Firehouse Theatre Announces New Dates for GABRIEL

Firehouse Theatre has announced the new dates, cast, and creative team for its world premiere musical GABRIEL. This "true story of freedom" centers on the mostly unknown revolutionary leader Gabriel and the insurection he organized that has been "Lost, Buried, Forgotten," as the title of the show's opening song declares.

GABRIEL is written by Jerold Solomon, Foster Solomon, and Ron Klipp, with music and lyrics by Ron Klipp. GABRIEL will have a lmited run of twelve performances from September 8 thru October 2, 2022 at Firehouse. Firehouse is finally producing GABRIEL after postponing it twice due to the pandemic. The production was originally scheduled to open in January, 2021 and again in January, 2022.

GABRIEL is based on the true and little-known historical events of the summer of 1800 when a literate, enslaved blacksmith from the Prosser plantation in Richmond, VA organized a state-wide rebellion to end slavery. On the day of the uprising there was a violent thunderstorm that flooded the area, destroying the rebels' lines of communication and thwarting the diversionary fires that were a key element of their plan.

Gabriel made the difficult choice to postpone the rebellion. Before he could regroup he was captured, tried, and publicly hanged with 25 other conspirators. Virginia Governor James Monroe and the General Assembly quickly enacted a series of rigid laws intended to suppress future revolts and further control and restrict the lives of free and enslaved Blacks. Douglas Egerton, historian and author of Gabriel's Rebellion wrote, "most of his contemporaries, white as well as black, believed that his plan stood a good chance of succeeding. Had it done so, it might have changed not only the course of American race relations but also the course of American political history."

The GABRIEL ensemble features Jerold Solomon in the title role of Gabriel (and co-librettist), Alvan Bolling II, Lyndsey Brown, Mikaela Craft, Keydron Dunn, J. Ron Fleming Jr., PJ Freebourn, Sydnee Graves, Michael McMullen, and Mark Persinger. The GABRIEL creative team is Foster Solomon (director and co-librettist), Billy Dye (music director), Leslie Owens-Harrington (choreographer), Dasia Gregg (scenic designer), Anna Bialkowski (costume designer), Jeanette McLean (costume assistant), Todd Labelle (lighting designer), Emily Vial (stage manager), Dennis Bowe and Kennedy Shahan (assistant stage managers).

GABRIEL tickets are available at https://gabrielrva.eventbrite.com. Information about Firehouse is at https://www.firehousetheatre.org.

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