The Moses Gunn Norman Marshall Play Company, based in Guilford, CT, was founded by Gwendolyn Gunn and Norman Thomas Marshall in honor of acclaimed actor Moses Gunn, a longtime Guilford resident whose legacy continues to inspire local artists. The company presents staged and concert-style readings of both classic and contemporary plays in local venues such as the Guilford Free Library. Its mission is to celebrate storytelling, foster cultural engagement, and bring high-quality, intimate theatrical experiences to the shoreline community, often through donation-based performances.

Moses Gunn & Norman Marshall

Powered by a collective of professional thespians,

The Moses Gunn/Norman Marshall Play Company brings

rich play readings to the shoreline of CT and looks forward

to you joining us for a reading soon.

Your Questions,
Answered

What’s Next?

Summer Fundraiser with Live Performances June 20th
Fall Readings:
Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Willoughby Library in Stony Creek 9/17
Neil Simon’s I Oughta Be in Pictures at Evergreen Woods Theater in North Branford 11/16
An Alan Ayckborn chestnut for a holiday offering back at Guilford Library in December. Stay tuned!

What Just Happened?

May 15th at 6pm Primi Carey and Marion Gittleman talked with Mike Boland on wpkn live radio about the upcoming Tribute for Norman Marshall! https://wpkn.org/
May 30th at Guilford Library at 2pm We honored the inimitable Norman Thomas Marshall with a celebratory tribute of his words, his favorite writer’s words and some of the theater that formed the bedrock of his theatrical career.
April 16th at Wolcott Library at 6pm Julie Fitzpatrick performed “An Evening with Emily Dickinson” - sharing segments of “The Belle of Amherst” by William Luce and a lecture on the craft of acting and solo performance.
April 4th at Guilford Library at 2pm Actress Primi Townsend will present excerpts from the “Shirley Valentine” - a warm, witty one-woman play by Willy Russell about an ordinary woman who dares to imagine a bigger life. Funny, poignant, and deeply human, the play celebrates self-discovery, courage, and the possibility of change at any age.

Who are the actors in your company?

Our core group of actors is a professional ensemble with credits ranging from the West End to Broadway to television and film to regional theater.

Who were Moses Gunn and Norman Marshall?

Moses Gunn: (1929-1993) Moses Gunn was an acclaimed American stage, film, and television actor known for his commanding voice, classical training, and groundbreaking work in Black theater. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1929, Gunn studied at Tennessee State University before earning a master’s degree in theater from the University of Kansas. He rose to prominence in the early 1960s as part of the landmark Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet’s The Blacks, alongside many of the era’s leading Black actors. Gunn became a founding member of the influential Negro Ensemble Company, which helped transform American theater by creating major opportunities for Black playwrights and performers. Equally respected for Shakespeare and contemporary drama, he performed with the New York Shakespeare Festival and appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in regional theaters across the country. Film and television audiences knew him from roles in Shaft, Ragtime, The NeverEnding Story, and the television series Good Times and Father Murphy. Later in life, Gunn lived in Guilford, Connecticut, where he remained active in theater and arts communities until his death in 1993. His artistic legacy continues through the Moses Gunn Play Company, founded in his honor.

GUNN’S THEATRE CREDITS INCLUDE:

Negro Ensemble Company, NYC/ Obie Award/ Tony Award

Broadway “Othello”

FILM CREDITS INCLUDE: “Ragtime”/ “Heartbreak Ridge”/ Bumpy Jones in “Shaft”

TV CREDITS INCLUDE:

Joe Kagan in “Little House on the Prairie”/ “Good Times”/ Co-star in ”Father Murphy”

Norman Thomas Marshall (1929-2025) grew up in a poor West Virginia family in the Jim Crow era—experiences that would forever shape his ideas of justice and equality. He co-wrote John Brown: Trumpet of Freedom with frequent collaborator George Wolfe Reily and performed all 31 characters in the solo show around the country and globe to rave reviews. Norman Marshall also played a key role in New York City’s burgeoning Off-Off-Broadway theatre scene of the 1960’s and ‘70’s,where he flourished amidst an inventive, avant-garde movement that was responsible fo launching hundreds of fringe theatres across the city. In 1974, nearly a decade after his NYC debut in the title role of 1967’s Gorilla Queen by Ronald Tavel, he co-founded the No Smoking Playhouse with Reily. In 2017 Norman co-founded The Moses Gunn Play Company with Gwen Gunn in honor of her deceased husband Moses Gunn, which continues to serve the Connecticut Shoreline today performing staged play readings with a professional ensemble of actors, credits ranging from the West End to Broadway, television, film to regional theatre.