
The Heavens are Hung in Black
To celebrate our grand reopening and the bicentennial of President Lincoln’s birth, Ford’s Theatre has commissioned a new play, The Heavens Are Hung In Black by award-winning playwright James Still. Heavens will be the first play offered in the newly renovated Ford’s Theatre.
Highlighting the five months between the death of Lincoln’s son Willie and the delivery of the Emancipation Proclamation, Heavens will offer audiences a glimpse into the person who was Abraham Lincoln. Faced with unbearable personal, political and historical pressures, Lincoln copes with the world around him and eventually, through an amazing transformation of thinking, conquers it. Don’t miss this exciting world premiere perfect to reopen the historic Ford’s Theatre.
Artistic Team
Cast

David Selby
Abraham Lincoln

Benjamin Cook
Tad Lincoln

Jonathan Fielding
John Hay, Lincoln’s personal secretary

Scott Westerman
Ward Lamon, Marshal/Billy Brown

David Emerson Toney
Dred Scott/Uncle Tom/Butler/Solider

Michael Goodwin
Walt Whitman

Steven Carpenter
Union Major/Exeter

Norman Aronovic
John Brown/Canterbury

Robin Mosley
Mary Todd Lincoln

Hugh Nees
Stephen Douglas and Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War

Edward James Hyland
Secretary of State William Seward/Jefferson Davis

Beth Hylton
Mrs. Winston/Young Woman

Chaney Tullos
Thomas Haley

Benjamin Schiffbauer
Young Solider

James Chatham
Willie Lincoln/Newsboy

Jonathan Watkins
Bates