Long Wharf Theatre, under the leadership of Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein and Managing Director Joan Channick, will present the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel's new play, A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration, directed by Tina Landau.
The play will run from Nov. 26 through Dec. 21, on the Mainstage. Ticket prices start at $32 with student and senior discounts available. Performances are Tuesdays at 7 p.m., Wednesdays, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Opening night is Wednesday, December 3, at 7:30 p.m.
The play is set in 1864, as Washington, D.C. settles down to the coldest Christmas Eve in years. In the White House, President and Mrs. Lincoln plot their gift-giving while on the banks of the Potomac, a young rebel collides with a Union blacksmith, and, in the alleys downtown, an escaped slave must separate from her daughter just before finding freedom.
Filled with Christmas music and traditional American songs, Vogel's new musical intertwines many lives and shows us that the gladness of one's heart is the best gift of all.
Having grown up in Maryland, the legacy of the Civil War was palpable for Vogel - all one had to do was drive across the countryside to see pastoral places once the sites of massive carnage. Years later, while working on her Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned to Drive, Vogel wondered why Americans chose to celebrate Christmas with a play about Victorian London. "Where are the American Christmas Carols?" Vogel wrote in a recent interview.
Vogel has spent the past decade attempting to create just that - a patriotic piece filled with period songs, exploring the larger themes of American life, including race, gender, freedom, inclusiveness, and forgiveness.
"It is Paula's biggest play, the first play she has attempted that is so large in scope," said Edelstein. "It is a play of size in its spirit and its heart. It takes what is great about us as Americans, dramatizes it and celebrates it."
An excerpt from A Civil War Christmas illustrates the breadth of feeling Edelstein talks about it. In it, an escaped slave named Hannah is exhorting her cold, tired daughter to push on towards Washington, D.C. and the freedom promised her by President Lincoln.
Jessa, her little girl, tells her she wants to go home. Hannah responds:
"It's not Home if you and I can't learn to read and write. It's not Home if we can't be with your father. It's not home if we can't go up the road without a paper we couldn't be taught to read saying we got permission to go up the road. So we're gonna find us Home. A Home where I don't have to watch your back when you get older, or worry about the Master selling one of us. Mr. Lincoln said we're free, and God gave us legs to walk. And when we find Mr. Lincoln's House, he's going to find us a home. . . .
She sings:
We'll hear the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of Peace on Earth, good-will to men!"
The cast of A Civil War Christmas includes Jay Russell, Diane Sutherland, Marc Damon Johnson, Ora Jones, Susannah Flood, Justin Blanchard, Bianca LaVerne Jones, Drew McVety, Rachel Shapiro Alderman, J.D. Goldblatt, Brian Tyree Henry, Scott Thomas, Guy Adkins, and local school children Melanky Walsh and Faith Philpot.
The creative team is comprised of James Schuette (sets), Toni-Leslie James (costumes), Scott Zielinski (lighting), Josh Horvath (sound), Daryl Waters (music supervisor), Andrew Resnick (music director), and Lori Lundquist (stage manager). -- www.longwharf.org
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