Photo of Lise Bruneau and Alexander Strain by Matt Urban, Delaware Theatre Company

When Aaron Posner first gave me a copy of the script he adapted from Chaim Potok’s novel I immediately saw my life unfold as Asher Lev navigated the waters of his passion for his art and his relationship to family.  My grandfather was a Baptist minister who spoke to me often about the importance of devoting oneself to God and to family by placing both at the very center of life and love.  As I grew older, he began to reveal his desire for me to pursue ministry, seeing in me the power to lead, with a faithful heart, those I came into contact with.  When I was 18 years old, he had a heart attack, and over the course of the next three months, he slowly passed away.  But in those three months my chosen path became clear to me, and it was not ministry, it was theatre.  At first, when I told him I was going to college to study directing, his disappointment was palpable.  But as those three short months came to a close, he began to understand that the art I had chosen to commit my life to was, in its own way, my personal ministry.

What has become difficult for my parents, and certainly would have been difficult for my grandfather were he still alive, is that for much of my career, the stories I have chosen to tell as a director have not been, as Asher Lev puts it, “pretty pictures of birds or flowers.”  They have been frustrated explorations of my life and the world that shaped me.  As my professional career began, the student who once kept all his thoughts in his head began to rail against the things in his personal life he did not understand.  The things in his world that were causing so much personal divisiveness: homophobia, racism, alcoholism and especially religion.

So how do I explain to my family why I am drawn to the plays I choose to direct?  They refuse to see most of them.  If I had the chance, what would I say to my grandfather to help him understand why the boy of quiet faith he loved so much has chosen to tell stories that cause my family so much pain?  When Asher attempts to explain this to his father, I hear all the things I think I would say, and my heart aches as the words that come from Asher’s mouth are not enough to bridge the divide between them.  I believe now that the only bridge is in the work itself and how it triggers conversation, contempt, or revelation in each person who views it, including me.  If were I to hang my own internal conflict on the crossbars of family and love, it would reveal the journey of a boy who has been traveling to the far corners of the world to understand why I do what I do only to learn that the reason for every story I tell is how it is shaping the man I am becoming when I am at home.

Jeremy Skidmore
Director, My Name is Asher Lev

When our co-production of My Name is Asher Lev opened recently at Delaware Theatre Company, Howard Shapiro, theatre critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, gave it a rave. Here’s a little of his review.

“Masterful… a beautiful realization of the script, and a profound declaration of the power of storytelling on a stage. Everything about director Jeremy Skidmore’s production works at the highest level. The tale of Asher Lev – a boy whose talent for art gradually carries him from the tight, devout Brooklyn community of his parents into the world of galleries, critics, fame, and secular profanity – plays out as a metaphor for the way each generation must decide to handle what it’s handed.”

He singled out the performers, all of whom will be seen at Round House when Asher starts on March 17.

“Three muscular actors [have] a keen sense of the characters’ time and the changes these figures witness, spur, or try uneasily to accommodate: Adam Heller in multiple roles as the father, the rabbi, the artist-mentor, and more; Lise Bruneau as the mother, a gallery owner, and an artist’s model; and Alexander Strain as Asher Lev. The endearing Strain has a finely nuanced sense of vulnerability. It becomes his shield, his weapon, even his character’s partner.”

Here’s a photo preview of the show that won his applause – and that’s coming to our stage. These photos are by Matt Urban of Delaware Theatre Company. Click on each of the photos to view at a larger size.

Alexander Strain, seen here as Asher, was in Forum Theatre’s Helen Hayes Award-nominated production of Angels in America at Round House Silver Spring.

Alexander Strain, Lise Bruneau, and Adam Heller as Asher and his parents. Lise was seen on at Round House in The Book Club Play and was part of our Helen Hayes Award-nominated cast of Alice. Adam appeared in the world premiere of Asher Lev at Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre Company.

Adam Heller and Alexander Strain. Adam’s Broadway appearances include Caroline, or Change, A Class Act, Victor/Victoria, and Les Miserables. This is his Round House debut.

Alexander Strain and Lise Bruneau. Lise’s appeared in D.C. in  Legacy of Light at Arena Stage and Ion, Othello, and The Winter’s Tale at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. She has also directed for Taffety Punk. Alexander made his RHT debut in Lord of the Flies. His D.C. appearances include The Seagull on 16th Street (Theater J) and Caligula (Washington Shakespeare Company). He has been nominated for three Helen Hayes Awards for acting.

