Stevie Walker-Webb to Direct Presentations of New Musical GUN & POWDER in New York City

Obie Award-winning director and playwright, Stevie Walker-Webb, will helm the new musical Gun & Powder. Following a sold-out run at Washington D.C.'s Signature Theatre in 2020, reading presentations for the production will take place in New York City on December 15 and 16.

"Gun & Powder asks us to strap up, grab the bull by the horns, and ride head on into the unknown possibilities and fears of our shadow selves: the parts of us we are too afraid to admit," said Walker-Webb.

Featuring book & lyrics by Angelica Chéri and music by Ross Baum, Gun & Powder is inspired by the true story of Mary and Martha Clarke-African American twins-who pass for White to help settle their mother's sharecropper debt and seize the funds by any means necessary. This dynamic and inspiring story examines race, family, and identity with two electrifying women who went from farm girls to outlaws to legends with gun and powder.

Walker-Webb is currently directing Ain't No Mo' on Broadway. Prior to its Broadway run, Walker-Webb also directed the production at The Public Theater, receiving an Obie Award. His work has been produced by: The Public Theater, American Civil Liberties Union, The New Group, Cherry Lane, Zara Aina, Woolly Mammoth, Baltimore Center Stage, La Mama, and Theatre of the Oppressed-NYC.

Gun & Powder is produced by Ben Holtzman, Sammy Lopez, and Fiona Howe Rudin of P3 Productions.

For more information on Gun & Powder, please visit gunandpowdermusical.com.

ABOUT GUN & POWDER

Gun & Powder was awarded with the prestigious 2018 Richard Rodgers Award and chosen to be featured in the 30th annual NAMT Festival of New Musicals. It was also featured in the 2018 NEXT Festival at Theatre Latté Da, and chosen out of 170 submissions to participate in the 2017 Sigworks Lab at the Signature Theatre, where it made its World Premiere from January 28 - February 23, 2020. Select songs have been presented at Lincoln Center, both in Ross' Songbook and the Broadway's Future Songbook concert series, as well as in the Drama League's DirectorFest at the Sheen Center.

Gun & Powder has been developed in residencies at Goodspeed Opera, Two River Theater and the Barnett Residency. It was originally developed in the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program Thesis Musical Series, and then given the Inaugural Workshop Production of the NYU Tisch Center for New Musicals).

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Stevie Walker-Webb is an Obie Award-winning Director, Playwright, and Cultural Worker who believes in the transformational power of art. As a survivor of poverty and the associative violence that comes with growing up Black and poor in America, he creates work that liberates and reframes the narratives of marginalized groups. He is co-founder and Executive Director of Hundreds of Thousands, an arts and advocacy non-profit that makes visual the suffering and inhumane treatment of incarcerated mentally ill people and the policies that adversely impact their lives. He's received an Obie Award for directing Ain't No Mo (The Public Theater). He is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award for theater, The Lily Award in honor of Lorraine Hansberry awarded by the Dramatists Guild of America, a 2050 Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop and a Wellspring Scholar. He's the Founding Artistic Director of the Jubilee Theatre in Waco, Texas, and has created art and theatre in Madagascar, South Africa, Mexico, Mississippi and across America. His work has been produced by: The Public Theater, American Civil Liberties Union, The New Group, Cherry Lane, Zara Aina, Woolly Mammoth, Baltimore Center Stage, La Mama and Theatre of the Oppressed-NYC. Along with his art and advocacy work, Stevie currently teaches and creates art at Harvard University and New York University's Tisch School for the Arts. For more information about Stevie, visit www.steviewalkerwebb.com.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Angelica Chéri is a playwright, musical theatre bookwriter/lyricist, screenwriter and poet. The plays of her "Prophet's Cycle Trilogy" include The Seeds of Abraham (Signature Theatre, Billie Holiday Theatre, mentored by Lynn Nottage), The Sting of White Roses (North Carolina Black Repertory Company, National Black Theatre Festival) and Crowndation; I Will Not Lie to David (National Black Theatre-I AM SOUL Residency). Other plays include Berta, Berta (World Premiere at CATF), Slow Gin Fits (Fire This Time Festival) and Learn to Speak Doll (Peppercorn Theatre Commission), a children's play.

Angelica is one of six playwrights selected for the inaugural Writers' Room at The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. She served as Master Playwright in the Frank Silvera Writer's Workshop Inaugural 3in3 Playwright Festival, and has written for the Obie-Award-Winning 48 Hours in Harlem Festival. Along with collaborator Ross Baum, Angelica was commissioned by Diverging Elements Theatre Company to write the short children's play A Letter to Auntie Rosa as well as the official anthem of the National Children's Theater of South Africa. She is a writer on Season Three of the award-winning series "Godfather of Harlem" and co-writer of the movie reboot of Highway To Heaven, starring Jill Scott. She is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America West.

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Ross Baum is a music and theatre artist whose work has been seen on stages and screens including Lincoln Center, NY City Center, the Kennedy Center, Nickelodeon,

Sesame Street, Billboard, Playbill, and E! Network. He received the 2018 Richard Rodgers Award for composing Gun & Powder (book & lyrics by Angelica Chéri), which had its world premiere at DC's Signature Theatre.

Other musical scores include: Escapeland (book & lyrics by Charlie Oh), Crowndation: I Will Not Lie To David (Center Theatre Group, National Black Theatre). Music supervisor: Bradical and the Pink Socks and Hannah Corneau's Beautiful Little Fool. Various concerts, festivals, and residencies at Barrington Stage, Goodspeed, Theatre Latté Da, McCarter Theatre Center, Two River Theater, American Musical Theatre Project, and NAMT. He is a founder and music director of the vocal group RANGE (100 million YouTube views) and recently served on the Musical Theatre faculty at Syracuse University. Ross holds an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU, BFA in Musical Theatre from Syracuse University, and is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. His debut pop EP, Three Red Hearts, is available to stream everywhere.