Digging Up the Roots of Samm-Art Williams' Home as It Sprouts a Broadway Revival

Over the past four years, for obvious reasons, “home” has become a symbol of safety and wellbeing. More than 40 years ago, playwright Samm-Art Williams explored the many meanings of the word in his Tony-nominated play Home. This poetic 90-minute drama (with plenty of laughs mixed in) charts the coming of age of Cephus Miles, a North Carolina farmer who suffers a series of losses, is jailed for refusing to fight in Vietnam and makes an ill-considered move to a Northern city before figuring out where he really belongs. Home is now back on Broadway for the first time since 1980 in a revival produced by Roundabout Theatre Company, directed by Kenny Leon and starring Tory Kittles (of TV’s The Equalizer) as Cephus, with Brittany Inge and Stori Ayers juggling multiple roles. It’s bittersweet timing, as the play began previews less than a week after Williams passed away at age 78 in his hometown of Burgaw, North Carolina, the inspiration for the setting of Home.

RURAL ROOTS, BIG-CITY SUCCESS
Born on January 20, 1946, Samuel Arthur Williams was raised by his mother, to whom he dedicated the script of Home. Valdosia Williams, an English and drama teacher, urged her son to read great writers, “from Langston Hughes to Edgar Allan Poe,” he told The Los Angeles Times. Although he grew to 6’ 6”, young Samm was more interested in literature than sports. “I used to write poetry when I was in high school, love poems to my girlfriends and so forth,” he recalled in an interview with The New York Times. “I’ve always been a romantic person.” That strain of tenderness is obvious in his depiction of the relationship between Cephus and his childhood love, Pattie Mae, in Home. After graduating from Morgan State University, Williams moved to Philadelphia in 1968 and on to New York five years later. Like his fictional hero, he found it difficult to adjust to city life after growing up in the rural South. Fortunately, he was quickly cast in a play called Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide at the scrappy Negro Ensemble Company.

A GROUNDBREAKING ENSEMBLE 
Black theater artists in 1970s New York found a vibrant home in the Negro Ensemble Company. Under the artistic direction of co-founder Douglas Turner Ward, the NEC produced almost 100 new works in its first dozen years of existence, featuring a versatile company of actors, writers and directors including Mary Alice, Angela Bassett, David Alan Grier and Denzel Washington. Home base was St. Mark’s Playhouse on Second Avenue in the East Village, although a few productions made it to Broadway, notably the 1974 Tony-winning play The River Niger. Young Samm Williams joined the company in 1974, first as an actor and later (billed as Samm-Art Williams) as a playwright. Home opened at St. Mark’s Playhouse in December 1979, starring Charles Brown, L. Scott Caldwell and Michele Shay, directed by Ward.

BROADWAY AND BEYOND 
In an era when New York Times theater critics could make or break a production, the off-Broadway premiere of Home received a rave from Mel Gussow. “In all respects—writing, direction and performance—this is one of the happiest theatrical events of the season,” he declared. “Mr. Williams is clearly in love with words, which in his hands become a rolling caravan of images. If [Mark] Twain were black and from North Carolina, he might have written like Samm-Art Williams.” With support from producers Elizabeth McCann and Nelle Nugent, Home transferred to Broadway’s Cort Theater (now the James Earl Jones), where it opened on May 7, 1980, and ran for eight months. Williams and Brown received Tony nominations for Best Play and Best Actor, and the play quickly became a regional theater staple. A 1982 production at Washington’s Arena Stage starred Samuel L. Jackson, S. Epatha Merkerson and Elain Graham. Signature Theatre Company mounted an off-Broadway revival in 2009 starring Kevin Carroll, January LaVoy and Tracey Bonner. Williams went on to a successful career as a writer and executive producer of popular TV shows including Martin and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

THE RETURN OF A MODERN CLASSIC
Plays are meant to be seen, not read, and that old axiom is especially true of Home. On the page, Williams jumps from Cephus’ tall tales of a one-armed guitar player and a man whose hard head can bend a pitchfork to the hero’s anguished inner monologues, with the two female actors serving as a constantly shifting Greek chorus. On the stage, these elements leap to life in a rare combination of sweetness and depth of feeling. Williams specified a minimal set and simple direction, the better to show off the skill and chemistry of the three actors. “It’s something Broadway needs, the kind of storytelling that is almost bare bones,” says Brittany Inge, who plays Pattie Mae and an array of other characters. “No smoke and mirrors, just getting to the root of ‘What are we here to do? What are we here to say? Let’s just tell the stories and connect as humans.’” Adds Tory Kittles, “Reviving this beautiful piece of art that [Samm-Art Williams] made over 40 years ago, it’s a beautiful thing. Great writing is timeless.”

THE LEON TOUCH
A Tony winner for directing the 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun, Kenny Leon has made it his mission, as he explained to Broadway.com, to look for ways “of going back in our past, presenting plays that deserve a wider audience.” Since 2010, he has been nominated for three additional Best Director Tonys (for August Wilson’s Fences, Charles Fuller’s A Soldier’s Play and this season’s irresistible production of Ossie Davis’ Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch) and has mounted vibrant Broadway revivals of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog and Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders. Having directed Samm-Art Williams’ play Brass Birds Don’t Sing in a 2018 production in Atlanta, Leon enthusiastically agreed to bring Home back to Broadway at Roundabout. “I’m honored and humbled to do this,” he says. Referencing his forthcoming Broadway revivals of Our Town (starring Jim Parsons) and Othello (starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal), he says, “I think Samm-Art Williams belongs in that army. I’m interested in how Samm-Art talks to Thornton Wilder and how Wilder talks to Shakespeare, and as I work on all three plays for the next season, I am the happiest director in America.” As for Home, he says simply, “It’s always a great time to bring a story that leans into love and joy.”