By Megan Fink/The Natchez Democrat

Everyone has roots.

Everyone has a place that feels like home, a place filled with personal history and the history of the people who have gone before us.

For Atlanta playwright Danese Frazier Turner, that place is in Natchez. And her heritage and roots will take center stage in her new production, “Death by Dancing.”

Turner is the granddaughter of Ed Frazier, former owner of the Rhythm Night Club and one of the victims of the deadly blaze that destroyed it in 1940.

Now Turner, a writer, producer and director of several theatrical productions, has written a stage play titled “Death by Dancing,” commemorating that fateful night in Natchez. She is producing and co-directing the play, which will premiere Nov. 28 at the Riverside Epicenter in Austell, Ga. For Turner, the production is about history, family and faith.

“I want to show the grace abounded in that fire,” Turner said. “I don’t believe that people went to hell because they danced at a night club and jazz music was playing. That’s not the kind of God we have.”

On the evening of April 23, 1940, the Rhythm Night Club caught fire, killing 209 people who had gathered there for a much-anticipated performance. A popular jazz band from Chicago had attracted a huge crowd to the metal-sided building.

When the decorations near the door caught fire, panic ensued as flames spread through the interior of the dance hall. The screams of the victims could be heard for blocks, and many of the dead were unidentified for days.

Turner lost both of her paternal grandparents in the blaze. Her father was only 5 years old at the time.

The tragedy is the fourth most deadly club and assembly fire in United States history, and was the reason behind some modern fire codes such as standards for number of fire exits required, additional standards for swinging doors and interior finish standards.

Turner’s stage play is a work of historical fiction, set in Natchez in 1940.

“The talk around town is the annual spring dance. Everybody who was anybody was going to be there. But not everybody — hardly anybody — would make it home,” Turner wrote of her play.

Turner drew on her experience with dance and movement art to flesh out the musical portions of the production.

Turner says her Natchez roots are at the heart of her creative career.

“Writing and creativity are in my DNA,” she said.

Her parents, Joe and Ora Frazier, exposed Turner and her brother, Joe II, to local opera, symphonic music and other performance arts from a young age.

“I probably went kicking and screaming … But some of that stuck with me,” Turner said.

Turner’s parents were both educators in the Natchez area schools. Her mother wrote “A Southern Road to Freedom,” the musical that has been performed by Holy Family Catholic Church Choir during Spring Pilgrimage since 1990. Her father was also a proponent of the arts.

“He was committed to exposing African American kids to the possibilities of what they could do, what they could be,” Turner said.

Turner’s Natchez roots run deep. Her relatives have owned their current home in Vidalia for 60 years. A relative of Turner’s, Mae Paige, said the house is steeped in family history.

“Walking into this house, it’s like going back through time,” Paige said.

When Paige first heard that Turner would be adapting the story to a historical fiction play, she thought the project was ambitious.

“I didn’t believe it, but she’ll tackle anything,” Paige said. Paige said she and her family are planning to attend the performance in Atlanta.

Purpose and Power Connection, a worship arts ministry that provides performance art for religious events and groups in the Atlanta area, is presenting the production. It is a collective of local faith-based artists who are not employees, but rather use the connection to find creative opportunities.

Turner said she has been directing stage plays for about 14 years, mostly focused around her passion for dance. She has created shows that use many different dance genres, including tap, step and African styles.

In 2010 Turner did her first independent production outside of her church, called “Blood Relatives,” which was based on the Old Testament story of Joseph. This year, she said, was especially reserved for “Death by Dancing,” a long-awaited project.

“This year I felt compelled to do this show because it’s the 75th anniversary of the fire,” Turner said.

The play is based on a poem that Turner wrote in 1996, also titled “Death by Dancing.” Turner said the project was first intended to become a book, but was then re-imagined as a stage performance.

Turner said a great focus of her mission was “edu-tainment,” and that audience participation and educational takeaways were a large part of her goal in writing the piece.

“My gift is really in the area of teaching and writing,” Turner said.

Her role as an educator and her mission of sharing her heritage took center stage in “Death by Dancing,” she said.

Nic Star, co-director of the production, shares her educational mission.

“I’ve taught in the school system here for about 15 years,” Star said. “The educator is always going to be there.”

He said he was excited for the educational gains of the project.

“That’s one thing that’s great about working with (Turner), you’re always going to learn something.”

Star has never worked with Turner on a production before, but his children have performed in her projects several times.

“I’ve been following her for years. It was a compliment to be asked to join the production,” Star said.

Star, a native of Kosciusko, wants to improve public awareness of the historical event.

“I’m glad we’re here doing (the production) because people here don’t know about it, but I would love to take it to Mississippi,” he said.

Turner says that her dream is to take “Death by Dancing” to a Natchez stage, but the budget has been an issue.

“Funding is the only thing that stands in the way,” she said.

In the meantime, Turner said she’d love for people from Natchez to come to Atlanta to see the show. She arranged for extra show times on Saturday to accommodate those who would be traveling.

Show times will be 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 28 at the Riverside Epicenter in Austell, Ga.