In addition to Asher Lev, playwright Aaron Posner’s other recent adaptations include Mark Twain’s A Murder, A Mystery & A Marriage (which was seen at RHT) and Ken Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion. His adaptation of Chaim Potok’s The Chosen won Philadelphia’s Barrymore Award in 1999 for Best New Play and has been produced around the country. Aaron has won Helen Hayes Awards as a playwright and as a director.

Directing Asher Lev is Jeremy Skidmore, who’s nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for Forum Theatre’s Angels in America: Millennium Approaches.

Watch this blog for more info about My Name is Asher Lev.

Lance Tucker
Director of Marketing and PR

I hope you’ll join us at Round House for our first Bethesda production of 2010. Launching this new year, we have an explosive, thought-provoking play that I’m positive you’ll be discussing long after the final bow – one that should lead to spirited conversation on your way home following the performance!

When I first started reading the script of Thomas Gibbons’ Permanent Collection, I couldn’t put it down. Loosely based on events surrounding Philadelphia’s Barnes Foundation, it examines how much space – literally and figuratively – society gives to African-Americans in our arts and culture organizations. It asks the question: what’s the cost of failing to view the world through another’s eyes?  Each season at Round House, we seek out plays that make us think, that challenge our preconceptions and force us to re-examine the world around us.  And so I knew immediately that we had to bring this searing drama about art, race, perspectives, and journalism to our stage

I’m confident that you’ll have a lot to say about the play.  And we want to hear it.  So I invite you to take advantage of a new feature on this website. Click “Citizen Reviews” on our home page to post your own comments and critique of our production. Let your friends and neighbors know what you think. And continue the dialogue about the play’s important issues in our own community.

In addition to Permanent Collection, Round House is proud to present the 2010 edition of our dynamic, affordable Silver Spring Series in our black box in downtown Silver Spring. This eclectic mix of theatre, music, and dance features performances by some of the dynamic groups and artists that call the D.C. metropolitan area home. Also, our nearby Education Center has a full range of classes and activities for students of all ages – from Free for All Fridays to our upcoming Spring Break program. You’ll find information about all these activities on this website.

I hope you’re enjoying our new RHT Blog. I also hope we’ll see you often during 2010.

Blake Robison
Producing Artistic Director

P.S. We’ll be announcing our 2010/2011 season soon – watch for more information!

Here’s the conclusion of my talk with Permanent Collection playwright Thomas Gibbons.

Jacqueline Lawton: Permanent Collection is inspired by the story of the Barnes Foundation and addresses issues of race in America. What compelled you to write this play? How did you decide which characters/points of views would appear in it?
Thomas Gibbons: On the most immediate level, what compelled me to write the play was an image of a particular actor named Frank X standing onstage in an expensive Italian suit. Frank has been in several plays of mine; I’ve written parts specifically for him, as I wrote Sterling North, the central character in Permanent Collection. His opening monologue was written very quickly, and throughout the development of the play I made very few changes in it, apart from changing it from the first person to the second person.

On a larger level, the entire history of the Barnes Foundation and the controversy that engulfed it in the 90s fascinated me. To put it very briefly, the newly appointed foundation head, who was African American, wanted to build a parking lot on the foundation grounds; a neighbors’ group opposed the proposal. Eventually the director accused them of racism, and they sued him for slander. From that point on, the controversy was no longer about a parking lot; it was about race. When I began to do my research, I found that race was an important strain in the Barnes’ history; its founder, Albert Barnes, was well known for his interest in African art, and included specimens in his displays long before this was widely accepted. Instead of focusing on a parking lot, I invented the central conflict of the play – whether pieces of African art in storage should be placed in the galleries – because I wanted to examine the notion of a museum as a place that displays our consensus of what is most valuable in our cultural heritage, and what will be visible. Who decides what hangs on the wall? What criteria are they using?

JL: In an interview in September of 2005, you observed that “Race is the central dilemma in American history, which we still have not succeeded in untangling.” Do you feel that that Americans have come any closer to dealing candidly with the issue of race? Or do you feel that we are as tangled up as ever?
TG: My feeling (and it’s no more than a feeling, I admit) is that many Americans, on a personal level, are able to approach the subject with candor and openness – younger people in particular. Publicly, our racial history is still an occasion for hypocrisy, dishonesty, and posturing.

