News
The Boston Globe on THURGOOD
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THURGOOD
directed by Benny Sato Ambush
featuring Johnny Lee Davenport
Extended through Feb 11!
Black Box Theater
Approximately 100 minutes with no intermission.
Featuring Johnny Lee Davenport (The Whipping Man) as Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to sit on the Supreme Court, Thurgood spans Marshall’s impressive career as a lawyer, arguing such landmark cases as Brown v. Board of Education. Presented during the final month of the Obama Administration, Thurgood is a tribute to Marshall’s enduring legacy.
Read the program online!
Regular Singing / Good / Fiddler on the Roof / Thurgood
Brecht on Brecht / Golda’s Balcony / The Gift Horse
Seating Chart
Funded in part by
Bay State Banner
Company
Thurgood Marshall
Johnny Lee Davenport
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Johnny Lee Davenport
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Thurgood Marshall
JOHNNY LEE DAVENPORT* performed at New Repertory Theatre in Oleanna, Thurgood, The Whipping Man, and A House with No Walls. Other area credits include The Unbleached American (Stoneham Theatre); It’s A Wonderful Life, A Radio Play (Wheelock Family Theatre); Water by the Spoonful and Broke-ology/Elliot Norton Award, Best Actor (The Lyric Stage Company); Driving Miss Daisy and Master Harold…and the Boys (Gloucester Stage Company); and Invisible Man/Helen Hayes Award, Best Ensemble (Studio Theatre Washington, D.C. and The Huntington Theatre Company). Mr. Davenport has played more than 50 roles in 24 of Shakespeare’s plays including Richard III (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company); Pericles (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); and Richard II (Shakespeare & Company). Film credits include Ted, The Fugitive, U.S. Marshals, and Ascendants. He was named Best Actor in Boston Magazine (2011). johnnyleedavenport.com
Our hearts are with one of New Rep’s most beloved and talented actors, Johnny Lee Davenport, and his family on the event of his death on February 2, 2020. A master of his craft, ardent advocate for theatre, and a truly fantastic person, he will be sorely missed. Our deepest condolences to his family and friends during this difficult time. Thank you to Johnny Lee Davenport for all that he dedicated to our organization.
Creative Team
News + Media
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WGBH’s Jared Bowen on THURGOOD
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BroadwayWorld on THURGOOD
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WBUR’s The ARTery on THURGOOD
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Read the Color Magazine feature on THURGOOD!
Press Releases
Press Release: THURGOOD
Event Information
SPOTLIGHT SYMPOSIUM
High Stakes: Filling the Supreme Court Vacancy
featuring WBUR’s Louise Kennedy
Sunday, February 5 following 2pm matinee
Free and open to the public! Email symposium@newrep.org to reserve your complimentary spot!
Click here for a list of more Spotlight Symposiums
TALBACKS
The following performances are followed by a talkback discussion with members of the cast and New Rep staff:
Sunday 1/15, 2pm
Sunday 1/15, 7:30pm
Thursday 1/19, 7:30pm
Sunday 1/22, 2pm
Thursday 1/26, 2pm
Sunday 1/29, 2pm
SPECIAL TALKBACK
Civil Rights Lawyer Michael Meltsner
Wednesday, February 1 following 7:30pm performance
Professor Meltsner was first assistant counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in the 1960s and served as dean of the law school from 1979 until 1984. His memoir, The Making of a Civil Rights Lawyer, was published in 2006 (University of Virginia Press). Among his other writings are: Cruel and Unusual: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment; Public Interest Advocacy; Reflections on Clinical Legal Education; and Short Takes, a novel. His most recent book, Rape, Race and Injustice tells the story of a group of law students sent secretly to the South during the 1960s to collect proof of discrimination. His 2011 play “In Our Name: A Play of the Torture Years” has been performed in New York and Boston to great acclaim.
In 1977, Professor Meltsner, who is also a licensed marriage and family therapist, was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has served as a consultant to the US Department of Justice, the Ford Foundation and the Legal Action Center and has lectured in Canada, Egypt, Germany, India,the Netherlands and South Africa. In 2000, he was named a fellow of the American Academy in Berlin and conducted research on German constitutional law. He returned to the School of Law in 2005 after five years as a visiting professor and director of the First-Year Lawyering Program at Harvard Law School. In 2010, he received the Hugo Bedau Award for excellence in death penalty scholarship. In 2012, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by John Jay College (CUNY) and described as the “principal architect of the death penalty abolition movement” in the United States.
Professor Meltsner is currently teaching a seminar on constitutional litigation and a course on the law governing freedom of speech. He is a regular contributor to the press on a range of legal topics.
