Obama on My Mind is a powerful combo of music, humor and politics where story and song blend with hilarious circumstances. This U.S Premiere musical tells how a passionate group of larger than life oddball characters start to panic when the new vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, enters the race and Obama falls 20 points in the polls. Pop, gospel, jazz, and soft rock come together in a politically inspired comedic romp featuring a motley crew of loyal, obsessive and downright peculiar personalities, striving to get their candidate into the White House.
Obama on My Mind is directed by Jacqueline Moscou
Jacqueline Moscou, Artistic Director
Jacqueline Moscou is artistic director of Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center and an affiliate artist at Intiman, where—in addition to the annual production of Black Nativity—her credits include Intimate Apparel, Crowns, A Raisin in the Sun, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Having Our Say, Flyin’ West and From the Mississippi Delta. A veteran performer on most Seattle stages, Ms. Moscou shifted her focus to directing in 1989. For the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, she has directed Death of a Salesman with an all-African American cast and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, and established many new programs including a hip-hop series called “Back to Its Roots,” an African American film festival, and an annual fundraiser illuminating the works of Langston Hughes. Her other credits include the world premiere of her own play Keepers of the Dream, Lady Day… and the long-running production of A…My Name Is Still Alice (all at The Group Theatre); Spunk and Takunda (Seattle Rep); Blues for an Alabama Sky (ACT Theatre); Stalking Horse and Runaways (Langston Hughes); Dragonwings (Northwest Asian Theatre); Agnes of God (Cornish College); Blues for an Alabama Sky, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe and Valley Song (Portland Center Stage); Cryptogram (City Theatre) and Electra (De Paul University Theatre School). Her work has also been seen at Penumbra Theatre, Horizon Theatre, Crossroads Theatre and Kuntu Theatre in Pittsburgh, where she directed the second production of her play Keepers of the Dream.
Teddy Hayes, writer/Composer
Best known as the author of the Harlem-based Devil Barnett series of detective novels, Teddy Hayes is a talented force in a number of creative fields. His experiences range from working as a scriptwriter for Melvin Van Peebles and directing music videos to writing and producing plays and musical shows. An accomplished singer and composer, Hayes has written music inspired by the Devil Barnett books and is the creative force behind a touring stage tribute to the work of Marvin Gaye.
Inspired by the example of Melvin Van Peebles, who lived in France for many years, and by writers like Richard Wright and Chester Himes, who both spent time in Europe, Hayes decided to try living and working overseas. “I’d been doing the same things in America for a long time, and I knew I could sell my skills in another part of the world,” Hayes told CBB. After his original plans to move to Germany fell through, he traveled to London in 1996 and found work making videos.
Hayes balanced a number of different projects, acting as executive producer for a rap/R&B act and teaching creative writing classes through the London borough of Harrow. He recently completed a suspense thriller, Case No. 603, which he plans to release on DVD. Work continues on the Devil Barnett series. Hayes has written a screenplay for Blood Red Blues and has begun work on the fourth book in the series, Graveyard Samba, which sees the detective traveling to Brazil. Hayes has also overseen the development of a Devil Barnett comic strip, which appears on the World of Devil Barnett website. In 2002 Hayes created I Remember Marvin, a Marvin Gaye tribute stage show that toured Britain that year and Germany in the summer of 2003, with Hayes performing, as well as producing, in some of the early shows. In 2003 he completed work on an original musical show, The Baskerville Beast, based on The Hound of Baskerville by Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle.
