A Bridge To The Promised Land: 1968
A Tale of our Times
A Bridge To The Promised Land: 1968 is a gut wrenching, multimedia theater experience composed by noted Black composer, Milton Williams.
A Play About Inequality and Discrimination
In 1972, Hubert Turner, the Black mayor of a large Southern city, grieves his wife while guiding his university-age daughter, Ginnie. Torn between national office, a Senate run, and remaining mayor, he faces a decision that tests both his ambition and principles.
Wealthy investors want to demolish the Dirksen Hotel, a refuge for people experiencing homelessness, and replace it with a parking garage. Ginnie leads a radical student group fighting the project, turning a public crisis into a painful conflict between a devoted father and the daughter determined to hold him accountable.
As citizens expose the inequality and discrimination dividing the city, protests escalate to gunfire.
Ultimately, the play appeals for love to overcome enduring hatred and injustice.
Commentary on the work of Milton Williams
(Producing Artistic Director)
"Transfigured Blues.... showed Williams to be an outstanding tunesmith who can also write in an operatic idiom with facility.... Williams is an extremely gifted melodist – a near extinct species."
San Jose Mercury News
"Milton Williams is a highly skilled conductor
and arranger and
a talented composer, His music is
free of gimmicks and pretensions."
Performing Arts in Canada
“His smooth deep voice pushed home the message beautifully.
The man could make a tax return sound like the Bible.”
Register-Pajaronian
"...the singer in the later section
(of Bernstein’s Mass) was
in fact another fine bass,
Milton Williams...”
Bruce-Michael Gelbert
TheaterScene.net, NYC
“WOW. That would be my initial scholarly assessment.... The concept is fantastic....”
Amy Henderson
(a Smithsonian Institution Curator Emeritus)
“Milton Williams was a master at the helm of orchestra, chorus, and soloists. He did an amazing job in this enormous undertaking.”
San Francisco Chronicle
"You could spend two years on Broadway without seeing anything more buoyant or more convincing. Milton Williams conducted the Oakland Symphony and others superbly."
Oakland Tribune
“The assured resonant Williams gave heft
and flesh to the title role.”
Los Angeles Times
