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D.C.'s Ford's Theatre to Hold Grand Reopening February 2009

Frank Wildhorn (© Joseph Marzullo/WENN)

The Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. will reopen February 2009, following an 18-month renovation that includes new seats, updated staging capabilities and enhanced accessibility. The reopening will be celebrated with one week of public and private events honoring Abraham Lincoln's life and legacy.

The Grand Reopening Celebration will be held February 11, with filmmaker George Lucas receiving the Lincoln Medal in honor of his accomplishments, which exemplify the character and lasting legacy of President Abraham Lincoln. There will be a Lincoln Bicentennial Commemoration on February 12, and a Ford's Theatre Open House and Lincoln Birthday Celebration on February 16, to include new Ranger-led interpretive programs, a reading of the one-act play The Road From Appomattox by Richard Hellesen, a performance of One Destiny, songs from The Civil War, and the launch of the Living Lincoln Series, a free Monday-night series exploring the many aspects of President Lincoln's personality and life through lectures, panels, play readings, and performances. Timed entry tours of the theatre will begin February 17, and The Ford's Theatre Museum will reopen in Spring 2009.

The first production in the theater will be the world premiere of James Still's The Heavens Are Hung in Black (February 3-March 8), about Abraham Lincoln in 1863, one of the most crucial years of his presidency. Stephen Rayne will direct. Next up will be the Frank Wildhorn-Gregory Boyd-Jack Murphy musical, The Civil War (March 27-May 24), to be directed by Jeff Calhoun. The show is inspired by the words of Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and Abraham Lincoln as well as the lives (as documented through letters, photographs and journals) of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

 

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