Review: APT'S Touchstone Theatre Reveals Shakespeare's Colored Past in Historical Play THE AFRICAN COMPANY PRESENTS RICHARD III

Outside the Touchstone Theatre in Spring Green, American Players Theatre (APT) stages an exuberant African Dance accompanied by the thunder of drums and keyboard. The impromptu performance celebrates the legacy of color about to be admired on stage in a production of Carlyle Brown's The African Company Presents Richard III. Set in 1821 New York, the play focuses on actual historical events where a small African-American theater company produced their production of Shakespeare's Richard III on the exact same night the famous Park Theatre owned by Daniel Price opened their production featuring English actor Julius Booth as the deformed king.

In 1821, when the small African Company began their New York production, "white" audiences had raved about the show, also named the African Grove, where their production relegated "white audiences" to sit behind a curtain in the back. Price refused to compete with the ethnic theater, and worked towards their demise. As Director Derrick Sanders' notes indicate, there had been no actor of color in any Shakespeare production to this date. The African Company's premiere actor, James Hewlett, was named the first Black man to inhabit Shakespeare's Othello and then later appear as Richard III among other male protagonists in these classic productions.

The multiple award-winning playwright Brown runs his own theater company in the Twin Cities, and participates as a Core Writer for the Minneapolis Playwrights' Center. To produce Brown's well known play, APT returned Sanders to Spring Green from his 2015 directorial debut in Athol Fugard's The Island to produce a riveting production of Brown's based-on-history play of the tortured Richard III and a glimpse into the private lives of these African American actors.

Economic and social torture plague the Black company when these talented real life actors spoke Shakespeare's words in 1821. While APT stretches for further ethnic diversity the past few seasons, Brown's play offers rich roles for actors of color: Greta Oglesby, Jennifer Latimore, Cedric Mays, Johnny Lee Davenport and Gavin Lawrence command center stage while David Daniel and Tim Gittings provide the white resistance to The African Company's success. Nathan Stuber's elegant and sparse stage design, using two layers of curtains, one lush, red velvet, the other resembling pieced muslin quilts, often offers stunning silhouettes of the actors, an effective technique in Brown's play within a play.

Brown's script incorporates numerous themes, including the frustration of talented actors working by day to produce theater in the evening, no matter what their skin color, and the scant amenities, costumes and scenery necessary to stay within those tight, if any, budgets. Often using bartered for scenery and hand sewn garments, these start up companies struggled then, similar to any small performing arts companies today.

Mays plays the egocentric actor James Hewlett, who unknowingly realizes he needs the support of his female counterpart, the warm and willful Ann, acted by Latimore. Ann only participates in Richard III, working as a servant during the day, to win Hewlett's affections more than gain fame as an actress. Underneath the surface, an older Sarah, Oglesby, matches wits with the colorful drummer Papa Shakespeare, Davenport. The man was nicknamed by his master because he faltered with King's English and now lives as a free man in New York. One delightful scene highlights the interplay of what these servants of color contended with as Papa Shakespeare transfers the meaning of what one person says to another. These two characters, Sarah and Papa Shakespeare, also generate a growing affection and respect that enhances the story.

Lawrence maintains the company's respect in the role of William Henry Brown, the owner of the African American theater troupe, both on stage with his fellow actors and in his confrontations with Daniel's Stephen Price. Price eventually "orders" New York's Constable, a compliant Gittings, and demonstrates how authority used their power to reinforce prejudices in the early 19th century. Perhaps the audience might question, how does this happen in contemporary society and does culture and authority still propagate these prejudices for any people of color?

Lines more compelling than the scenes quoted from Shakespeare's Richard III, familiar and imbued with double meaning, occur in the finale, the company locked behind prison doors. Behind bars, these actors struggle with their identity and fate, reviving hope amid the despair, personally and professionally. Two hundred years later, this country and the world have moved forward, and still, what are the prejudices remaining in professional theater, particularly in Wisconsin? During these last scenes, the audience silenced themselves to this moving production of what happened decades ago. While so few people actually know this theatrical history, how often do similar events, less spoken about even in 2016, happen today?

APT presents a compelling opportunity to experience a renowned playwright and director of color on stage in the Touchstone Theater. Perhaps by highlighting this talent, the audience will sincerely believe each ethnicity can interpret Shakespeare, and any other and all iconic playwrights, on their own terms. While playwrights such as Brown continue to create their own stories, for audiences of every color and culture, these stories will underscore humanity's similarities instead of the differences.

Theater and the performing arts continue to provide an effective means to discuss difficult circumstances and events. Through the history and stories theater reveals on stage, audience understanding might open the doors for compassion, joy and an eventual peace for the people in their lives.. A place where every audience member celebrates in jubilation for their own human uniqueness as the players outside the Touchstone did when they danced on a sunny June day.

American Players Theatre produces Carlyle Brown's The African Company Presents Richard IIIin Spring Green's Touchstone's Theater through the summer season. For information on special events, or tickets to the performance, please call: 608.588.2361 or visit www.americanplayerstheater.org.

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