ETHIOPIA
MAY-JUNE, 2025
A WORLD PREMIERE
340 MAPLE DR - DC WATERFRONT | BALTIMORE THEATRE PROJECT
A Living Newspaper by Arthur Arent
A New Play by Sybil R. Williams
With New Music by Janelle Gill
Directed by Timothy Nelson
Music DIrection by Janelle Gill
Designed by Tsedaye Makonnen, Adrienne Gaither, Kathryn Kawecki
Lights by Alberto Segarra
Costumes by Rakell Foye
The long-awaited world premiere of the first “living newspaper,” Ethiopia concludes the 2024-25 season. The work was banned by the Roosevelt administration and never performed, until now. Written in 1937, this production fuses theater and music to tell the hot-off-the-press story of Italy’s colonialist attack on Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia while the world stayed silent. “Ethiopia” runs May 17 – June 1 at Greenberg Theatre and Baltimore Theatre Project. This reconstruction, with vivid new texts, is the brainchild of DC writer Sybil R. Williams (“Stormy Weather,” “Alceste”) who has teamed up with DC composer and pianist Janelle Gill (“Desdemona,” “Chuck and Eva”) to imagine a new musical realization inspired by the music of Emahoy Tsege, an Ethiopian luminary artist known as “the honky tonk nun.” Williams and Gill expand the vision of the original work to explore how America’s Black and Brown communities responded to Europe’s aggression, and particularly the story of Mayme Richardson, a leading black soprano that became an activist for the Ethiopian causes. Jazz, classical, and African music blend and soar in this history-making musical moment.
supported in part by
GENEROUS GIFTS FROM
Leslie Anderson, Eden Brown,
Michael Burke, Jamie Craft,
Rebecca Klemm, Vivek Srivastava,
Jack & Stephanie Ventura
Featuring
Marvin Wayne Allen III
Ezinne Elele
Elise Jenkins
Madison Norwood
Shana Oshiro
Daniel J. Smith
Nakia Verner
PERFORMANCE DATES
340 MAPLE DR - DC WATERFRONT/WHARF
May 16 at 7:30pm - Board Night Reception to Follow
May 17 at 2:30pm - Talk-back to Follow
May 17 at 7:30pm
May 18 at 2:30pm - Talk-back to Follow
May 18 at 7:30pm
BALTIMORE THEATRE PROJECT
May 30 at 7:30pm
May 31 at 7:30pm
June 1 at 2:30pm
INDIVIDUAL TICKETS ON SALE SOON
