The Boston Massacre Comes to Life in Revolutionary New Play
Blood on the Snow, a new play by Patrick Gabridge, will premiere this spring in the very room the discussion took place 250 years ago. Four civilians lie dead, and eight more have been wounded by the King's soldiers. As tensions rise in the streets, Acting Governor Thomas Hutchinson faces an impossible choice. "There are no cardboard heroes or villains in this story-just real people struggling to respond to an unimaginable tragedy by doing the right thing," states Nathaniel Sheidley, Director of Public History. Through partnership between the Bostonian Society and the National Park Service, Blood on the Snow will have a workshop presentation on March 7th followed by a full production running May 12 - May 29.
On March 6, 1770, Boston's leaders struggled to heal their town, but perhaps unwittingly placed Massachusetts on the road to revolution. Acting Governor Thomas Hutchinson was presented with a stark choice - he has no legal authority to remove the troops and was convinced that doing so will encourage the seeds of rebellion and strengthen mob rule in Boston. One by one, his allies desert him, leaving him alone to face an impossible decision. Must he give in to the demands to prevent another night of bloodshed? What happens next could save a city or destroy an empire.
The Bostonian Society is also partnering with Boston Public Schools throughout the production to transform history education for local students. The script and the history it dramatizes, submits itself to many interpretations, some bearing heavily on contemporary issues: police brutality, the Marathon bombing, the Arab spring, the American occupation of Baghdad and other places around the world.
After exploring these themes in the classroom with the guidance of Patrick Gabridge, and director - Courtney O'Connor, and the Bostonian Society, the students are then invited to the Council Chamber to perform a dramatic reading of the script, and to meet the cast and production team after the show. Patrick Gabridge has written numerous plays, including Distant Neighbors, Fire on Earth, Flight, Constant State of Panic, Blinders, and Reading the Mind of God, which have been staged by theatres across the country.
Gabridge has just released his third novel: Steering to Freedom: From Slave to Civil War Hero. He has been a playwriting fellow with the Huntington and New Rep, and is a current member of Boston's Rhombus Playwrights writers' group and the Dramatists Guild. Gabridge serves on the board of StageSource and the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund. The Bostonian Society is dedicated to studying, and preserving Boston's uniquely important history, embodied in materials, records, and structures such as the Old State House, and in sharing an understanding of the revolutionary ideas born here.
For more information please visit: ?www.BloodOnTheSnow.com
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