Homegrown
THEATRE
For the first time in its thirteen-year history, Premiere Stages will
simultaneously commission three New Jersey-based playwrights to
create works inspired by – and taking place in – real-life Garden State
communities.
PREMIERE COMMISSIONS SECOND ACT OF
MY LORD, WHAT A NIGHT
Following a sold-out run at Liberty Hall Museum in October 2016,
Premiere Stages has commissioned North Bergen playwright
Deborah Brevoort to expand her wildly successful one-act play,
My
Lord, What a Night
, into a full-length play. Based on actual events,
My Lord, What a Night
dramatizes the night legendary African
American singer Marian Anderson gave a concert in Princeton and
was later refused a room at the Nassau Inn. She was subsequently
invited to stay at the home of Albert Einstein, an ardent civil rights
supporter, setting in motion a lasting - and fascinating - friendship.
Ms. Brevoort’s proposed second act will jump ahead two years to
1939, shortly after Ms. Anderson has been denied a concert at the
Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Constitution Hall, and
just before her celebrated performance at the Lincoln Memorial.
14
KEANmag
arts
“This event, which established the National Mall and the Lincoln
Memorial as the seat and symbol of civil rights protest in the United
States, was a direct outgrowth of what began two years earlier in
Princeton,” stated Ms. Brevoort. “The symbolic value of Anderson’s
concert at the Lincoln Memorial was later invoked by the organizers
of the March on Washington, who understood the significance of
the location. In fact, Marian Anderson stood on the podium next to
Martin Luther King, Jr. as he delivered his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech,
sealing forever the symbolic importance of the Lincoln Memorial to
the civil rights movement and to American culture at large.”
This commission marks the first time Premiere has further
developed a Liberty Live Commission into a full-length play. A
unique partnership between Premiere Stages and Liberty Hall
Museum, the biannual Liberty Live project commissions a New
Jersey playwright to create a new one-act play about an event
that helped to shape history in the Garden State. The project
celebrates New Jersey history with professional theatrical
productions, museum tours, interactive displays, workshops for
children, and talk-backs with local historians.
Joel Leffert as Albert Einstein, Mitch Greenberg as Abraham Flexner, Erika LaVonn as
Marian Anderson, and Lizan Mitchell as Mary Church Terrell in Deborah Brevoort’s
My Lord, What a Night
, directed by Kel Haney. Photo by Mike Peters.
