SPARTAN NEW MUSICALS: A WORLD-PREMIERE MUSICAL SHORT FILM

ONE WEEK AT WOOLWORTHS

Music and Lyrics by J. Quinton Johnson
Screenplay by Melvin Tunstall, III
Directed by Kemari Bryant

Dates: On-demand streaming September 2-4
Tickets: Call the UNCG Theatre Box Office at 336-334-4392 starting August 17 or click here to purchase tickets online.
Age Rating: PG
Frame/Works Discussion via Zoom: 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 7
Run Time: 35 minutes
Location: On-demand streaming

Programs, bios, and more!

Summary:

February 1, 1960. Inspired by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, four Black students at North Carolina A&T University sit down at the lunch counter inside of the Greensboro H.W. Woolworths, ask to purchase coffee and are refused. Day by day their movement grows, as they are joined by more A&T students, then others from Dudley High School, Bennett College and three white women from the Woman’s College (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro). Based on the incredible events of the Civil Rights movement, this original musical short film by composer J. Quinton Johnson (Hamilton) and screenwriter Melvin Tunstall, III (Beautiful, the Carol King Musical) explores the legacy of the Greensboro Four, the importance of meaningful allyship, and the continued fight for social justice today.

This project was commissioned as part of Spartan New Musicals by the UNCG School of Theatre and Musical Theatre Program during the 2020-21 production season. Spartan New Musicals was conceived as a Covid-safe production alternative for musical theatre students, with the goal of centering writers whose voices have been marginalized in the American musical theatre.  All musical numbers were safely audio pre-recorded and filmed during April of 2021. In order to maintain a Covid-safe environment, the group scenes were filmed as a staged reading in August of 2021.

This musical short film is just the beginning of a larger development process for this original musical work. Please reach out to [email protected] if you are interested in partnering with us on the continued development of One Week at Woolworths.