The House That Will Not Stand Featured

(l to r) The cast: Petronia Paley (La Veuve / Marie Josephine), Tiffany Rachelle Stewart (Agnès), Lizan Mitchell (Beartrice), Flor De Liz Perez (Maude Lynn), Joniece Abbott-Pratt (Odette), and Harriett D. Foy (Makeda). Not pictured: Ray Reinhardt (Lazare).  (l to r) The cast: Petronia Paley (La Veuve / Marie Josephine), Tiffany Rachelle Stewart (Agnès), Lizan Mitchell (Beartrice), Flor De Liz Perez (Maude Lynn), Joniece Abbott-Pratt (Odette), and Harriett D. Foy (Makeda). Not pictured: Ray Reinhardt (Lazare). Photo by Cheshire Isaacs

 

 

We learned a lot about slavery in our history books, but in Marcus Gardley’s new play, The House That Will Not Stand, we discover the free women of color of the 1830s and what they had to do to survive.

When Berkeley Repertory Theatre commissioned award-winning playwright Marcus Gardley for a play – he intended to tell a story about growing up in his native Oakland… not do a period piece set in Louisiana.

 

"A large portion of my family is from new Orleans... and I came across this period of 1830s and this social class called placees which were African American women who were concubines of white men' explains Gardley.  "I thought this would be a great play because a lot of people do not know about this history… A lot of people do not know that African-American women were millionaires."

 

The House that will not Stand is the story of  wealthy Creole widow… Beartrice Albans and her husband Lazare.  Playwright Gardley manages to weave ghosts, voudou – even gumbo into his plot.

 

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