34: The Silent Victory Cast

 Desirée Roots, former co-artistic director of community at Virginia Rep, has joined the leadership team of the newly established ATLAS Partnership. Roots’ previous position was eliminated during a recent restructuring of Virginia Rep.

Founded nine months ago by Emily Cole-Jones, along with senior advisors Bruce Miller and Phil Whiteway, ATLAS Partnership welcomes Roots as its program director. All three founders recently parted ways with Virginia Rep.

“It’s a joy to continue to work within the community that has always embraced me,” Roots said. “I feel like I’m coming home again.”

Roots started her career with Miller and Whiteway at Theatre IV, a non-profit children’s theater they founded in 1975. Theatre IV later merged with Barksdale Theatre in 2012 to become Virginia Rep.

ATLAS Partnership, a nonprofit theater-based historical society, will focus on four major projects in the coming year:

“Gabriel,” a new musical set to premiere in fall 2025 that commemorates the 250th anniversary of Virginia’s founding and tells the story of Gabriel, an enslaved man who led a significant slave rebellion in 1800; “Walking the Line,” a revival of a play from the late 1980s and early 1990s that addressed the crack cocaine epidemic, with an updated version focusing on the current opioid crisis and set to tour Virginia schools starting in the 2025-26 school year; “Plays & Playmakers,” a series of recorded panel discussions and interviews with Richmond’s foremost theatrical artists and leaders, produced in cooperation with the Library of Virginia; and “We the People,” a revival of a historical musical revue produced by Theatre IV in 1976, which will tour Virginia’s historical sites and schools starting on Independence Day 2025.

 CW5 Phillip Brashear is the son of Carl and Junetta Brashear and was born in Honolulu, HI on 3 July 1962. He is also a 1980 graduate of I.C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth, VA.
Phillip is a retired Department of Defense civilian of the Defense Logistics Agency in Richmond, VA with over 39 years of service. He is also a retired CW5 Army helicopter pilot with over 41 years of military service.

Phillip is the third son of the late Master Chief, Master Diver Carl Brashear, the subject of the Hollywood movie, ‘Men of Honor’. Through his father’s legendary American Military Hero status, Phillip has had the opportunity to share his dad’s story on numerous occasions ranging from the staff at the White House and the Pentagon, various military organizations, church functions, museums, youth groups, and various local civic organizations. Phillip has also travelled internationally to represent his famous father. Phillip has represented the Army as well at events like the Essence Music Festival, college and university events, church organizations, and various civic and youth groups for his own extraordinary career as a helicopter pilot. Upon his retirement from his military career, Phillip was honored by the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy as an Honorary Navy Chief. This honor has been given to only a few notable figures in American history like Hollywood actor Gary Sinise of the famed movie “Forrest Gump”.

 Saxsmo is a Richmond native and graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in 1978. He
attended Virginia State University and later transferred under a full scholarship to the prestigious
Berklee College of Music. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Berklee in 1984.
Also with a full scholarship he received his Master’s in Jazz Studies at North Carolina Central
University 2011. Saxsmo is the Founder/ Director/Coordinator of the Dr. Billy Taylor Jazz
Studies Program at Virginia State University. Saxsmo was also Nominated for the Richmond
Public Schools Education Foundation Living Legacies 2015 Award.
James Saxsmo Gates is also a former Board Member of the Richmond Jazz Society, former
Board member of the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School, present Board member of
Richmond Cultural Works, present Board Member of The HBCU Jazz Education Initiative,
Kappa Kappa Phi Fraternity and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity.
Gates has played and traveled extensively in the United States and abroad in performing with
such notable artists as Joe Kennedy, Jr., Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Dizzy
Gillespie, Clark Terry, Walter Davis, Jr., Walter Bishop, Jr., The Temptations, Dianne
Reeves, Jimmy Cobb, Hod O’Brien, Larry Willis, Roberta Flack, Marvin Gaye, Larry
Carlton, Jeff Lorber, Alex Bugnon, Terrance Blanchard, Delfeayo Marsalis, Billy Kilson,
Patrice Rushen, Steve Wilson, Lonnie Listen Smith, Steve Turre and The Main Ingredients,
etc.  

 Azriah Bryant is 25 years old and a native of Virginia. He has a passion for film and being in front of the camera. For the past two years, he's been a Reporter and a fill-in Anchor for 12 On Your Side Richmond.  He's been in this field since college at Virginia Commonwealth University. That's when he also fell in love with acting, helping his roommate shoot projects for his class and enrolling in theater and on-stage acting classes his senior year. Since he graduated, he's continued to take classes on and off at the HATTheatre, using the skills he's learned there at work and on set. Azriah is excited to get into this industry to learn and experience more.