The life of civil rights activists Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune will be brought to life in Richarda Abrams new play BETHUNE: Our Black Velvet Rose. Born in 1875 to former slaves, Bethune was denied the right to read as a young girl in the segregated Jim Crow South but she persevered and became a world-renowned educator, and a champion of civil rights and racial and gender equality. During her life she was an advisor to several American Presidents including Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), and Harry S. Truman, a successful businesswoman, and founded one of the first Historically Black Universities, Bethune-Cookman College in Florida.

What begins as a school class visit to Washington D.C. to the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall to see the famous statue of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune turns into a college student getting more than she bargained for as Bethune’s statue comes to life and transports them both back through time to 1884 and beyond.

Written by Richarda Abrams
Directed by Kathleen Brant
Music direction by Amina Claudine Myers

The cast includes Richarda Abrams (4-time AUDELCO award-winner), Stephanie Anuwe (Between the Pages/Amazon), Charles Black (Vieux Carré directed by Austin Pendleton), Bryan Hickey (Joseph Jefferson Award Nominee), Judy Jerome (27 Wagons Full of Cotton/St. Luke’s Theatre), and Samuel James Pygatt (Graduate Actors Studio/Pace University).

The creative team includes lighting design by Duncan Davies, projection design by Anna Kiraly, costume design by Sally Lesser (3 Emmy Awards/One Life to Live), scenic/properties design by Harlan Penn (Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros), sound design by Jeanne Travis (New York Innovative Theatre Award Winner), and fight director Dan Renkin (Metropolitan Opera).