JL: Throughout Barack Obama’s campaign and at the early stages of his presidency, many in the media decided that we had shifted into a post-racial era. While the definition of “post-racial” is still being debated, the working definition is that we, as a society, had moved to a place where race no longer matters. What are your thoughts on this? Is there such a thing as a post-racial society? Would you ever want there to be one? Why or why not?
TG: Race is part of the American DNA; it will always matter. The question is, exactly how will it matter 20 years from now, or 50? No one knows, least of all the media.

JL: Which aspect of Sterling’s character do you most relate to? What aspect of Paul’s character do you most relate to?
TG: Sterling wants to introduce change to what he sees as an ossified institution, to bring it into the present. Paul wants to preserve what he sees as the best of the past. I recognize both of those impulses in myself.

JL: What was the most challenging part of writing Permanent Collection? Which character’s voice was the most difficult to capture?
TG: Without question, the challenge of this play was to present both viewpoints in the conflict fairly, with as much eloquence and clarity as I could summon, so that the audience feels it’s not being propagandized. I’m not interested in telling an audience what I believe; I hope to prod them into asking themselves what they believe. As for the characters, I’d rather say whose voice was the most enjoyable to write: Alfred Morris, the foundation’s founder who delights in provocation and outrage.

JL: What surprised (continues to surprise you) you about Permanent Collection? Whether it’s the audience response or your response when you see it?
TG: When the play was first produced in Philadelphia, I think audiences viewed it through the lens of the actual controversy unfolding at the Barnes Foundation – that they were going to see the true “backstage” story. In some ways the play has been seen more clearly by audiences in other cities who weren’t all that familiar with the Barnes. It also seems to me that this play about an African American man elevated to a position of leadership, and the controversy that ensues, has acquired an additional resonance that I never anticipated.

JL: What next for you as a writer?
TG: After writing plays that deal with the subject of race in America for about ten years, I’ve come to feel I don’t have anything else to say about it. Also, there are other subjects that I’ve long wanted to explore. My current work in progress, Silverhill (inspired by the history of the Oneida Community in upstate New York), deals with a 19^th-century American communist utopia that practices “Bible communism” and free love, and how it runs aground on the rocks of jealousy, desire, generational conflict, and greed. Human nature, in other words.

Thanks for reading the blog. I hope to see you at Round House Bethesda for Permanent Collection!

Jacqueline Lawton
Dramaturg

Photo of Craig Wallace and Jeff Allin by Clinton Brandhagen.

I recently had a conversation with Permanent Collection playwright Thomas Gibbons. Here’s part one of our talk.

Jacqueline Lawton: So to start could you tell me a little bit about where you live (maybe where and what sort of neighborhood)–describe the street where you live–what can you hear if you open a window, what can you see if you look out that window.
Thomas Gibbons: My family and I live in Devon, one of the older suburbs west of Philadelphia. Most of the houses on our street (including ours) date from the 1920s and are about a hundred feet apart, with large yards and plenty of trees. When the windows are open we hear the wind in the trees. We frequently see deer or a fox in our back yard.

JL: Then tell me a little bit about your favorite place to write. Do you write in the same place?
TG: I write in a room devoted to that purpose. It has built-in bookcases, a desk with an old chair, and not much else.

JL: Give us a little background on where you’re from originally, where you grew up, how you ended up where you are now…
TG: I was born in Philadelphia, grew up in the suburbs, and have lived either in the city or the surrounding area my entire life.

JL: Other than being a playwright, what other forms of writing have you done? Were you always drawn to the theatre? How is writing for an audience, writing a work that will be performed live, different (other than the form and format) from the other forms of writing you’ve done?
TG: I started writing seriously when I was a teenager, primarily short stories, and envisioned becoming a novelist. In my senior year in college I took a playwriting course, wrote a one-act play that ended up (through sheer luck) being produced by a small theatre company in Philadelphia, and never returned to fiction. I felt that I’d stumbled into the medium that allowed me to find my voice.

JL: Describe for me all the sensations you had the first time you had one of your plays produced and you sat in the audience while it was performed…what was different about the characters you created? How much input did you have in the directing of that work?
TG: The one-act play that was my first production was originally given a staged reading, and our choice for the central character came down to two actors: one who played the part exactly as I’d envisioned it, and another who made the part something completely unexpected, almost shockingly unlike my own vision, but undeniably brilliant. The director and I argued for hours – I wanted the first actor, he wanted the second – and finally I gave in. The actor gave a marvelous reading, and when the play was given a full production the following season, he was my only choice for the part and gave a performance that even now, after many years, lives in my memory as one of the finest I’ve ever seen on any stage. In other words, I was lucky enough to learn, with my first play, the fundamental lesson that collaboration lies at the heart of theatre. As a playwright, you learn you’ll never see on stage the play that’s in your head; but with luck and the right collaborators, you might see something better.

