New Rep brings home the history in 'House'

WATERTOWN - The actor Johnny Lee Davenport is perched near the top row of the Mosesian Theatre at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, reflecting on the thrills of rehearsing a new play by a contemporary author.

"I generally work with dead playwrights: Shakespeare, Shaw, Ibsen. But there's something about performing a new script that is incredibly exciting, especially one that has the potential to speak to so many people on so many different levels - and to bring to light some things that are not talked about, not even known sometimes," says Davenport, who's helping to bring to life "A House With No Walls," a new play by Thomas Gibbons, which opened last night in a "rolling world premiere" with New Repertory Theatre.

Davenport is alluding to an oft-unspoken yet controversial issue within the African-American community about whether or not blacks should embrace the legacy of slavery as a link to their history or unchain themselves from the label of "victimhood" and the shackles of the past - a debate that forms the backbone of the play.

"Even though we think of America as a kind of ahistorical country where we're so focused on the future, the weight of history is inescapable," says Gibbons, over the phone from his home in Philadelphia. "And it affects us in so many ways we don't even comprehend or acknowledge. The controversy seemed to be a remarkable way of dramatizing just how much the past does influence us now and how much it weighs on us."

"A House With No Walls" sprouted from New Rep's membership in the National New Play Network, an alliance of 20 small and midsize theaters across the country, which the Watertown-based company joined 3 1/2 years ago. The network's goal is to foster and champion fresh theatrical voices and vital new American plays. The New Rep staging marks the fourth production of "House" as part of the network's Continued Life Fund, in which at least three or more theaters agree to stage a new, never-before-produced play within a 12-month period. Each theater casts and mounts its own production with its own actors and creative team.

"Everybody has to buy in to it and say, 'Yes, this is what we're going to do.' And there's some funding that comes from the network because of that," says Rick Lombardo, New Rep's producing artistic director. "But it's mostly great for the playwright because now you may have three or four theaters in different parts of the country all doing premieres of your play within a year of each other. And that's the way that a play might really start to become known and gain some momentum."

Lombardo attests that by being in the network, New Rep has gained access to a better quality and wider variety of manuscripts than before. And each year the network hosts members at a three-day National Showcase of New Plays (which takes place next month in Washington, D.C.), in which six new works get staged readings, based on 20-30 plays nominated by the membership. Those readings could spawn future "rolling world premieres."

Gibbons's previous drama, "Permanent Collection," was the pilot project for the Continued Life Fund and was produced at New Rep two seasons ago, independent of the network. The play garnered enthusiastic reviews all over the country and has become one of the most produced new plays in recent years, with more than 25 productions to date - something many playwrights only dream of.

What thrills Lombardo about Gibbons is the playwright's fearlessness in tackling issues of race and social justice in America. "He's one of the few writers who really is fascinated with asking those hard questions about race, which is still the most uncomfortable cultural conversation that we can have in this country," Lombardo says. He praises the playwright for resisting the impulse to turn his characters into mouthpieces for ideas. "Tom manages to write plays that really make us confront our assumptions and that don't give us easy answers," he says. "And he writes it through characters that I believe when they're on the stage, that I believe are human beings, with flaws and foibles and strengths and weaknesses. To be able to do that makes him quite special."

"A House With No Walls" is based on a real-life Philadelphia controversy surrounding the construction of a new pavilion for the Liberty Bell on the site where George Washington once housed his slaves. The play revolves around a fictional showdown between two ideologically opposed African-Americans, each with their own ideas about how to commemorate the slave quarters.

Salif Camara (Davenport), an eloquent, rabble-rousing community activist, stages a sit-in and demands that the slave quarters be reconstructed as a reminder of the country's past and the obstacles blacks have had to overcome. Meanwhile Cadence Lane (Riddick Marie), a conservative black historian, views Salif's calls for a rebuilt slave house as a "monument to our helplessness."

The conflict between Salif and Cadence is juxtaposed with the story of Ona Judge (based on the real-life Oney Judge, played by Kortney Adams) and her brother Austin (Jason Bowen), two of the slaves who lived in the tiny dwelling behind Washington's Philadelphia mansion. Ona believes Washington will free her once he leaves office, but Philadelphia abolitionists are trying to persuade her to escape and make a run for freedom.

For Lois Roach, who's directing the New Rep production, the play is about honoring those who came before us. "Cadence stands on the shoulders of Oney. And as a black woman, I feel there are many shoulders I stand on. I think that is important to acknowledge," says Roach. "By virtue of other women surviving what they survived, I'd like to think it makes it a little bit easier for those who came after, because I know Oney, and the Oneys of this world sure did something to make it easier for me."

"House" has already been given full productions at network theaters in Philadelphia (InterAct Theatre Company), Palm Beach County (Florida Stage), and Denver (Curious Theatre Company), and it has evolved significantly since its first staging last winter. The extended development process gave Gibbons a chance to revise and clarify aspects of the play that he felt weren't working. The character of Salif, says the playwright, has been deepened. And Gibbons says he worked hard to better incorporate the scenes that take place in the past with those in the present.

"Hearing the same play done with three different casts, you get a real good sense of which lines are working and which lines aren't. So I basically went through the script and rewrote a majority of the lines," Gibbons says. "Overall, I think it's a better, richer, more deeply considered script."

For New Rep, being part of the network is vital to its mission. "Part of our vision for New Rep is to become known as an important institution nationally and to become a part of a real national conversation and a real national community," Lombardo says. "And the most significant way to do that is to step forward and do something toward the creation of new work so that the process continues and the circle keeps churning. [Theaters] must take the risks on new writers, young writers, new plays, unestablished plays, so that the good ones will rise to the surface."

Gibbons certainly recognizes the network's merits. "It's an amazing program," he says. "It's a genuinely original model for new play production in American theater. And I think it's one of those great new ideas that actually works."