A "Minstrel Show" goes on in Long Branch

By Tom Chesek, Asbury Park Press

It was the largest race riot in our nation's history, and it happened 88 years ago to this day.

On the night of September 28, 1919, a mob of more than 4,000 white townspeople stormed the Douglas County Courthouse in Omaha, Nebraska, where a rheumatic black man by the name of William Brown was awaiting trial on
charges of raping a white woman. Egged on by elements with ties to a discredited political machine boss, rioters set fire to the courthouse, stole firearms and seized Brown, hanging the 40-year old man minutes later and setting fire to his corpse. Two other men, both white, would be killed by the rioting hordes that night < and the mayor would nearly join the death
toll when he was captured and strung up from a traffic pole.

Perhaps you've seen the infamous photos of Brown's charred body surrounded by a smiling crowd of citizens, but if you're not familiar with this horrific incident, you're not alone. The story of the 1919 Omaha riot is not generally taught in schools outside of Nebraska < in fact, it wasn't until he moved to Omaha that critic and playwright Max Sparber became acquainted
with the event that continues to scar the collective memory of the Husker State.

Here on September 28, 2007, New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch prepares to raise the curtain on a new revival of Sparber's two-actor play"Minstrel Show, or the Lynching of William Brown." It's a work that NJ Rep
Executive Producer Dr. Gabor Barabas characterizes as a "very sensitive piece that deals with many issues."

The 1998 play has engendered its share of controversy since it was first performed in the very courthouse building that still bears the bullet holes from that night in 1919. The show's first full-stage performance in Omaha, a critical and popular success, drew harsh criticism from Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers, who urged a boycott by all African-American
citizens.

The play's appearance in Long Branch has not been without its own measure of conflict. This past week, members of the city's African-American community, objecting to the minstrel-performer imagery displayed on the play's advertising and promotional materials, expressed their displeasure through a series of letters, e-mails and ads in local newspapers.

As reported by Carol Gorga Williams in the Asbury Park Press last week, the management of NJ Rep and the show's cast sat down with Lorenzo "Bill" Dangler, president of the Greater Long Branch chapter of the NAACP, and a group of concerned community members for a September 19 discussion that both sides characterized as a positive one. A cast member praised the meeting as a "good thing...we wanted people to have no misconceptions about our show, and to gain a grasp of what we're trying to accomplish."

Following the meeting, NJ Rep agreed to pull the offending ad materials (a vintage poster image featuring a pair of long-legged, blackface caricatures standing near a noose) from circulation. An invitation to view a rehearsal of the play was extended to anyone who may have issues about the script, and plans were floated to present the show in local schools. In addition, each and every performance of this play (presented without intermission) will be followed by a talk-back session between cast, crew and audience, a chance to"let go of some of that emotion" in the actor's words.

According to the company's Artistic Director SuzAnne Barabas, "We don't want anyone to feel pain over the image...our intent was to show the ugly face of racism, and to move beyond that."

Quoted in the Press article, Dangler maintained that "The play is not the issue," and emphasized that those who opposed the poster "couldn't get past the blackface" of the stereotypes on display.

Despite what the title suggests, there is no real minstrelsy on stage during the course of the play's 80-odd minutes; the action unfolds in the aftermath of the riot and William Brown is nowhere to be seen. Sparber's script centers around two fictional African-American characters, a pair of traveling minstrel showmen, who, like many black performers of their day, make their living by acting in blackface.

When the two men are arrested and held (for purposes of testifying in the official "investigation") in the same cell that had been occupied by Brown, their unease over the tense situation in Nebraska and their uncertainty as to why they're being detained leads to some soul-searching dialogue on the nature of their lives in early 20th century America, and the choices that
they've made to survive in this time and place.

"What the play is ultimately about is their transformation into something that they were not before," Dr. Barabas observes. "They saw themselves through white man's eyes."

For this production, director Rob Urbinati works with actors Spencer Scott Barros and Kelcey Watson, an Omaha native whose history with "Minstrel Show" dates back to that first public showing at the courthouse. While all three have been involved in previous productions (this is the director's sixth visit to this material), the NJ Rep revival represents the first time that the men have worked together.

According to Urbinati, "the actors have a lot of input here as opposed to most plays...Kelcey and Spencer are very energized, very deep and rich actors."

Pointing out the play's ongoing hypercurrency in a time of racially-charged violence and conflict that extends from Louisiana and West Virginia to the Duke frathouses and the Imus show, the director stresses that "it's actually a very funny, entertaining show, in addition to being a sad and moving one...the challenge here is to make the play entertaining."

Having weathered her share of controversy arising from the often edgy and intense work spotlighted by BJ Rep, SuzAnne Barabas observes that "we don't do things just to provoke, although we do tend to both amuse and abuse...we deal with a broad spectrum of issues here, and we hope people continue to see all our plays instead of waiting for one that's more safe."

"Besides, there wouldn't BE a next play if people don't embrace all that we offer."