I'm playing Abraham Lincoln in a play about the Emancipation Proclamation!

I don't have time to do full justice to this announcement, but I wanted to make sure I put it in a permanent place (as permanent, anyway, as the Internet can be).

Earlier this year, Boria Entertainment sent me to an audition for a play titled "Human Cargo," produced by the INCARN ministry of the Mount Pisgah Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY. It was about the history and experience of African slaves brought to America. I wound up getting cast as a slave ship captain and a slave hunter. It was a very intense play and my characters were among the worst people I have ever known. I was proud to be a part of it, though, as it was an important part of history and a very moving play. I also got a lot of good work knocking the rust off of my acting chops, being in a bitchin' fight, and even doing a little dance work in the rehearsals.

This was followed by my role as General William Tecumseh Sherman in this organization's next play, "Honorable distinction. This wa about the Black experience in the American Civil War. In addition to playing the general who conceived the plan that came to be characterized as "40 Acres and a Mule," I also played harmonica with the keyboardist during the musical numbers,as background, and during interludes. I also got to teach the actors playing the 54th Mass. "The Battle Cry of Freedom" and the rebel soldiers "Bonnie Blue Flag" and sing it with them.

Now, in the third play of this trilogy, "Emancipated Glory," I play the great emancipator himself in the months leading up to the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The play is being performed on December 30th and 31st at the Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church. Details and a brief diary of the experience to follow.