Antonio Rocha's Waves of Tears | Winds of Hope: The Maine Maritime Stories of the Malaga Ship and Pedro Tovookan

Created and performed by Antonio Rocha

with cello accompaniment by Eve Sawyer

Antonio Rocha – one of Maine’s most unique and award-winning storytellers, brings two tales remarkable resilience and creativity to Mayo Street Arts.  Stories that trace lines from Africa to Maine by way of Brazil will be sung, narrated, and performed in Antonio’s one of kind voice with cello accompaniment by Eve Sawyer.  

The Malaga Ship: A Story of Maine and the Middle Passage

The Malaga was a 183 ton brig built in 1832, in Brunswick Maine, in a shipyard owned by Joseph Badger. The ship eventually found herself as part of the already Illegal transatlantic trade of African captives to the Americas, especially Brazil.

The Malaga Ship Story is a tour de force performance. Using his entire body and voice, Antonio sings, narrates, and mimes his way through this poetically toned historical tale told mostly from the perspective of the ship. The story vividly explores the reality and impact of the slave industry, which was the largest industry in the world in the 1800s. The story also has a deep connection to the performer, for Malaga goes to Rio de Janeiro – Brazil in 1845, where Antonio was raised in a biracial household over a century later.

Once Upon a Hill in Maine: The Pedro Tovookan Parris Story

Pedro Tovookan Parris was born around 1833 on the eastern coast of Africa, in what is now Tanzania or Mozambique. At about ten years old, he was enslaved and transported to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, aboard the Porpoise—a U.S. brig built in Brunswick, Maine, and captained by Cyrus Libby of Scarborough. The voyage, which violated federal laws prohibiting the trans-Atlantic slave trade, became the center of a landmark legal case. After arriving in Brazil, Libby was arrested, and young Pedro was taken to Boston, where he bravely testified against his enslaver in 1845. He later found a home in the family of Virgil D. Parris in Paris Hill, Maine, where he thrived as a student, artist, and active member of his community.

From eastern Africa to western Maine—from bondage to the full exercise of his intellectual, artistic, and civic freedom—Pedro’s story is one of remarkable resilience and creativity. In Once Upon a Hill in Maine, Antonio Rocha brings this history to life through powerful storytelling, song, and mime, embodying the courage and imagination that shaped Pedro’s extraordinary journey

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Antonio Rocha (pronounced haw-sha), originally from Brazil, began his career in the performing arts in 1985. In 1988 he received a Partners of the Americas grant to come to the USA to perform and deepen his mime skills with Mime Master Tony Montanaro. Since then he has earned a Summa Cum Laude Theater BA from USM (University of Southern Maine) and studied with Master Marcel Marceau. Mr. Rocha’s unique and award winning solo fusion of mime and storytelling with mesmerizing voices and sound effects has been performed from Singapore to South Africa and many places in between, including 20 countries on 6 continents as well as in 44 US states. Some of the venues include The Singapore Festival of the Arts, Wolf Trap, The National Storytelling Festival, The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian Institution, The National Geographic, The Tales of Graz in Austria, Dunya Festival, The Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, Cave Run Storytelling Festival as well as thousands of school performances. Antonio Rocha also loves to teach his craft and often facilitates workshops, not only for performers, but for those who want to incorporate storytelling into their business presentations and classroom.

A two time TEDx speaker, Mr. Rocha is a proud recipient of the coveted Circle of Excellence Award by the National Storytelling Network, and most recently the 2024 Maine Arts Commission Fellowship for the Performing Arts.

Eve Sawyer began her cello studies with Katherine Graffam, then continued to expand her musical horizons in Rome Italy. She’s raised a family here in Portland, and makes her living as a musician, teaching and performing.

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Testimonials:

” I could not believe the coincidences between the ship and myself. She was built in Maine and went to Brazil to bring to my home country part of my ancestry. I was born in Brazil and came to Maine where I learned to be a storyteller. The more I read about Malaga, the more I realized I was born to tell her story.” – Antonio Rocha

“Antonio Rocha’s performance of Malaga was riveting! Antonio masterfully activates the imagination of the audience using history, mime, and spellbinding characters to tell this tale in a unique and fascinating way. He navigates us through a litany of emotions, and in conclusion we discover that we learn a great deal about history and ourselves.”

-Betsy Heid-Puelle Drama Teacher at Yarmouth HS, Maine.

“To paraphrase Maya Angelou, “it may be enough to have it said that we [as a people] survive in exact relationship to the dedication” of our artists. So often, understanding and informing history is most effectively achieved through the many forms of artistic expression. In his extraordinary performance of the The Malaga Ship: A Story of Maine and the Middle Passage,” Antonio Rocha exemplifies the way in which the difficult history of the trans-Atlantic human trade is infused with “shades of deeper meaning,” brought to life, and shared.

– Ann Cobb Executive Director and Ann Chin, Program Director.- Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project

“Antonio delivers one of the most breathtaking and poignant performances I have ever seen. [..] We were honored to have his work showcased for members and friends of the JFK Hyannis Museum.

-Wendy Northcross, co-founder and executive director, John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum

“I saw the performance of the Malaga Ship: A Story of Maine and The Middle Passage by Antonio Rocha at the National Storytelling Network Conference in Seattle, WA in 2024. It took my breath away, left me in tears, and with a sense that I had traveled through time to witness the lifecycle of a slave ship.

This story teaches people about the Middle Passage in a unique and unforgettable way. Antonio brought the ship to life and showed the audience, through the ship’s experience of transporting “cargo,” how incredibly cruel and pervasive the slave industry was. Antonio also drew a line from what happened in the 1800s with his own life and with America today, connecting the dots from the sugar industry, the slave industry, and racial inequity in America in 2024. By connecting these various points through history with his own personal experience, he painted a vivid picture for anyone who might not understand how tragedies of the past influence the present.”

– Jessica Piscitelli Robinson, Executive Director of Better Said Than Done