Review: CHALLENGING BROWN at Shabach Enterprises

Cris Eli Blak is an award-winning playwright who grew up right here in Houston. He is a staff writer for the STARZ streaming hit series Power Book III: Raising Kanan. His playwriting work has been seen in various cities all-around the world, but this production of CHALLENGING BROWN marks the first time he has been produced here in Htown. Shabach Enterprises (the minds behind the FADE TO BLACK festival) has chosen this piece for the third production in their Vanguard series, showcasing notable black authors. This show runs at the MATCH through August 2nd, and it’s a powerful testament to the vision of both the writer and the producers who are bringing these important works to audiences. 

Inspired by the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, CHALLENGING BROWN tells the story of a black teacher coming to an all-white school in the era after the landmark decision to integrate the education system. It’s Texas, at a time when a black teacher for white students would have been seen as radical. Gordon Brown is at the center, a man haunted by the changes in the world and by his own past as he embarks on a new trail in the public school system. The play examines all of his relationships - wife, best friend, boss, even the ghost of his own younger self, as he tries to grapple with what it means to answer to everything on your own terms. 

Ivan Davison brings Gordon Brown to life onstage, and he does so with an amazing array of emotions and colors. The role asks the actor to play so many aspects of being a man decades ago, and he hits all the right notes. Sierra Glover-Holloway gives a wonderfully grounded performance as his soft-spoken yet mighty wife. She plays moments with a quiet intensity that really works here. Isaiah Holloway is the exact opposite as Price Dennis, the loud and brutish best friend. He is a down-on-his-luck butcher and boxer who, in turn, uplifts and drags down Gordon. Holloway delivers a fiery performance that resonates. Samuel Howard is heartbreaking and achingly real as JoJo Little, a black student who may or may not be what he seems, but serves as the perfect echo of Gordon’s youth. William Grayson and Leslie Lenert get the tough job of being the racist white couple who represent the principal of the school and his wife. Gryason is all too believable when he gets going, and Lenert gives the appropriate feelings of guilt and fear. The acting here is outstanding.  

Director Alric Davis knows how to do this sort of piece, and he stages CHALLENGING BROWN in a genius place that is simultaneously realistic as well as a fever dream inside a man’s head. He guides this one with his usual flair for theatrics combined with devastatingly real emotion. The real world is both haunted and haunting. Phil Graschel’s set nicely transforms to several locales, and the lighting from Nelandon Gregory is inspired. Technically, the show is well-executed, and says as much as the actors do with their performances.  

You will leave with many questions about how we deal with our past and how we can move forward socially while personally constrained. CHALLENGING BROWN asks as much of its audience as it does its characters, and that is the real genius of this script from Cris Eli Blak. Shabach Enterprises has certainly upped the discussion of black issues in the arts, and done it in a way that echoes Gordon Brown’s struggle to outclass his detractors. The show is a nice legacy for them to build. One that honors a writer that Houston can proudly call its own. Cris has a unique voice, and it’s comforting to know that Shabach Enterprises is giving him due praise from his hometown. 

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