COMING SOON

Book, Music & Lyrics by Markeisha Ensley

Exploring the themes of love, loss, legacy, and rebirth, Beneath The Surface: A New Musical honors the forgotten history of the people of Seneca Village— a once-thriving, largely African American community that was razed to build Central Park. With a score that combines early Black musical traditions with contemporary soul, gospel, and musical theatre, Beneath The Surface tells the story of Elisabeth and Andrew, a young married couple thriving and raising a family in Seneca Village. 

It’s 1855 and Seneca Village is now an integrated community of African American, German and Irish immigrants. Elisabeth, Andrew and the community grapple with the devastating news that the City plans to seize their land and surrounding areas in order to build Central Park. Strong-willed and ever defiant, some will do whatever it takes to keep fighting— to protect their home and leave a legacy for their children and their future descendants. Beneath The Surface celebrates the unheard voices of Seneca Village and our own shared humanity between the past and present.