MOTHER EMANUEL Opening at SoHo Playhouse August 13th as Part of FringeNYC

MOTHER EMANUEL An American Musical Play Opens at FringeNYC 8/13 Rebel Theater in association with The Present Company presents MOTHER EMANUEL, an American Musical Play conceived by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj and co-written by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj, Adam Mace and Christian Lee Branch starting Saturday August 13 at Soho Playhouse as part of the 2016 New York International Fringe Festival.

Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj is director/choreographer. Musical direction is by Christian Lee Branch. The cast features Frank Mayers, DiAnne Dixon, Marquis Gibson, Lauren Shaye and Nicole Stacie.

MOTHER EMANUEL is a dramatic interpretation of the events that took place at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on the evening of June 17th 2015 when a young white man named Dylann Roof entered a Bible Study Group and sat for about an hour before fatally shooting nine members of the congregation. Travelling through past and present, the story focuses on the final hour of those nine men and women whose actions, both real and imagined, were characterized by their faith, kindness and deep commitment to their families and community, echoing the resilient history of Mother Emanuel Church itself from the Reconstruction era through the Civil Rights Movement into the present time. Enhanced by live music and song that includes a host of stirring spirituals and gospel tunes, MOTHER EMANUEL is both a musical play and a moving testament against gun violence.

Playwright and director/choreographer Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj has been hailed by the New York Times as "one of the most talented directors in New York these days". Numbered among his directing and credits are 365 Days (Public Theater), Marat Sade (Classical Theatre of Harlem), Man Measures Man (Lark Play Development Center), Diss Diss and Diss Dat (a new hip-hop musical written and directed for New Federal Theatre), The Black Nativity (The Goodman Theatre), Little Rock (Passage Theatre, 2015 Barrymore Award for Outstanding Ensemble in A Play), Dreamgirls (Theatre of the Stars with Jennifer Holliday) and Master Harold and The Boys (Portland Stage). Playwriting credits include Little Rock, The Ballad of Trayvon Martin and Grey and Twenty Five, Hansberry/Baldwin (Semi-Finalist for the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Festival). He has held artistic residencies with ALLIANCE THEATRE, Kennedy Center and Crossroads Theatre and is an alumni of Lincoln Center Directors Lab. He is currently the Guest Artist Director at New Freedom Theatre in Philadelphia.

Adam Mace is the artistic associate at New Freedom Theatre and associate producing artistic director of Rebel Theater. His directing credits include the world premiere of John Guare's BETWEEN, R&J: An Uncivil Tale (which he also wrote) at Nuyorican Poets Cafe and The Australia Cure on NYC's Theatre Row. He holds a Masters Degree in Educational Theater from NYU and is a member of SDCS and the Dramatists Guild. Christian Lee Branch is a musical director, playwright and actor. His musical directing credits are Little Rock at Passage Theatre, Black Footnotes, R&J: An Uncivil Tale and Salome: Da Voodoo Princess of Nawlins for Rebel Theater. He acted in the latter three productions and was nominated for an Audelco Award for Outstanding Performance in a Musical for Salome. Rebel Theater is committed as a professional theater company to give a voice to those who are marginalized in society. Producing new works, Rebel passionately strives to explore the full beauty and diversity of the American experience.

MOTHER EMANUEL begins Saturday August 13th at Soho Playhouse (15 Vandam Street between 6th Avenue and Varick Street) at 9:45PM. The performance schedule is Sat. 8/13 at 9:45PM, Wed. 8/17 at 4:45PM, Sun. 8/21 at 6:45PM, Wed, 8/24 at 7:15PM and Thu. 8/25 at 10:15PM. Tickets are $18 plus surcharge. For information and tickets and go to www.fringenyc.org. For more information go to motheremanueltheplay.com,

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