Here’s part of the band jammin’ out on me and Justin Ellington’s original funk song “Leave.” On bass is Namir Smallwood in the role of DP, on the stairs is the very gifted Traci Allen as Ruby, and belting out the soulful lead vocals is Keith Hale as Big Ced’.
Five Fingers of Funk:
Book and lyrics by [...]
Here’s a photo from the Minneapolis production. It features the fabulous Edwin Lee Gibson (who also played Oedipus in The Seven). Here he is as Boogie Jones, the funk superstar that every aspiring musician wants to groove with!
Here’s a short promo video that the Star-Tribune produced on my new musical Five Fingers of Funk. It features a combination of stills and video, plus some audio from the show-it’s good, but it only hints at the richness in the piece. To experiience the full effect of the funk, you have to check out [...]
Five Fingers of funk is new musical I’m working on, book and lyrics by me, music composed by me and Justin Ellington (who is also the piece’s music director and ochestrator), and directed by Derrick Sanders. The musical, a soulful, complex look at a young, ambitious funk band in the 1970s, had its world premiere [...]
This is an exciting new project that I’m collaborating on with my man Mohammed Bilal at 24/7 town hall.org. It’s our take on Dear Abby I guess-maybe you have a question you’d like to ask the Mighty O.S.R.? (Which stands for Old School Rapper of course)-In any case, as the O.S.R. would say-Stay Fresh!
Direct link [...]
I am now represented by The American Program Bureau for speaking engagements at Universities and select high schools throughout the country and abroad. For more info on how to book me for a lecture at your school or institution, please visit Will Power on the American Program Bureau website. The link also features a lively [...]
Here’s me performing and speaking in Bristol, PA. I’m opening the presentation with a freestyle. By the end of the night, we were eating indian food and engaging in a lively discussion. Freestyle rhymes, theatre, and vegetable curry? You know it!
This is a clip of me speaking with high school students in Camden New Jersey. Camden is considered one of the most challenging places to grow up as far as poverty levels and what not, yet these young folks were very much alive and focussed in ways that were truly inspiring. I taught them, but learned [...]
Will Power in Residence at Bristol Riverside Theatre 4
A short excerpt from the the Bristol Middle School students’ final performance. Though I gave them the tools and direted the play, it was ultimately the young ones themselves who wrote the script, created the choreography, and performed its final version (many of them on stage for [...]
Bristol Middle School Students and myself, working on the basics of storytelling. In order to lead them further into the concept of theatrically utilizing music and rhythm to create theatre, I ask them to make a scene using only verse or other musical elements as the basis for the scene’s language
YouTube link: Will Power in Residence [...]
