A professor at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha will have her play on racism come to life this spring in conjunction with a campus program.

Margaret Rozga, a UW-Waukesha English professor, wrote the play "March on Milwaukee." The play focuses on Milwaukee's Civil Rights Movement and the actions taken by the Milwaukee National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Youth Council.

The UW-Waukesha theater department will be performing the play in April as part of the Read program, which allows professors to have students use a book for discussions and connect the content to campus-wide events.

Rozga said the work also centers on her early years as a member of the Youth Council, which participated in the protests of 1967 that pushed for a citywide ordinance against housing discrimination.

"I wanted to focus on characters who were members of the Youth Council," Rozga said. "The main characters are people who were there day in and day out through the whole campaign — there were 200 consecutive nights of marches for the law."

Rehearsals have already begun for the April play, which includes a cast of nine UW-Waukesha students.

Rozga said her late husband, Father James Groppi, was the leader of the protests.

It was under his leadership, Rozga added, that demonstrations were held across Milwaukee, including the famous march across the Sixteenth Street viaduct that attracted national attention.

Although Groppi was a vital figure in the movement, Rozga said she chose not to have an actor portray him. He will be represented by still photographs and video only.

According to Mark Rococo, director of the play and a UW-Waukesha associate professor, "March on Milwaukee" fits directly into the university's Read theme of racism.

After choosing the theme, Rococo said Rozga approached him with the suggestion that she write her first play about her experiences.

"It is very easy to look at the Civil Rights Movement and think of it as something that happened in the South," Rococo said. "These issues really touched the lives of many of Milwaukee."

Despite her inexperience with the form, Rozga wrote a script for the stage production of the events of 1967. But the writing process, she added, was not an easy task.

"Shortly after I'd said I'd do it, I thought, 'I can't do this,'" Rozga said.

With the help of Rococo, however, Rozga has successfully transferred her story to the stage. Rococo was in charge of the casting for the show, and he and Rozga both said they have confidence in the students' abilities to portray historical figures.

"Actors feel a sense of responsibility in getting the story right," Rococo said. "They want to do justice and provide a voice to people whose story they are telling."

Rococo said he hopes that the play will be meaningful not only to the students acting in it but to the community as well. After seeing the play, Rozga said she would like the UW-Waukesha community to take something away from the production.

"If you have a concept of ordinary people doing these extraordinary things," Rozga said. "You see the possibility of what you yourself can do."