So, first things first. I think we can all agree that a lot’s changed since 1857. I mean, sure, you could play devil’s advocate, blow a few minds with some parallel factoids if you thought about it, but let’s just agree - that was a while ago. Now, one of the things we’ve been exploring with Old Paper Houses is the way history lingers in spaces - from historical plaques to ghosts (of course) to a vague sense of inspiration/destiny/”chills.” With those two thoughts in mind, it gives us great pleasure to tell you a bit more about our hosts for this run - The Irondale Center in Fort Greene. In 2008, the Irondale Ensemble (which has been making theater in New York City for over thirty years) completed renovation of the former Sunday school auditorium of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church. The space is beautiful, theatrical, historical, and alive - which is only appropriate given its association with a congregation, organized in 1857 (there it is!) with an explicitly abolitionist mission. That is to say, from its inception, this community was committed to the most pressing fight for justice of its time.
Through the nineteenth-century the church continued to take up progressive causes; this pearl-clutching blurb from 1872 in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle gasps:
The called session [of the Presbytery court] is to take action upon the report that the pastor of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D., has recently invited and permitted a lady preacher, Miss Smiley, an orthodox Quaker minister, to occupy and preach in his pulpit.
A lady preacher! Quite the scandalous (I believe the word employed at the time was “promiscuous”) affair. One can only imagine the delightful heresies that were taught in the Sunday school that now teaches countless delightful heresies as a theater.
Through the nineteenth-century the church continued to take up progressive causes; this pearl-clutching blurb from 1872 in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle gasps:
The called session [of the Presbytery court] is to take action upon the report that the pastor of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D., has recently invited and permitted a lady preacher, Miss Smiley, an orthodox Quaker minister, to occupy and preach in his pulpit.
A lady preacher! Quite the scandalous (I believe the word employed at the time was “promiscuous”) affair. One can only imagine the delightful heresies that were taught in the Sunday school that now teaches countless delightful heresies as a theater.
The church itself continues to host an active, multicultural congregation - you can read more about their history here: http://www.lapcbrooklyn.org/#!history/c21ta. For us, the opportunity to perform in a space so connected not only to “history” in a general “cool old stuff” sense but specifically to the kind of idealistic, activist history that informs Old Paper Houses is incredibly exciting. As Dr. David Gregg, former pastor of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, said in an essay published in 1896: "We possess nothing more valuable than history. History broadens human life by bringing the life of the one man into touch with the lives of all men." Will we discover, in moments here and there, the coexistence of all the old ghosts, gathered in the auditorium to talk through their failures and successes; regrouping and looking forward - maybe with a few snacks, and a little music to lift the mood? Fingers crossed!
P.S. (think of this as a casual footnote) to find more tidbits about this space or almost any space in Brooklyn, check out the Brooklyn Daily Eagle archives online. This is a favorite Piehole internet resource: http://bklyn.newspapers.com/
For the David Gregg essays mentioned above, check out Makers of the American Republic, David Gregg, D.D., E.B. Treat and Company, New York, 1905. What, you say, how could I possibly? Archive.org baby!!
For the David Gregg essays mentioned above, check out Makers of the American Republic, David Gregg, D.D., E.B. Treat and Company, New York, 1905. What, you say, how could I possibly? Archive.org baby!!
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