Contact: Shane Marshall Brown | Nina Marie Ward
AMERICAN PROPHET
FREDERICK DOUGLASS IN HIS OWN WORDS
Book, music, and lyrics by Marcus Hummon
Music direction, orchestrations and arrangements by Joseph Joubert
Book and direction by Charles Randolph-Wright
American Prophet, a new musical, is the story of Frederick Douglass and his relationship with three characters: abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, extremist John Brown, and President Abraham Lincoln. The story explores how Douglass embraced and rejected aspects of each of these towering individuals and emerged as a unique prophetic leader who helped defeat the South, end slavery, and fulminate for full equality for African American. American Prophet honors and celebrates Douglass' relationship with his formidable and loving wife Anna Murray, a heroic but largely ignored , at times even demeaned by historians.
American Prophet recently played a critically acclaimed world premiere at Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage. The Washington Post cheered, “in the beguiling American Prophet, Frederick Douglass lets freedom sing." The Wall Street Journal proclaimed American Prophet “a stirring musical. His words ring forth with scalding power.”