THE RETURN OF JOHN BROWN by
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 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.