bond-Clunie adapted the book for the stage. Bond-Clunie has also won awards for her writing – she received the Joseph Jefferson Award, Chicago’s version of the Tony Awards, for her play “North Star.”

McKissack and Bond-Clunie will be in attendance at tonight’s debut, which is free for NU students, faculty and staff. A reception and a question-and-answer session with the two women will follow the performance.

Director Shondrika Moss, a doctoral candidate in the performance studies department, and the cast worked in connection with Bond-Clunie to bring the characters in the play to life without any prior examples for reference.

“It was a work in progress,” Moss said. “We grew with the change.”

Set in Ridgetop, Tenn., in 1906, “Mirandy and Brother Wind” tells the story of a normal, happy, financially stable black family – a story that “often is not told enough in the theater,” Collins said.

Mirandy, a young, free-spirited girl, wants to win the town’s Cakewalk Contest. She decides that the only way she can succeed is to have the magical spirit Brother Wind as her partner. Mirandy then devises different ways of capturing Brother Wind.

Historically the cakewalk, where blacks would jump and kick their feet in the air, was a dance that slaves did to imitate their white slaveowners and signify their personal revolt. But at the turn of the century, it became a dance craze for couples around the world, especially in the South, where dancers would compete for a cake.

Because of the historical connections of the dance, “Mirandy” also focuses on the celebration of freedom. The theme of freedom is carried through the numerous times during the play when the ensemble breaks into spiritual song. “The play both addresses the literal freedom of the black people and the freedom of the spirit,” Moss said. The show emphasizes that “Free is special. Don’t ever forget that.”

To spread this message to a greater children’s audience, the show will be touring during Spring Quarter, presenting “Mirandy and the Brother Wind” to students in cafeterias and gymnasiums at 18 different schools.

“We get up at 6:30 a.m. every Wednesday and Friday and for half of the tour, we perform two shows a day, ” said Suzanne Myers, a Speech junior who plays Orlinda, Mirandy’s nemesis.

Children at both private and public schools throughout the Chicago area will see the show, as well all of the Evanston schools and the Northwestern University Settlement House, an organization located on Chicago’s west side. The tour is presented in conjunction with the Theater And Public Schools program.

The cast members of “Mirandy” also feel a deeper connection with children’s theater.

“I remember loving children’s theater when I was little,” Myers said. “I want to share the feeling that I had with other children.” nyou