Gilbert Moses III (August 20, 1942 – April 15, 1995) was an American director. He was also known for his work in the Civil Rights movement, as a staff member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and founder of the touring company, the

Free Southern Theater The Free Southern Theater (FST) was a community theater group founded in 1963 at Tougaloo College in Madison County, Mississippi, by Gilbert Moses, Denise Nicholas, Doris Derby, and John O’Neal. The company manager was Mary Lovelace, later Chair ...

toured the South during the 1960s.

Early life

Moses was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and began acting as a child at Karamu House. He studied at

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

and spent a year at the Sorbonne University in Paris, before leaving college to join the civil rights movement.

Career

Moses was the co-founder of the

company, an important pioneer of African-American theatre. His 1971 Broadway debut, '' Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death'', won him a Tony Award nomination and the

Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. Fo ...

for Most Promising Director. In 1976, he and George Faison teamed to co-direct and choreograph the ill-fated

Alan Jay Lerner Alan Jay Lerner (August 31, 1918 – June 14, 1986) was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, and later Burton Lane, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre bot ...

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

'' 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue'', which closed after seven performances. Moses'

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

work as a director won him an

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...

for

Amiri Baraka Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous bo ...

's ''Slave Ship'' (1969) and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for ''The Taking of Miss Janie'' (1975). Among Moses' television credits are '' Benson'', '' Ghostwriter'', ''

The Paper Chase The Paper Chase (stylized as "the pAper chAse") was an American alternative rock band formed in 1998 by producer/engineer John Congleton in Dallas, Texas, who were signed to Kill Rock Stars and Southern Records. Their albums ''God Bless Your Blac ...

'', ''

Law & Order ''Law & Order'' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment, launching the '' Law & Order'' franchise. ''Law & Order'' aired its entire run on NBC, premiering on ...

'', several episodes of the mini-series '' Roots'', and a number of television movies. His only feature films were '' Willie Dynamite'' (1974) and '' The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh'' (1979).

Personal life

Moses was married three times, to actress

Denise Nicholas Denise Donna Nicholas (born July 12, 1944) is an American actress, author, and social activist. Nicholas is known primarily for her roles as high-school guidance counselor Liz McIntyre on the ABC comedy-drama series ''Room 222'' and Councilwoman ...

, Wilma Butler, and singer

Dee Dee Bridgewater Dee Dee Bridgewater (née Denise Garrett, May 27, 1950) is an American jazz singer and actress. She is a three-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award-winning stage actress. For 23 years, she was the host of National ...

, and had two daughters, Tsia and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Death

Moses died of

multiple myeloma Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone pain, an ...

on April 15, 1995 in New York City. He was 52 years old.

References

External links

* * * *Warren, Robert Penn
Interview with Gilbert Moses and John O'Neal
c.1964 in ''Who Speaks for the Negro?'' Digital Archive of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities and the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries at Vanderbilt University based on collections at University of Kentucky and Yale University Libraries. {{DEFAULTSORT:Moses, Gilbert 1942 births 1995 deaths African-American film directors African-American television directors American film directors American television directors American theatre directors Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Deaths from multiple myeloma Artists from Cleveland 20th-century African-American people