Can you talk a bit about Nat’s relationship with those two men, and how they differed? And the debate that he has with Gray over the course of the play really is about the brutality of slavery versus the brutality of the revolt, and which one engendered which.ĪPT: Nate Burger played two characters: Gray and the guard. And I think with Gray, who published his confession, Nat sees the opportunity for his cause, and for the cause of Black people, to be shared with a larger community and with the country through his story. With Nat, we see a human being who is about to be executed, but who is completely faithful that he did what God told him to do. I wanted people to understand the strength of his convictions. And I wanted to make sure that we understood that this was a man who was led by his faith, and led by messages he truly believed he received from God. Gavin Lawrence: Well, what I did not want was to have an audience come away feeling – as the white people in the 1800s did – that Nat was a lunatic. We explored the many facets of Nat Turner’s story in a recent chat with Gavin.ĪPT: Can you talk a bit about your approach to the play, and the relationship between Nat and Gray? Nat Turner in Jerusalem provides us with a chance to explore a significant historical event, and its controversial leader, with new eyes and new questions about the context. The metaphor in how enslaved people were treated by white Americans allowed me to pit that contradiction against what the lawyer was saying, to Nat, which was ‘How could you do these horrible and dreadful things?’ And the confession basically gives us the answer.“ We’re going to take a look at two of them – one written by Thomas Gray in 1831, and one written by Nathan Alan Davis in 2016.Ĭore Company Actor and Nat Turner in Jerusalem director Gavin Lawrence explored Gray’s document, titled “The Confessions of Nat Turner,” saying “Reading the document helped me understand the conflict in the play, and what each person wanted. While those are the very basic facts, perspective is a different story. And after his capture, before he was executed, Nat Turner told his story to a white lawyer, Thomas Gray, who published that confession. At the time, the event was seized upon as a rallying point for both slaveholders and abolitionists. As you may know, in 1831, Nat Turner led a slave rebellion during which more than 50 people were killed, most of them white. After all, the perceived “winner” can vary greatly depending on the perspective. But to split that hair, history is truly written by those who hold the power. It’s often said that history is written by the winners. We recently talked with Director and APT Core Company Actor Gavin Lawrence about what it was like diving into the different facets of Nat's story, and producing this play for APT.
#Nat tuner box series#
Equity & Anti-Racism Vision & Action PlanĪPT's latest series of "Out of the Woods" play readings continues this Friday with Nathan Alan Davis' Nat Turner in Jerusalem.
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