Firehouse Theatre has announced the dates, cast, and creative team for its world premiere musical GABRIEL, about the revolutionary leader of a very significant slave rebellion that history has mostly ignored. GABRIEL is written by Jerold Solomon, Foster Solomon, and Ron Klipp, with music and lyrics by Ron Klipp. The production will run at Firehouse from January 27 thru February 26, 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.
Eyewitness accounts estimated Gabriel's rebel force at 500 to 1,000 strong. 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 reluctantly decided 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, Keydron Dunn, J. Ron Fleming Jr., Khadijah Franks, Sydnee Graves,
Rachel Marrs, Michael McMullen, Eddie Webster, and Joel White. GABRIEL musicians are Bentley Cobb (drums),
Ed Drake (guitar), Leilani Fenick (piano), Ned Haskins (cello), Jake Millhouse (bass), and Marissa Resmini (violin). The GABRIEL creative team is
Foster Solomon (director and co-librettist), Billy Dye (music director), Leilani Fenick (assistant music director), Leslie Owens-Harrington (choreographer), Dasia Gregg (scenic designer), Andrew Bonniwell (lighting designer), Anna Bialkowski (costume designer), Jay Basu (costume assistant), Morgan Lea Palmer (stage manager), Dennis Bowe (assistant stage manager), and Kennedy Shahan (assistant stage manager).
GABRIEL tickets are available at
https://gabrielrva.eventbrite.com. Information about Firehouse is at
https://www.firehousetheatre.org
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