Metropolitan Playhouse
Virtual Playhouse
Presents
A Screened Reading
of
COMPROMISE
Written by WILLIS RICHARDSON
Featuring
ANTHONY T. GOSS, LINDA
KURILOFF, LILY SANTIAGO,
AL-NISA PETTY, & GEORGE SHEFFEY
Directed by
TIMOTHY JOHNSON
www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/virtualplayhouse
June 13,
2020, 8 p.m.
Jane has compromised so many times with her white neighbor,
Ben. She is the strength and soul of her family. Her husband is dead, her oldest
son is dead, but she has swallowed her resentment in order to keep her children
safe and provide a future for them. A future that will include an education and
a better life.
Ben drops by for coffee every day, rubbing those old
wounds just by his presence. Her remaining son, Alec, carries his anger openly.
He has no use for Ben and can’t understand his mother’s ability to forgive. As
the story unfolds its petals, we see the complicated interweaving of these two
families, as Ben once again wants a compromise. He goes one step too far, even
for Jane. And it may be the last step he ever takes. Jane’s days of compromise
have ended.
Written in 1925 and set in the Maryland countryside, the play
echoes the origins of playwright WILLIS RICHARDSON, the first African American
to have a drama produced on Broadway. Encouraged by W.E.B. DuBois and the power
of the Harlem Renaissance, he wrote prolifically and received a multitude of
awards. Yet today his name is forgotten by most. COMPROMISE
could have been written yesterday. Some things haven’t changed.
-Karen D’Onofrio-