JL: What is it about writing plays that draws you…as opposed to writing poetry, songs, or fiction?
TG: I’ve grown to like the ruthless practicality of it—the fact that what I’ve written has to work, before an audience whose judgment is immediate (even if they’re not aware of it); and if it doesn’t work, it has to be fixed or cut.

JL: What inspires you to write?
TG: I wish I had a better answer, but I like sitting in a room by myself, with only paper and pen at hand. All writers like this. Any writer who talks about the loneliness of writing is lying. Also, we don’t have to wear ties.

JL: What do you hope to convey in the plays that you write ‑ what are they about? What sorts of people, situation, circumstances, do you like to write about?
TG: For the past 10 years or so I’ve been writing about race ‑ specifically, about the vast divide that separates the white and African-American experiences of living in America, and the mutual incomprehension with which we gaze at each other across the gulf. As in Permanent Collection, my characters are people who run up against the abrasive surface of our racial history. Recently, though, I’ve decided that I’ve said what I have to say about this, and it’s time to move on to other subjects.

Watch for part two of my conversation with Thomas Gibbons – coming to this blog in the coming days. We’ll talk more specifically about the situation, characters, and controversies covered in Permanent Collection.

Jacqueline Lawton
Dramaturg

DC Theatre Scene reported last week that the DC city council increased fees for on-street parking and provided readers with only four parking options to cope. To this I respond, COME TO SILVER SPRING! OUR PARKING IS FREE ON WEEKENDS AND WEEKNIGHTS AFTER 8PM! Ahem. So, please come to Silver Spring. Parking is easy, cheap, and we’ve got plenty of theatre for everyone.

Hello! My name is Andrea Locke. As Lance wrote in a previous post, I am the Production and Rental Coordinator here at Round House Theatre. I coordinate the many productions and events held at Round House Silver Spring, our black box theatre located in the heart of downtown Silver Spring, MD. I also manage the rental clients at the Round House Education Center located around the corner from the black box.

We say that “Silver Spring has something different every day” and that is certainly true this season—looking at the calendar right now, the next Saturday that the black box is empty is July 3^rd! At least that is the case this very second. For all I know, we could potentially schedule an event on that day in the next six months. And don’t even get me started on the Education Center calendar. We’re busy.

Here is what’s going on:

The Silver Spring Series, our presenting series held at the black box, is kicking off at the end of January. In our second season we are proud to present productions by local artists Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, In-Flight Theatre, Marian Licha, Caleen Sinnette Jennings, Contradiction Dance, Will Gartshore, and Happenstance Theatre. I’ve been writing e-mails, contracts, and programs; organizing schedules and calendars; and answering questions since November. It’s a surreal feeling knowing that it’s finally time to put the work on stage.

Our Sarah Play this year is Neil Bartlett’s adaptation of Moliere’s The Misanthrope. Performances are at the black box April 30^th -May 9^th, 2010. Rehearsals begin at the Education Center this week!

We’re also presenting a blended production with University of Maryland College Park’s Department of Theatre of Hotel Cassiopeia by Charles Mee at the black box June 5-13, 2010. We are already in rehearsals for the University of Maryland leg of the production.

In addition, we’ve also got productions and classes by our Artistic and Community partners:

Contradiction Dance just moved into their office at our Education Center as Round House’s dance company in residence. Dance classes begin on January 11^th, and as previously mentioned, the company is included in the Silver Spring Series.

Forum Theatre, our theatre company in residence, will be joining us again at the black box this February and March. They received rave reviews for their productions of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Angels in America: Perestroika this past fall. This spring they’ll be presenting Jordan Harrison’s Amazons and Their Men. Rehearsals are to start any day now at the Education Center.

Music Together continues to hold music and movement classes for pre-kindergarten students at the Education Center on weekday mornings.

Lumina Studio Theatre will also be returning to the black box on multiple occasions in the coming season. Their production of WHAT HO, JEEVES! takes place the weekend of January 29^th, 2010.

ArtStream has been in rehearsals at the Education Center since September for their production at the black box the weekend of April 15^th, 2010.

