“The people I am most fond of are those who are not quite achieved, who are not very wise, a little mad, ‘possessed.’ A man slightly possessed is not only more agreeable to me; he is altogether more plausible, more in harmony with the general tune of life, a phenomenon unfathomed yet, and fantastic, which makes it at the same time so confoundedly interesting.”
- Maxim Gorky
Chris Butler and Jason Delane in a Staged-Reading of Lolita Chakrabarti’s “Hymn” (2024)
A Staged-Reading
The House That Will Not Stand by Marcus Gardley is a powerful and thought-provoking play that explores themes of identity, legacy, and the complexities of family dynamics. The story is set in New Orleans and centers around a family of women navigating love, power, and the tension between personal desires and cultural expectations. The house itself becomes a metaphor for the emotional and historical weight carried by the characters as they confront their pasts.
Directed by Bernadette Speakes
This play will be presented as a staged-reading by Lower Depth Theatre in partnership with A Noise Within as part of their Noise Now program.
March 22 at 7:30pm & March 23 at 2:00pm
at A Noise Within – Lawrence Hall, 3352 E Foothill Blvd, Pasadena, CA
Director - Bernadette Speakes
Cast
Yvonne Huff Lee - Marie Josephine
Veralyn Jones - Beartrice Albans
Mark Doerr - Lazare Albans
June Carryl - Makeda
Joy De Michelle - La Veuve
Cherish Monique Duke - Agnès Albans
Jasmine Ashanti - Maude Lynn Albans
Tori Danner - Odette Albans
Stage Reader - Elliyah Banks
Dramaturg - Lindsay A. Jenkins
Stage Manager - TBD
Lower Depth Theatre Team
Gregg T. Daniel - Artistic Director, Founding Member, Producer
Jason DeLane - Artistic Associate, Founding Member
Yvonne Huff Lee - Artistic Associate, Board President, Founding Member
Veralyn Jones - Artistic Associate, Founding Member
Drina Durazo - Company Manager, Producer
A Noise Within Team
Alison Rodriguez - Associate Producer
THE HOUSE THAT WILL NOT STAND had its New York City premiere at New York Theatre
Workshop (Jim Nicola, Artistic Director; Jeremy Blocker, Managing Director) in 2018.
Originally presented by New York Stage and Film Company and the Powerhouse Theatre at Vassar in July, 2012.
Originally commissioned and produced by Berkeley Repertory Theatre (Tony Taccone, Artistic Director; Susan Medak, Managing Director), Berkeley, CA, and Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director), New Haven, CT.
First performed in the UK by the Tricycle Theatre, London.
This program pulls back the curtain on how we choose our work. In Depth started as a way to take the pulse of the cultural conversations the community wants to have. We open up the decision making process by engaging the audience in a post-reading discussion on interwoven social issues…
In this 5- to 6-day immersion workshop we bring together actors, directors, playwright, and dramaturge to create the bones of new work, or to continue shaping a work in progress. A deep dive into the creative process, the workshop…
Part two of our “Cycle of Violence” Commissions Series.
Our annual Playwright Commission Fellowship is designed to create and support a pipeline of BIPOC and/or women-identifying playwrights. Each year, selected fellows are paired with a mentor who will guide them as they finish a full-length play in an 11 month process, culminating in a reading festival at the end of the program.
In 2022, Lower Depth Theatre launched our Playwright Commission Fellowship with a cohort of four diverse and early to mid career playwrights. The program is designed to address the inequity of female and BIPOC voices in the new play space by creating and supporting a pipeline of BIPOC and/or women-identifying playwrights. Selected fellows will finish a full-length play during the 11-month process, culminating in a reading festival in 2023. All participants of the program are paired with a mentor who is best suited to serve each playwright’s unique needs.
The 2022 theme is “the Cycle of Poverty”, a systemic social and racial issue that our marginalized communities face here in the United States. We hope to generate narratives within the Commission Fellowship that will elevate consciousness, deepen our understanding of a moral and social issue while triggering a call to activism.
Our ‘Cycle of Violence’ Commission Series raises consciousness about the ways violence manifests in our world and the impact it has on the community. Featuring three commissions about sex trafficking, honor killings & women in prison.
Lower Depth brought together ten playwrights from across the country to create eleven brand new ten-minute short plays within two weeks. The new plays captured how the 2020 pandemic impacted and reshaped the lives of people across racial, ethnic, socio-economic, and gender boundaries.
The “second wave” of our ‘Pandemic Plays’ series featured six brand new ten-minute plays that captured the tremendous power, hope, fear and suppression surrounding the “American vote.” This collection of thought-provoking, witty, and all-too-relevant plays merged the genre of science fiction with the imminence of the November 2020 election.
Chester, a modern-day vigilante property bounty-hunter has found a way to take back what was stolen, one plot at a time. Finding his first clients, he reaches out to "Pooky" and his family to reclaim what a certain boll weevil has taken. And now, it's on.
Through our Advocacy in Action initiative, Lower Depth has hosted two documentary screenings for "The Blood is at the Doorstep" and "I am Jane Doe."
Our annual poker fundraiser — Some win, some lose but it’s always a blast!
Our virtual holiday party fundraiser, hosted by DJ Shammy Dee, featured three spoken word artists, a dance party, and many, many ugly sweaters.
