Actors david selby and Craig Wallace. All these men have either appeared on the ford stage or created works that appeared on the ford stage. We are to have them with us today. Like to say weve been watching demonstrations unfold in our neighborhoods and across the nation. We know we have work to do. We commit to using our platform to tell stories that speak to the present moment with courage, abrahamion, and lincolns presidency. A specific play in which they all took part, assess every very sacrifices, which fords theater premiered in 2012. This play explores the relationship between president lincoln and the abolitionist Frederick Douglass. It seems particularly important this week to consider the leadership of these two great americans as they helped our country find its way through one of our greatest crises. I want to start this afternoon just by welcoming you all, thank you so much for being with us from across the country, d. C. Ornia, and washington, i want to start with richard. Tell us a bit more about the play, which is how and why did you put the play together . Richard it is the story of two meetings that happened at the white house during the civil war between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Of 1863 andummer the other in summer of 1864 a year later in which they basically went at it. First over how to get the andtry through this crisis secondly when the crisis was over, try to envision what kind of country we wanted when the war was over because we couldnt wait until then to start shaping this. First is it about douglas trying to make lincoln make the war and abolition war and finally when he agrees to that, both of them realizing they have to face the implications of that in terms of black citizenship and equal rights so it is a push, pull between the two of them. The glyphs is an outsider, instigator, agitator, agitating for what he believes needs to happen. Lincoln is an insider. Hes trying to say it is going to be harder than you think it is because it is politics and institutions involved. He said the play was commissioned via the center for education and leadership was going to open across the street. One destiny, some of you may now. I got a menial in the fall of 2010 asking if i would be interested in writing a play for 2012. The thing you need to realize his commissions often come with parameters and there are things the theater wants you to do to rewrite the play. Almost like an assignment. One destiny. I found my assignment for this play and there was in email. We would like it to be an exploration of leadership, focus on lincoln, three to five characters with a simple set, one of the characters to be africanamerican if possible and we go into rehearsal in one year. Ok . Paul not specific enough. Richard it is what it is. We would like one character to be africanamerican. What i felt at that point, especially with small casts, i didnt want the character to be minor. I didnt want that character to be a servant, to be one of those multiple roleplaying people who plays three to five parts. I wanted that person to be a legitimate, dramatic character in the play. My first email response back to what about Frederick Douglass . He was the first one who came to mind and we chewed on it and kick it around for a while and bless your heart, sarah, i remember sarah had mentioned a book called the radical and the republican. The radical and the republican by james oakes. The subtitle is frederick douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the triumph of antislavery politics and when i read it, i got to the part where they met for the first time and i said that is it. Have the characters, the situation, theme, setting, focus , so now it is go. Let me come back to that from there but before i do that, i want to bring david and craig into the conversation here. Lincolnou have played in many, many venues all across the country and you have played for fords theatre previous to in a production that commemorated the bicentennial, the heavens are hung in black. Youve played lincoln in numerous places. What made you what drew you to this play . What made you feel like this was worth youre bringing lincoln back to the stage . Think because of the relationship between douglas and theyln and how important feltto each other, i just and then when i read the play and ive had the same reaction in this last days leading up to now going back, reading it again, i still have my script in my folder right here. Notes and my andng in my comments, everybodys notes or whatever that pertain, especially that just to lincoln but i i dont know. It just spoke to me. Way ito me in a just goes back to what richard said. I found that here were two , ironically, in a certain way, not the same upbringing, but very similar. Notre both particularly well educated in a formal education sense. Douglas, we knew, was a slave. Born and raised a little bit down in kentucky and they moved up to illinois and his life, he was driven, such as to dos was driven something, they just had an energy and they werent people that they would compromise, but they remembered why they were doing what they were doing to better make the world a and if they could do that, that was it, and it just spoke to me in those ways. Terrific. A veryof