And of course, we’ve got a whole slew of productions, meetings, auditions, and classes at Round House Silver Spring and the Education Center presented by our rental clients (“rental” is one of my middle names after all). Some of these great organizations include, in no particular order, McLean Bible Church, Weight Watchers, Lango, Maryland Community Theatre Festival, The Actor’s Center, Inkwell Theatre, and The Princeton Review.

WHEW! I wasn’t kidding about just how much is going on around this place, and the above list doesn’t even include all of Round House’s own programming. In the coming months I’ll be back on the blog detailing more specific stories and exciting events that are taking place here in Silver Spring. Until then, I hope you’ll consider a trip to see us at the black box or at the Education Center. And of course, if you have any questions or an idea for a blog entry, please leave a comment!

See you in Silver Spring,

Andrea Locke

We look, and we’re refreshed – maybe even changed, a little. Our own narrow perspective widens, if only by one degree. Over a lifetime of looking, we can learn to see the world in the round. – Paul Barrow, Permanent Collection

Art is a testament to someone’s vision. This is true whether we are looking at one of Paul Cezanne’s paintings or a traditional Benin mask. This is also true, whether were are listening to Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 2 in D major, K. 314 or Snoop Dogg’s “Gangsta Luv.”  But what happens when race plays a determining factor in the value of art?

Permanent Collection – a captivating, eloquent, and provocative meditation on art and race relations in America – considers this question fully. It asks us important and provocative questions: What is good art? Who decides what art gets to be seen? What’s at stake for humanity when we fail to view the world through another person’s eyes?

These challenging and deeply personal questions are played out publicly with humor, passion, reverence, and rage.  Producing Artistic Director, Blake Robison noted that “the arguments are sophisticated, and they’re marked by candid and incendiary observations.” He’s absolutely right. Talking about race can be both awkward and terrifying. These types of conversations usually tend to happen somewhere safe and typically not in mixed company.

Despite the fact that slavery, Jim Crow Laws, Segregation, and Separate-but-Equal policies have long been abolished, Race continues to play a dramatic role in our society. With Affirmative Action working to diversify the status quo, anti-discrimination programs to address racial sensitivity, and despite the efforts of many recent social commentators desiring to name this new era, under President Barack Obama, the Post-Racial society, Race continues to influence the ways we interact with each other, and it influences our expectations of one another. At first rehearsal, director Timothy Douglas observed, “when you put a white person and a black person on stage, before they even open their mouths, it’s a play about race.”

As the play comes to an end, the art is left to speak for itself. A simple, but profound gesture that makes me think of the quote that opens this essay: “Over a lifetime of looking, we can learn to see the world in the round.” Arguably, it takes more than just looking at art to appreciate the view. Just as it takes more than just listening to appreciate what someone has to say. This leaves to me to wonder, is it ever possible for any of us to set aside our personal prejudices and inherent racism long enough to appreciate someone else’s point of view and experiences? What’s more, can we ever speak honestly about race in mixed company?  I believe it’s possible, and I feel that Permanent Collection is a brilliant ice breaker for that conversation.  Enjoy!

Jacqueline Lawton
Dramaturg

Welcome to the first entry in Round House Theatre’s new blog. This is one of a number of additions you’ll see on our web site over the coming months. In addition to this blog, we’re especially excited about our new online feedback section – “Citizen Reviews” – where patrons can enter their own comments on our productions and programs.

Among the people at Round House you’ll be hearing from in the coming weeks as we get this blog going is Andrea Locke, our Production and Rental Coordinator. In addition, other members of our staff will be blogging about our upcoming Bethesda production of Thomas Gibbons’ Permanent Collection.

Andrea’s blogs should prove to be especially interesting and fun. She works primarily in our black box theatre in downtown Silver Spring, where she has close contact with the many arts groups, community organizations, and performers that use Round House Theatre Silver Spring for their shows and programs.

Our Silver Spring theatre is a real hub of activity. This fall, it hosted everything from Forum Theatre’s acclaimed production of Angels in America to weekly church services. Andrea will be working on Round House’s own Silver Spring Series when it returns in January, with its eclectic mix of music, dance, and theatre performances by dynamic groups and artists from across the DC metro area. Watch for Andrea’s first post about life in our Silver Spring facility soon.

Down the road, you’ll also hear from Blake Robison and other members of the Round House team about what’s happening onstage and offstage in Bethesda, Silver Spring, and at our Education Center.

Let us know what you think and what you’d be interested in hearing about. Thanks for your support of Round House. We hope you enjoy the blog!

Lance Tucker
Director of Marketing and Public Relations