gene bruskin

gene bruskin

Gene Bruskin is a poet, songwriter and playwright. In the 1970s Gene co-authored and produced two musicals that played in Boston community settings. He also interned with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. In 1978 Gene became president of a Boston Steelworkers local union. Following that he spent almost 40 years as a union organizer, writing songs and poems for various occasions, At the end of 2012 Gene retired...
Gene Bruskin is a poet, songwriter and playwright. In the 1970s Gene co-authored and produced two musicals that played in Boston community settings. He also interned with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. In 1978 Gene became president of a Boston Steelworkers local union. Following that he spent almost 40 years as a union organizer, writing songs and poems for various occasions, At the end of 2012 Gene retired and began writing the story and music (collaborating on the music with Tom Smerling and Glenn Pearson) for a musical comedy. In the summer of 2016 Gene produced the show, Pray for the Dead –A Musical Tale of Moguls, Moguls and Mutiny. The play, for and about workers, was shown as a professionally rehearsed dramatic musical reading at union halls and in community venues in the DC and Maryland area. It has played in a 30 minute radio drama version on public radio stations across the US and Canada..
In 2019 and 2020 Gene wrote and produced an original musical, The Moment Was Now, in Baltimore in collaboration with Director Daryl! LC Moch, and musical directors Glenn Pearson and Chester Burke Jr. The musical takes places in 1869 post Civil War Boston and, using original words from the characters, tells the story of a time when "America almost did the right thing" during this pivotal moment in US history
He lives in Silver Spring, MD with his wife and daughter.

Plays

  • THE RETURN OF JOHN BROWN
    The Return of John Brown is a new musical drama, with 10 songs, set in the present, that centers on the mysterious reemergence of John Brown in the area near Charles Town, VA, the site of his hanging in 1859. The story opens with Brown climbing out of his grave to the music from the renowned song, “John Brown’s body lies a moldering in his grave.” The play combines original music, dance drama and humor with...
    The Return of John Brown is a new musical drama, with 10 songs, set in the present, that centers on the mysterious reemergence of John Brown in the area near Charles Town, VA, the site of his hanging in 1859. The story opens with Brown climbing out of his grave to the music from the renowned song, “John Brown’s body lies a moldering in his grave.” The play combines original music, dance drama and humor with history and mystery, as Brown is captured, brought on trial again and threatened with yet another hanging. Brown’s legendary opposition to slavery becomes the subject of his trial as the past and the present intertwine before the exasperated judge.
    The plot twists when Brown’s unlikely plan to escape emerges as he convinces Black and White farmers to unite in their fight to save their land against the incursion of the Smoke and Mirrors pipeline company and its wheeler dealer CEO, Louie King, nicknamed King Louie.

    Brown’s attorneys are the great great grandchildren of his old friends, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, in a trial that mingles Brown’s pre-civil war exploits with the continuation of the struggles against white supremacy today, expressed through rap, song, dance and arguments from Brown’s writings and speeches
    THE RETURN OF JOHN BROWN emerges on the 160th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. It combines the power of Brown’s inspiration with an intriguing musical tale in the present that illustrates the need to challenge the enduring destructiveness of racism by building a unified multi-racial social justice movement.
    (NOTE-full draft of script and recorded music completed--no readings or workshop yet set.
  • The Moment Was Now
    The Moment Was Now is an original musical play that takes place in post-civil war Baltimore in 1869, a turning point in US history when ‘America almost did the right thing.’ The Moment ran in Baltimore in September 2019 and returned in February/March 2020 to commemorate Black History and Women’s History months. The musical echoes the current moment, and centers on the impassioned search for unity between the...
    The Moment Was Now is an original musical play that takes place in post-civil war Baltimore in 1869, a turning point in US history when ‘America almost did the right thing.’ The Moment ran in Baltimore in September 2019 and returned in February/March 2020 to commemorate Black History and Women’s History months. The musical echoes the current moment, and centers on the impassioned search for unity between the dynamic leaders of powerful movements for civil rights, economic rights and women’s rights during the Reconstruction era. The conflicts and possibilities unfold at a meeting convened by Frederick Douglass of Susan B. Anthony, Isaac Myers, William Sylvis and Frances Harper, with Robber Baron Jay Gould lurking in the background. The Story is elevated by the musical and spoken word format. Hope hangs in the balance.
  • Pray for the Dead-A Musical Tale of Morgues, Moguls and Mutiny
    A musical comical allegory about an unlikely uprising spurred by morgue workers facing collective calamity in an unknown 21st century country. The play unfolds as a story told by a mysterious cleaning woman (“Old Lady”) who intervenes on unfolding events. Amidst a financial crisis, morgue workers at the Dug Graves Funeral Home face severe cuts in salary. Led by Johann and Benita’s Sisters of the Spirit clan...
    A musical comical allegory about an unlikely uprising spurred by morgue workers facing collective calamity in an unknown 21st century country. The play unfolds as a story told by a mysterious cleaning woman (“Old Lady”) who intervenes on unfolding events. Amidst a financial crisis, morgue workers at the Dug Graves Funeral Home face severe cuts in salary. Led by Johann and Benita’s Sisters of the Spirit clan they decide to save the business by burying corrupt members of parliament. “Accidental” deaths follow and the panicked government closes, leading to a revolt against the .1%, the “Vault/Vaultures.” Sweeney Todd meets Norma Rae.
    Note: there is a 30 minute radio drama version of the play.