Mosaic Theater's outstanding 'Agitators'

 Ro Boddie is Frederick Douglass and Marni Penning is Susan B. Anthony in Mosaic Theater Company's The Agitators/Photo by Stan Barouh


It is unlikely that I would have had the keen interest in Mosaic Theater's newest play, The Agitators, had I not read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave nor had visited his Washington home earlier this year, Cedar Hill.

My visit to Cedar Hill was occasioned by the 200th birthday celebration for Mr. Douglass (1818-1895) although his exact birth year and date are conjecture since he was born into slavery when record-keeping of slaves was not guaranteed.

Mosaic's Agitators are Mr. Douglass and his longtime friend and collaborator-in-charge-of-change, Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) who happened to share the same time frame in life. 

 

 Seated are Ro Boddie as Frederick Douglass and Marni Penning as Susan B. Anthony with Adanna Paul and Josh Adams in Mosaic Theater Company's The Agitators/Photo by Stan Barouh

"Slavery is what stole the first 20 years of my life," Mr. Douglass says in the play, and, agitation is the spark leading to change.

Ms. Anthony says her father didn't vote because, had he voted, he would have become part of the corruption.
 
Mr. Douglass and Ms. Anthony are friends, they are rivals, they are revolutionaries, she, an ardent suffragette, and he, an impassioned abolitionist who also shared Ms. Anthony's ideas to get the vote for women.

They worked night and day to correct society's wrongs.
 
The Agitators' director KenYatta Rogers writes in program notes: "They spent a lifetime pursuing perfection for their fellow Americans....The time has come to learn from their example. 'To use the past only as it [is] useful to the present and the future.'"

Ro Boddie is Mr. Douglass and Marni Penning is Ms. Anthony who did not live to see the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women the right to vote. For more than five decades, she worked tirelessly for the amendment's passage.

The play exceeded all forecasts for enlightenment, acting, format, and just plain good theatre, and its program includes an excellent chronology of important events in Douglass's and Anthony's lives.

Rather than two actors sitting on a stage reminiscencing about their times together, they fight and scream and don't always take to each other.  They convincingly discuss their battles to win over public acceptance of their hopes and dreams.

Scenes (by Jonathan Dahm Robertson) change frequently, and they are more than a piece moving once or twice. The initial set led me to low visual expectations, given the rectangular outline with white  flowing curtains, but the versatility soon became obvious.

In one of the most creative places, the duo stand on opposite elevated platforms at a railway station, shouting at each other over the tracks.

Time moves on, projected by listing of years, different hair colors, hairstyles, and Ms. Anthony's fashions (by Amy McDonald.  In the manner of the Kennedy Center which exhibits costumes of ballerinas and opera stars in foyers, Ms. McDonald's designs would be welcome in the Mosaic foyer.)

After the show, the playwright, Mat Smart told me the play originated from a visit he made to  Ms. Anthony's home in Rochester, New York.

He spent a year conducting primary research on the couple, pinpointing visits by both at the same times to the same places:  Albany, Boston, Rochester, Washington, D.C. and more.  Except for the baseball game which he could not say with certainty that Ms. Anthony attended, he speculated she was there because "everybody in town was."

The game was one of the most hilarious scenes in the play which  overall had much more humor than I anticipated.  "Do not quote me to me." 

Mr. Smart told me he left the music choices up to the director and the sound director, David Lamont Wilson, with the stipulation that they mix "the old with the new."

They did and lots more. 

At intermission I turned to the stranger beside me and said I wanted a copy of the music, and she replied that she wanted a copy of the music.  The only piece whose title I could positively identify was Jimi Hendrix's "Star-Spangled Banner."

The music was deliciously eclectic, modern with hip hop and a mix of 19th century songs and sounds, which are rare together, at least on my shelves.

Two nights after the Pittsburgh tragedy, the play ended on an emotionally charged stage with Ari Roth, Mosaic's founding artistic director, Victoria Murray Baatin, the associate artistic director, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Smart and others from the crew holding hands and leading the standing audience to sing several verses of "We Shall Overcome."

Many words from the script fit the sad times that we live today.  Still, the agitators' hope that becomes reality illuminates the dark to tell us that a better day, a new day will come.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me. - (Emily Dickinson)

Also in The Agitators are Adanna Paul and Josh Adams who are background ensemble members.

Additional creative team members are Robert Garner, sound engineer; James Morrison, projections; Alec Sparks, assistant projections; Elena Velasco, movement coordinator; Alberto Segarra, lighting, Emily Boisseau, properties; Shirley Serotsky, dramaturg; and Laurel VanLandingham, production stage manager.

The Mosaic has scheduled other events in conjunction with The Agitators. Before you go, check with the box office about possible changes: 202-399-7993, ext. 2.

