Immersive Theater Experience Spotlights Black History

Join Alliance for New Music Theatre and Mt Zion – Female Union Band Historic Memorial Park for Voices of Zion, an original immersive music-theatre experience in Georgetown. The show premieres Friday, May 6 and will start at the historic cemeteries (2501 Mill Rd NW at the entrance off of Q & 27nd Streets) with a processional through Georgetown to Dumbarton Church, where more of the story unfolds. Performances will take place at 7 pm on Friday and Saturday evenings through May 21, with a special Memorial Day celebration at 2 pm on May 30. This original work honors Dumbarton United Methodist Church’s 250th anniversary and Mount Zion United Methodist Church, the area’s oldest African American congregation. Voices of Zion focuses on the 19th century history of Georgetown and layers the stories of several key figures whose experiences illustrate the complexities of Georgetown history – a community comprised of enslaved and freed men and women, who at times were living, working, and worshipping together. The work also exposes the rifts within the Old Methodist Church – between abolitionists and segregationists, slave owners and those they enslaved, and between Union and Confederate sympathizers.