Tony Award Winner Melba Moore Stars in ROLL ON! A GOSPEL MUSICAL This Month

Roll On! Productions in association with the Center for Nonprofit Advancement and Dasu Productions will present Roll On! A Gospel Musical, starring legendary Tony Award Winner and Grammy Award nominee, Melba Moore, at the THEARC Theater in Washington, DC for 21 shows, opening Sunday, October 9 until Sunday, October 30, 2022.

Roll On! A Gospel Musical is a spectacular revision of "Roll On! A drama with music" staged at the historic Washington, DC's Lincoln Theater in 2006. The Washington Post hailed Roll On! as an "earnest piece of inspirational entertainment...". Now a full-fledged musical, Roll On! is set to amaze audiences with new songs and arrangements performed by a hand-picked DMV-based cast, featuring Duke Ellington School of the Arts alumni and Howard University graduates, led by the living legend, 5-octave songstress, Ms. Melba Moore.

Roll On! is a musical about family and faith, and what happens when trust is lost or broken. It tells the story of a teenage boy, Joshua Johnson, who wants to become pastor of his family's home church, but life's cares and family secrets choke his goal. Along the way, he learns that true love forgives, and that forgiveness empowers.

Roll On! was conceived by playwright Marshall Opie while he was an engineering student at Howard in the 1980s and first read under the direction of Professor Kelsey E. Collie. The reading featured then student Mr. Carl Payne, best known for his roles as Cole Brown on the television sitcom Martin and Walter "Cockroach" Bradley on The Cosby Show. Professor Collie said to Mr. Opie then, "I think you have something, but I think you have to live it first before you finally finish it." No truer words have been spoken.

As playwright and Executive Producer of Roll On!, Mr. Opie has over 30 years of experience teaching and mentoring youth in the Washington Metropolitan area, over 10 years of experience serving as corporate manager for the Washington, DC based Clyde's Restaurant Group, and numerous years of service to his home church, From the Heart Church Ministries in Suitland, MD, working side-by-side with his wife, Margaret.

Since its inception Roll On! evolved to Roll On! A drama with music in 2006, produced by Dr. Rickey Payton, Sr. - prolific composer and member of the GRAMMY's - and nurtured under the artistic direction of Michael Bobbitt - now serving as Executive Director of Mass Cultural Council, the highest-ranking cultural official in the state of Massachusetts. Together, Dr. Payton and Mr. Bobbitt, speedily propelled the playwright's vision forward.

It was in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that Mr. Opie sought assistance from Dr. Daniel Spruill, CEO and founder of DASU Production, to form a collaboration to write Roll On! as a musical. The two, Dr. Spruill and Mr. Opie, set out to do the virtually impossible, including scoring, rehearsing, recording, and presenting readings to an audience through online virtual platforms.

Roll On! has been tried and tested and has evolved into today's presentation, Roll On! A Gospel Musical book by Marshall Opie, score by Dr. Daniel Spruill, with additional music by Dr. Rickey Payton, Sr., directed by Eric Ruffin - artistic director for the Howard University Theatre Arts Department and director of Black Nativity, winning three Helen Hayes Awards -, and choreographed by Sandra Holloway - director of youth development performing arts program City at Peace at the Atlas Performing Arts Center.

The men and women behind Roll On! A Gospel Musical embody DC's Black Theater at its best. In 2006, the Washington Post article closed stating, "Perhaps in the future it will strike oil as a theatrical production." The playwright since then has earned his MFA in playwriting from Hollins University and is bringing his A-game with a team of designers ready to strike oil.

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