The Port Tobacco Players celebrated their 4th of July by performing selections from their upcoming featured show, 1776 at the Thomas Stone House.
Led by the director, Joselle Gilpin and the producer, Liz Mildenstein, the Port Tobacco Players tell a tale from the view point of John Adams, who is trying to convince his fellow patriots to vote for independence from Great Britain and sign the Declaration of Independence.
“It’s kind of a fun history versus a dry reading of history that most people see,” said Gilpin.
The musical 1776 has music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and book by Peter Stone. The show was nominated for five Tony awards and won three after its premiere on Broadway in 1969. One of the awards included Best Musical.
Port Tobacco Players will be performing 1776 from July 15th to August 7th on Fridays, Saturdays at 8pm and Sunday matinees at 3pm. Tickets are $18 for adults and $15 for seniors, youths, and military.
Port Tobacco’s production includes the musical direction of Zack Ball and the choreography of Ben Simpson.
“This is really the story of the fight to get that Declaration even voted on,” said Gilpin. “It took them a number of years…Some of the colonies did not want independence. They wanted to stay with England. And this was how they could get that vote taken and the fight to get all the colonies to agree on. And once it was agreed on, they signed it.”
The 1776 cast filled the Thomas Stone House with their voices, singing the selections, “Sit Down, John”, “Piddle, Twiddle”, “Yours, Yours, Yours”, and “But, Mr. Adams” from Act I of the show.
Gilpin didn’t hesitant to say “yes” right away when the Thomas Stone House asked the cast to perform. The historic site somewhat found its way in the 1776 story.
“Thomas Stone did sign the Declaration of Independence,” said Gilpin. “Now he is not in the show because he wasn’t there that day… Thomas Stone signed it right here at the Thomas Stone House. So it’s kind of neat that we are here to sing today on July 4th when it was coming around here.”
The Thomas Stone House wasn’t the only place interested in having the 1776 cast perform for the public.
On Friday, July 1st, the cast performed at the Port Tobacco Courthouse and on Saturday July 9th, they will be performing at the Blue Crabs Stadium.
“I always feel that if you see something like this, it may make you look back to the history and read more about it,” said Gilpin.
Gilpin made some decisions unique to the Port Tobacco Players production of 1776.
“We haven’t changed anything from the original but we did open casting. We are not a completely white cast… Thankfully something like Hamilton has broken the barriers,”
Gilpin also praised her technical staff for being the backbone of the show and making each scene look its best.
“When we first discussed how the show would look, I originally thought we would recreate Independence Hall in the theatre,” said Gilpin. “But we went a little bit creative with it and we have a moving set which is something we’ve never done before.”
Tommy Scott, who has previously won awards for his lighting, will be doing lighting for the production. And Quentin Nash Sagers is the costume designer.
1776 will premiere on the Port Tobacco stage for the third time in the history of the theatre and Gilpin is ready for both adults and kids to enjoy the show.
“I think this is a good show kids can come to… For grade school kids that study the Declaration of Independence, it’s probably a nice show for them to come and see. I think they’ll have a lot of fun.”