course, you had different a very unique journey coming to necessary sacrifices and im not going to set it up anywhere, but why dont you just tell us a little about your journey and how you. Ot here i know it would short and rapid, but ill let you go and tell us. Well, i was in reversal for a production of to kill a mockingbird at milwaukee. We were at our first week of her personal and alley i got a call. She says to me, would you be willing to leave that show and come to fords and play Frederick Douglass in our production of necessary sacrifices . Your current Frederick Douglass at the time had taken ill. Long story short, i arrived on a thursday, we texted that weekend and that next week, we had an audience. It was exciting and terrifying all at the same time. But thanks to everybody at ,ords and david, in particular i got to know the play, learn the play, and ultimately do it and enjoy doing it. You were not only it is one thing to step in and, well, im going to fill in here, but you not only came from afar and dropped in and what a lifesaver you were for us, but you actually embodied the character and the role so brilliantly. By the end of it come a we were. Ll thinking, my god could we have ever imagined anyone else doing this play and watching you and david on stage was really just a treat and a dream and just a great place to go and so a whirlwind for you, but thank you. It was already strong going in. They had already built it. I just moved my stuff in. If i remember correctly, with a performance were to. Setames, i believe, was our designer. The script was written in this beautiful script with parchment paper so it looked like Frederick Douglass was carrying around this book when in fact it was my script. It all worked and it really was not only a beautiful production and i think the audience felt that way, but one that was very popular with , eightes and people years after we produced the show , and people still talk about necessary sacrifice and i think , we knowt is that douglas and lincoln were contemporaries, they were in the washington at the same time, but we dont often think about, they and that isersected one of the things that keep this intriguing to audiences but one of the questions i wanted to talk to you, richard was, one of the things i think fords has always been so successful at is this intersection of history and aboutr and so you talk the two meetings that Frederick Douglass had with lincoln at the white house. Douglas went to the white house on two occasions, had meetings with lincoln. What else do we know about those two meetings . Almost nothing, which is why it is great for a dramatist because it is wide open at that point. You do have a responsibility to the time and the people. All we know pretty much everything we know about it first hand is from douglas because he wrote a couple of letters. He mentioned the first meeting of the speech. About a meeting lincoln and going to the white house. Extensively init his third autobiography. By that time, he was puffing up his image so it got a little embellished. Course, he never left an autobiography and spoke about it so we know nothing about that. All we know is what douglas said and whatever contextual things we can find out about policy that was going on at the time. I had the bare bones of this that there were these two meetings, they did happen. I did some Historical Research to find out about those meetings, but obviously no one was in the room so you cant know what they said. It wasnt recorded and thats the intersection of history and drama becomes interesting because it is not history. It is drawn. It has to be drama, to work as trauma. You do have a sense of history hanging over back here. You are not outraging it too much. It is an interesting box to be in. Paul listen, we have a very special treat today that craig and david have agreed to read a and imom the play, going to let richard set up the scene and give us a little synopsis. I want to remind the audience that this is a reading. We gave the script to craig and david, or gave them the excerpt a couple of days ago and certainly they are going to read it for us, but richard, would you set up the scene and we will let these guys show us their amazing prowess of these two great men. The setup. It is 1860 three, the summer after the emancipation proclamation, and one of the elements of the proclamation was black men were accepted into the economy for the first time and douglas became army for the first time and douglas became a passionate recruiter. His sons were the first to sign up for the 54th massachusetts. Once we get that gold button and musket in our hands and fight for the nation, they will never be able to deny us our rights. Even though they were getting half the pay of white soldiers and they were not allowed to become officers, at least we have this chance and he was a very successful recruiter. As soon as they were off to fighting battles, the south orders any black troops captured were to be shot or sent into slavery. They were not to be treated like regular prisoners. The word from lincoln was silence and that dated for douglas. Everything else is problematic. Unless i get some support for backup from the white house so and he to washington didnt exactly blow him off