Created and performed by Antonio Rocha
Hosted by Atlantic Black Box, in partnership with First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Kennebunk, The Brick Store Museum, and The Just History Project
Sunday, November 9, 2025 | 3:00-4:30 p.m.
First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, 114 Main St., Kennebunk
Performance free and open to the public – registration required
Award-winning, internationally acclaimed storyteller Antonio Rocha brings his newest work, Once Upon a Hill in Maine: The Pedro Tovookan Parris Story, to Kennebunk’s First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church on Sunday, November 9, in conjunction with Saturday’s Just History Walk.
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. The performance will be followed by a moderated conversation between Antonio and the audience.
About the performer
Antonio Rocha, 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 skills with Mime Master Tony Montanaro. He went on to graduate Summa Cum Laude from the University of Southern Maine with a Theater BA and to study with Master Marcel Marceau.
Mr. Rocha has performed his unique and award-winning solo fusion of mime and storytelling, with mesmerizing voices and sound effects, from Singapore to South Africa and many places in between, including 20 countries on six continents, as well as in 44 U.S. states. Some of the venues include The Singapore Festival of the Arts, Wolf Trap, The National Storytelling Festival, The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic, The Tales of Graz in Austria, Dunya Festival, The Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, and the Cave Run Storytelling Festival. Antonio has additionally given 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 classrooms.
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.
ABB’s WHERE series is funded in part by the Mellon Foundation, Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust, Maine Humanities Council, Maine Community Foundation, Sewall Foundation, and by generous donors.
