Who Holds History?
March 31, 2014鈥擶ith any major event, there are two histories: the one we all know and another version of events that never makes it into history books. Alumnus Isaiah Wooden (C鈥�04) recently returned to Georgetown to direct Insurrection: Holding History, a play that attempts to challenge our notions of time, race, and history. Insurrection will run April 4鈥�12, 2014, in the Gonda Theatre.
Currently a doctoral student in theater and performance studies at Stanford University, Wooden is no stranger to directing at Georgetown. He directed his first play, Wit by alumna Margaret Edson (G鈥�92), while still an undergraduate student. He also served as the artistic advisor for the Black Theatre Ensemble from 2005 to 2008.
鈥淲hile at Georgetown, I discovered the importance of taking both artistic and intellectual risks,鈥� Wooden said. 鈥淭he opportunity to return to the community that first unearthed for me the ways that the critical and the creative, theory, and practice might dialogue鈥攖he community that inspired me to claim both scholar and artist as identities鈥攚as one that I welcomed enthusiastically,鈥� he continued.
Insurrection: Holding History is written by playwright Robert O鈥橦ara, who is often included in Wooden鈥檚 research and teaching. 鈥�Insurrection blurs, blends, and bends time to imagine myriad histories that have gone unrecorded or unremarked,鈥� Wooden said. 鈥淩on, the play鈥檚 central character, uncovers all sorts of absented realities while maneuvering and attempting to manipulate the past in the play.鈥�
Ron is a gay, African American graduate student, who is in the middle of writing his thesis on American slave insurrections. Ron returns home to celebrate the birthday of his great-great-grandfather, T.J., a 189-year-old former slave. T.J. asks Ron if he will take him 鈥渉ome鈥� to the 1830s. 鈥淚n a scene that recalls Dorothy鈥檚 landing in Oz鈥攁 bed flies up in the air, spins, and comes crashing down on the owner of the plantation鈥攖he pair travel back in time,鈥� Wooden said.
With its time travel, spirits, and ghosts, the play broaches 鈥渧ery large questions,鈥� Wooden said. 鈥淚n powerful ways, Insurrection troubles the notion of a singular, authoritative History (with a capital H) and instead, asks us to consider what might be gleaned if we attend to those secrets of the past, ghosting our present, waiting to be realized in time,鈥� he continued.
In his trip through time, Ron encounters those secret pasts not included in our recorded histories, particularly when he meets Hammet, a slave and deputy in Nat Turner鈥檚 rebellion, who is also gay. 鈥淩on and Hammet鈥檚 romance recalls the ghosts of many queer relationships absented from the archive,鈥� Wooden explained.
As Ron encounters these untold portions of history, Insurrection asks, 鈥淲hat is history? Who has the right to tell history? Who determines what kinds of stories get documented or recorded?鈥�
Wooden finds these types of questions intriguing, and they are the basis for much of his work as an artist and scholar. 鈥淢y work has and continues to be animated by a commitment to pursue fully and rigorously a set of questions that I consider compelling and that I think demands my attention,鈥� he explained. 鈥淎s a director-dramaturge, I often choose projects that will allow me to pursue such questions in community, in conversation, [and] in collaboration with others,鈥� he continued.
Robert O鈥橦ara鈥檚 work is distinctive, Wooden says, because it 鈥渟tretches boundaries and expands categories.鈥� O鈥橦ara is currently the playwright-in-residence at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, in Washington, DC. To describe O鈥橦ara鈥檚 plays, Wooden offers a quote from the playwright on how he approaches writing: 鈥淓veryone is welcome and no one is safe.鈥�
鈥淎 willingness to experiment generously and dangerously is no doubt what O鈥橦ara adds to the contemporary theater scene.鈥