Nov. 10, 3 p.m. Voting Rights Today-The Meaning of Centuries of Struggle

Nov. 11, 3 p.m. Black Women's Suffrage-Abolition was Not Enough
 

Nov. 15, 11 a.m. Cast talkback
 

Nov. 17, 3 p.m. Inexhaustible Souls in Collision-The Struggle for the 15th Amendment Meets the Claims of Race and Gender
 

Nov. 18, 3 p.m. We Hold These Truths-Quakers in America
 

Nov. 20, 8 p.m. It Takes Two to Make a Thing Go Right-Necessary Coalitions/Imperfect Partners
 

Nov. 24, 3 p.m. What Makes a Movement?
 

Nov. 25, 7:30 p.m.The Rooms Where It Happens: Politics of Place and the Geography of Freedom 

What: The Agitators
 

When: Now through Nov. 25, 2018 at 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday nights; 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 25; 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 20; weekend matinees at 3 p.m. A Nov. 15 student and senior matinee at 11 a.m. has sold out.

Where: Mosaic Theater Company, Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street NE, Washington, D.C. 20002 

Getting there: Riding public transportation from Union Station on the streetcar is easy and free, if you can find the streetcar behind Union Station since signage in the station is poor. Parking options are available for those who drive to Atlas.
 

Tickets start at $20.

Language: Some of the songs drop the F-bomb, and maybe another epithet is heard here and there in the dialogue.

Duration: About two hours with one 15-minute intermission.

For more information: Please call the box office and leave a message: 202-399-7993, ext. 2.
 

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A visit to Frederick Douglass's home in Washington, D.C.

"Frederick Douglass" and his aide welcome hundreds of visitors to his home, Cedar Hill, in Anacostia, Washington, D.C. on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth/Photo by Patricia Leslie

His birth date is uncertain since he was born a slave, but it is often listed as February 14, 1818. 

On the occasion of the 200th birthday celebration last weekend of Frederick Douglass, I ventured out to his home, Cedar Hill in Anacostia in Washington, D.C., where I joined hundreds of others to learn more about the man and his legacy.

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Visitors climb the steps to Cedar Hill, the home of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C. on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The National Park Service was out in full force with many park rangers on hand to guide and direct visitors, and although the Park Service budget is too low for all it does,  the people of the United States and visitors are grateful to the Park Service for its preservation and protection of our historic places.

Visitors climb the steps to Cedar Hill, the home of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C. on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Cedar Hill, the home of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

I was led to Cedar Hill by Mr. Douglass's first book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,  An American Slave, published in 1845.  I read it recently, stunned by his eyewitness accounts of treatment received by him and others at the hands (and tools) of slave masters who beat and tormented their slaves. 

The book is an eye-opener and much of it takes places right outside Washington at St. Michael's in and around Talbot County, Maryland where Mr. Douglass was born.  If I were in charge, I would make this short book required reading for all high school students.

A National Park Service ranger presents the history of Cedar Hill, the home of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C. to visitors waiting in line to enter the home on the 200th birthday celebration of the abolitionist and former slave/Photo by Patricia Leslie

One woman standing in line at Cedar Hill told me she had been waiting about 40 minutes/Photo by Patricia Leslie

What drove Mr. Douglass to want to learn how to read?  He knew education would open doors and offer opportunity.   How did he learn this?

Until her slave master husband made her stop, a woman began teaching Mr. Douglass how to read.  Even after the private lessons ceased, Mr. Douglass knew enough to keep going, teaching himself and other slaves how to read. During Sunday school classes he led where he taught reading, he took a huge risk that the slave master would find out and beat him.

Visitors climb the steps to Cedar Hill/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The south side of Cedar Hill, the home of Frederick Douglass in Anacostia, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

The view from Cedar Hill, Frederick Douglass's home in Anacostia, Washington, D.C. looking towards the U.S. Capitol, in the distance/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The dome of the U.S. Capitol can be seen in the distance from the front of Frederick Douglass's home, Cedar Hill, in Anacostia, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

In the Narrative, the first of three autobiographies he wrote, Mr. Douglass refused to tell exactly how he made his way to freedom, fearful the information would impair escapes for other slaves. 

He was an abolitionist, an orator, a supporter of women's suffrage, a builder of rental housing for blacks, presidential appointee, the first black to receive a vote for president of the United States from a delegate at the Republican National Convention (1888).

On display in the small museum at Cedar Hill are items which Frederick Douglass and his wife, Helen Pitts, may have collected from their trips to Italy, England, France, Ireland, and Greece in 1886 and 1887/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The Bible of Frederick Douglass on display in the small museum at his home, Cedar Hill/Photo by Patricia Leslie

On June 17, 2015 Loretta Lynch used Mr. Douglass's Bible when she was sworn in as the first black woman to be appointed U.S. Attorney General.  The photograph is on display in the museum at Cedar Hill/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A display case of Mr. Douglass's Bible and other items/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The death mask of Frederick Douglass by Ulric Dunbar made on February 21, 1895, the day after he died.  Before the advent of photography, death masks were an important remembrance for loved ones. Visitors to Cedar Hill immediately after Mr. Douglass's death included Susan B. Anthony/Photo by Patricia Leslie


Until he died of a heart attack at his home in 1895,  Mr. Douglass lived at Cedar Hill from 1877 with his first wife,  Anna Murray who died in 1882, and then, his second wife, Helen Pitts, a white lady and his employee whom he married in 1884.

