Photos: First Look at AMERICAN PROPHET: FREDERICK DOGLASS IN HIS OWN WORDS at Arena Stage

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is now presenting the world-premiere musical American Prophet: Frederick Douglass in His Own Words, which kicks off the historic theater's "Surviving and Thriving"-themed 2022/23 Season.

Powered by Frederick Douglass' own speeches and writings, and filled with soaring new melodies, this riveting new musical stars Cornelius Smith Jr. (ABC's Scandal, All My Children) and Kristolyn Lloyd (Broadway's Dear Evan Hansen, CBS's The Bold and the Beautiful) as freedom fighters Frederick and Anna Douglass, exploring Douglass' rise from slavery to national prominence, and from forced illiteracy to the heights of literary and oratorical renown.

Created by Charles Randolph-Wright (Arena's Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story, Broadway's Trouble in Mind, Motown the Musical) and Grammy Award winner Marcus Hummon ("Bless the Broken Road," "Born to Fly"), American Prophet is the recipient of a prestigious Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, with choreography by Lorna Ventura and music direction, orchestrations and additional arrangements by Joseph Joubert, American Prophet will run July 15 - August 28, 2022 in the Kreeger Theater. Press night will be held on Thursday, July 28 at 8 p.m.

American Prophet stars Cornelius Smith Jr. as Frederick Douglass alongside Kristolyn Lloyd as the fierce abolitionist's wife, Anna Douglass.

Returning to Arena Stage are Carolyn Agan (Arena Stage Cabaret Nights), Kurt Boehm (Carousel, Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story), Thomas Adrian Simpson (Disney's Newsies, Anything Goes) and Kanysha Williams (Step Afrika!'s Drumfolk). Joining the cast and making their Arena Stage debuts are Erica Aubrey (Playwrights Horizons' Far From Heaven), Zoë Bryant (Howard University's Flying West), Cicily Daniels (Broadway's Once on This Island), Christopher B. Portley (Cleveland Play House's Antigone), Christopher Michael Richardson (Woolly Mammoth's A Strange Loop), Chris Roberts (Broadway's The Civil War), Brendon Schaefer (Imagination Stage's P.Nokio: A Hip-Hop Musical), Correy West (Broadway's Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations) and Curtis Wiley (Broadway's Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations).