Rousuck's Review: "The Moment Was Now" by Cultural Worker Ensemble

It's Thursday, and time for theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck to join us with another of her weekly reviews of the region's thespian offerings. Today, she tells us about the musical play The Moment Was Now, a production of the Cultural Worker Ensemble that debuted in Baltimore last September and that is getting a reprise production at the Emmanual Episcopal Church through Sunday, March 8.A political fantasy set in post-Civil War Baltimore during a fateful turn in American history, The Moment Was Now imagines an 1869 meeting between civil rights champion Frederick Douglass and a high-powered group of Baltimore-based leaders of progressive social movements of the day -- all of whom actually knew one another. At this fictional meeting are women's voting rights evangelist Susan B. Anthony, black union organizer Isaac Myers, African American teacher and abolitionist Frances Harper, and white labor organizer William Sylvis.The Moment Was Now was conceived and produced by Maryland-based labor leader and playwright Gene Bruskin, in collaboration with director Darryl! LC Moch (who also plays Isaac Myers); musical director Glenn Pearson; and assistant musical director Chester Burke, Jr. The cast of The Cultural Worker Ensemble includes LeCount R. Holmes, Jr. (Frederick Douglass), Jenna Rose Stein (Susan B. Anthony), Ari Jacobson (William Sylvis), and Julia Nixon (Frances Harper).The Moment Was Now continues at Emmanuel Episcopal Church through Sunday March 8. For more information click here.Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.