More history of the house, its price, acreage, and a photo from 1887 are here.  

I waited too long in the afternoon to stand in the 40-minute line to see the interior of the house before I had to leave for the concert opera, but I did have time to stop by the small museum and walk around the grounds.   

The postcards I bought in the tiny gift shop I sent to family members, writing that Cedar Hill would be on the agenda the next time they come to visit.   

Black History Month is celebrated in February because it is the birthday month of Frederick Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln.  The NAACP was founded on the centennial of Mr. Lincoln's birthday, February 12, 1909.

Today at 2 p.m. in the East Building auditorium at the National Gallery of Art, a free lecture and book signing on Mr. Douglass will be presented by Celeste-Marie Bernier, professor of black studies and personal chair in English literature, School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, University of Edinburgh, and coeditor in chief, Journal of American Studies, Cambridge University Press. 

What:  Cedar Hill, the home of Frederick Douglass

When:  Open every day, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Where:   1411 W Street SE, Washington, DC, 20020

Getting there:  Parking is limited in the area and in the small, free parking lot.  

The best way to get there is via Metro.  Take the Green Line and disembark at the Anacostia station.  Take Bus #B2 to Mt. Rainier or Bladensburg Rd. V St., NE or Bus #V2 to Minnesota Avenue or Capitol Heights Station. The bus stops directly in front of the site at the corner of W and 14th Streets.
 
Or walk from Metro, about 3/4 mile. Take a right on Howard Road and walk a block. Turn left on Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue  and walk three blocks. Turn right on W Street and walk four blocks to the Visitor's Center.

Cost:  Admission is free, however, reservations to tour the house (only permitted with a park ranger) are encouraged ($1.50).

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A Lincoln-Douglass debate at Ford's Theatre

Craig Wallace is Frederick Douglass in Necessary Sacrifices at Ford's Theatre/Laura Keene

A serious "conversation" between two American heroes, President Abraham Lincoln (David Selby) and abolitionist Frederick Douglass (Craig Wallace), is occurring nightly through Saturday at Ford's Theatre in a play called Necessary Sacrifices.

It is a world's premiere, written by Richard Hellesen who was commissioned by Ford's to create a play for the celebration of this month's opening of the Center for Education and Leadership located across the street.

Hellesen based his drama on two documented sessions between Lincoln and Douglass.

 David Selby is Abraham Lincoln in Necessary Sacrifices/Laura Keene

Everyone knows who President Lincoln was, but how many are familiar with Mr. Douglass? Not only did he work to abolish slavery, but he was an early supporter of women's rights and in 1848, the only African-American present at the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York.  (The Frederick Douglass home is at 1411 W Street SE in Washington.)

The specific Civil War period in focus for Sacrifices is chiefly August, 1863 and August, 1864. Mr. Douglass is disappointed by the president's policies and tries to convince him that not only is emancipation critical to national health, but the new role of blacks in the U.S. is vital, too.

In dialogue in two acts, the two converse, and the president explains to Douglass the political process and the evolution of public opinion.  Selby's and Wallace's looks, demeanor, and superb acting give undeniable credence to their characters who truly make American history come alive on stage.

Jennifer L. Nelson, the director, writes in program notes that the two Civil War leaders discovered a "common vision" in each other, sharing a "belief in the potential of human beings to be generous of spirit in spite of profound differences." Would that words of yesteryear rang on Capitol Hill today.

Adding to the play's aura is Civil War music and a sad melody composed by John Gromada which is sprinkled throughout the production and expertly played on violin by Thomas Booker or Tony Donaldson, Jr. (depending upon the night of the performance).

The lighting is dramatic (Dan Covey), and the backdrop is a tranquil floor-to-ceiling landscape painting of clouds and sky in heavenly peach, lavender and blue which creates a dichotomy in a time of radical upheaval, where gunfire is sporadically heard in the background to remind all present of war's death and destruction.

Once a portion of the stage with the president's desk and chair move forward, and large white rectangular windows drop, the stage is set (by James Kronzer) for conversation between the two in the president's office.

Makeup by Anne Nesmith is worthy of a Helen Hayes nomination.

It is eerie and remarkable at the same time to sit in Ford's Theatre, to look up at the box where the president and Mrs. Lincoln sat April 14, 1865 the night of his assassination, and realize you are there watching a play about him.

The play is recommended for ages 13 and up. Hurry! On a Monday night, the theatre was packed.  It is easy to see how this play will travel for hundreds of performances.

What: Necessary Sacrifices

When: Every night at 7:30 p.m. now through February 18, 2012

Where: Ford's Theatre, 511 Tenth St, NW, Washington, DC 20004

Admission: Prices begin at $32.20. Check here for possible discounts.

For more information: 202-347-4833

Metro station: Metro Center, Gallery Place, or Archives-Navy Memorial

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