In addition to our local company, MCC began sponsoring local performances of touring theater companies and musicians as early as 1985, bringing to the community such performers as Carpetbag Theater, Cynthia Watts, John O'Neal, Sam Chatmon, Billy Jean Young, and Theaterworks/USA. All of the performances were open to the general public without charge, and all were chosen to reflect some aspect of the African-American cultural experience. In 1989 we brought Cornerstone Theater to the county for a five-month residency, during which they involved some 70 members of the local community, black and white, as actors, musicians, designers, and stage hands in a performance of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, adapted to the local idiom and social concerns of our community. The show ran to full houses for 12 performances and received national attention. In 1995 we commissioned Nayo Watkins to write a piece using the oral histories we have collected over the years. We performed What It Is, This Freedom? for 500 people in conjunction with the opening of No Easy Journey, an exhibit of the Civil Rights Movement in Claiborne County, and a public forum entitled Time For A Change.