The story will include scenes, many taken directly from historic records.
On Sunday April 6 at 3 p.m. and Wednesday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m. (on DC Emancipation Day), New Music-Theatre returns to Dumbarton United Methodist Church in Georgetown to offer Workshop-Recitals of an original work of music-theater celebrating not just the historic accomplishment of Georgetown’s African American community in leveraging their long fight to win emancipation for the District nine months before Lincoln’s Proclamation of 1863 but also the first votes cast legally by African American men in Georgetown’s Rose Park, in the then richly populated Black Georgetown.
Leading the creative team is DC composer Ronald "Trey" Walton III. The new project marks Walton’s second commission by New Music-Theatre. Walton’s music draws from classical music traditions and training, but he also has an ear tuned to the rhythms and energy of today’s young audiences.
Music Director Evelyn Simpson Curenton, a nationally revered musician who has worked with opera superstars including Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman and who is steeped in the tradition of historic Black church music, will also lead piano/vocal score workshop readings and an open orchestral workshop.