Gabrielle Fulton Ponder

Gabrielle Fulton Ponder

Gabrielle Fulton Ponder is a playwright, filmmaker, and television writer. Her play Uprising received a Rolling World Premiere at Atlanta’s Horizon Theatre Company and in the D.C. Women’s Voices Theatre Festival at MetroStage. In 2014 Gabrielle was a winner of the Alliance Theatre’s inaugural Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab where her work was presented on the Tony Award-winning theatre’s Hertz Stage. She was the...
Gabrielle Fulton Ponder is a playwright, filmmaker, and television writer. Her play Uprising received a Rolling World Premiere at Atlanta’s Horizon Theatre Company and in the D.C. Women’s Voices Theatre Festival at MetroStage. In 2014 Gabrielle was a winner of the Alliance Theatre’s inaugural Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab where her work was presented on the Tony Award-winning theatre’s Hertz Stage. She was the 2011-2012 National New Play Network’s Playwright-in-Residence at Horizon Theatre Company. Her plays include In The Pocket, Uprising, Adinkra Play, Sweet Dill, Redemption’s Road, MILF, The Seed Planter, Jill Fell Down, Death of Lightning Bugs, Carrying the Mother Load, and Shape of Faith.

Gabrielle’s dramatic short Ir/Reconcilable was an official selection of the American Black Film Festival in New York City. Ir/Reconcilable was one of five finalists showcased in the festival’s HBO Short Film Competition. Starring Jasmine Guy, Crystal Fox, Danielle Deadwyler, and Dick Gregory, the film received a broadcast deal and aired on HBO. Gabrielle has also directed a documentary short, If We So Choose, about the 1964 public accommodations protests to integrate The Varsity restaurant in Athens, GA. Other “non-scripted” work includes a television pilot for an international singing competition show, The Center, and her Hip Hop Diaspora project which was optioned by MTV Networks.

Gabrielle earned a BA in History-Sociology from Columbia University in the City of New York and an MFA in Writing for the Screen & Stage from Northwestern University. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America.

Plays

  • In The Pocket (In Development) by Gabrielle Fulton Ponder
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: drama, musical
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    Keyword: Neosoul, Atlanta + 6 more
    Genre: drama, musical
    Keyword: Neosoul, Atlanta, music, Bands, artistic ambitions, creativity, loyalty, The Price of Success
    DEVELOPMENT STAGE:
    This play has two readings and one workshop under its belt.

    SYNOPSIS:
    When opportunity knocks, do you stay true to those who groomed you? Or soar solo, like every other shooting star?

    IN THE POCKET is a musical play set during a time when rhythm and poetry flowed through the veins of Hotlanta. When Nomadic, a fiery but untrained vocalist, saunters...
    DEVELOPMENT STAGE:
    This play has two readings and one workshop under its belt.

    SYNOPSIS:
    When opportunity knocks, do you stay true to those who groomed you? Or soar solo, like every other shooting star?

    IN THE POCKET is a musical play set during a time when rhythm and poetry flowed through the veins of Hotlanta. When Nomadic, a fiery but untrained vocalist, saunters into the rehearsal of the city’s hottest band, it’s not just her sultry voice and overly confident veneer that changes this talented group of musicians. She ignites a spark within the band and her arrival challenges the very foundations of their relationships and dreams.

    Themes of ambition, loyalty, passion, the price of success, and the bonds that music can create—and destroy are explored in this new work. Against the backdrop of Atlanta's late 90's neo-soul music movement (a genre that blends jazz, funk, rock and hip-hop with the raw emotion of gospel-inspired soul), characters navigate the complexities of the music industry, their personal lives, and their visions for the future.
  • UPRISING by Gabrielle Fulton Ponder
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    7–10
    ·
    Genre: drama, period
    ·
    Keyword: African American women, mother + 4 more
    Genre: drama, period
    Keyword: African American women, mother, african american history, slavery, Fugitive Slave Act, Freedom
    When Sal discovers a hypnotic revolutionary hiding in the field, she and her free Black community will never be the same. The passion of this man-on-the-run from John Brown’s Raid thrusts her into a contentious romance and a desperate journey to save a boy and the poetry of her own spirit. A sweeping story laced with sweet touches of magical realism and blues rooted tunes gives new expression to true love and freedom on your own terms.