but offered him a commission in the army to go recruit, essentially saying, be quiet. Went he was next door, he to the white house unannounced to take it up with lincoln and sent in his card, lincoln brought him in and just before the scene in his most folksy, humorous, politician way, lincoln talks douglas down, or so he thinks, about the pay and promotions. Lincoln is thinking, great. Douglas will go back and recruit black troops. Thanks for stopping by. Then, this. Gentlemen. Ight, well, i will be grateful to have you recruiting. It is good to talk with you, mr. Douglas. Craig theres something else. Emoluments clauses go on go on. Suppose i go to the Mississippi Valley and suppose in the course of those efforts, i should be captured by the rebels. You know what Jefferson Davis has decreed. David one moment. Negro captured while fighting for the union is a dead man. At the very least, sold into slavery, whether he be a free man or a runaway. David i know what you are driving at, douglas, and you wronged me. Craig you can pay them double, make every soldier a general, but if they have no protection david protection . You are talking about retaliation. Killing southern prisoners. Answering murder with murder. Craig if the alternative is answering murder with silence. David not so fast. Craig pay and promotion is fine. Those black it, but men who joined your army are my responsibility and when they fought like heroes at fort hudson and militant spend and for wagner, only to be tied up and shot or stabbed or beaten to death and nothing. Not a word came from the president of the United States. David you dont want protection. You want retaliation. You want revenge. Craig i want justice. David it is not justice to kill a man for something he didnt do. Craig only because the prisoners youd have to shoot might be rebels, but they are white. Isnt that it . David that is surely what the country will say. We knew lincoln would get to this. Now white men are to be killed. Craig to be killed by niggers. David nevertheless, i have ordered it, against every bit of my better judgment. 10 days ago. For every soldier the United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed. For everyone enslaved by the enemy, a rebel soldier shall be placed in hard labor until the other shall be released. Craig i didnt know. David how more killing will lead to less, i dont know, but the army seems to agree with you. David craig can you guarantee this policy will be carried out . David why do you doubt it . Craig because, excellency, with all due respect, you have a pension for compromise david never mind. I know what you think of me. Youve certainly filled your newspapers with it for all to but the most sad and disheartening feature of our present military situation is not the various disasters experienced by our armies and the hesitating, vacillating policy of the president of the United States. Craig that is not precisely what i meant. David oh, well, looks pretty damn precise to me. An administration without policy is an administration without brains since while a thing is to be done, it provides a known way to do it and he who professes his ability to do it but cannot show how it is to be done, confesses his own imbecility. Craig i wasnt aware you had a subscription. David i dont, but thats hardly the way to get me to buy one. Craig i wrote that when the emancipation was still a question. David now you know the answer. Said i wouldwhat i do . Craig so far as it goes. David but i did itdavid , and no man can say that having once taken a position, i have contradicted it or retreated from it. I may go slow, and i may find roundabout ways to get were ongoing, but i get there. Craig and in in maine in the meantime, people suffer. Neednt lecture me on suffering. There are dispatches on this table that would make you shudder. I read them every day. I would stop every bit of it if i could. Craig Jefferson Davis issued his order when the first colored regiments were formed. Why didnt you order retaliation on the same day . The peoplepeople, had to accept it first. Craig that is why i have such doubts. Stop accepting it may be the day you stop enforcing it. David i issued my order and expect it to be followed. Hesitating, im sorry but i can only go as hard and fast as the people of this country let me. Craig that is not leadership. David it is in a democracy. Something. The suffering of any soldier cuts me to the core, but there coloredo progress where soldiers are concerned until the country feels the same way. Need as it is, the people to be as moved by the suffering and gallantry of negro troops as they were at antietam or shiloh. Now, i did not send your intending into battle for them to be butchered afterwards. Craig but it happened. And would it were not so, but having happened in the cause of bringing the country along, those men at fort wagner, and militants they, i read those reports too. They became necessary sacrifices to that end. Craig so thats it . They died to make a point . But if there all, thatpoint to be made, is not one you yourself would make . Craig then you may keep your. Ommission i will give you no more necessary sacrifices until you tell me which one you consider necessary. Im sorry to have taken your time, excellency. God lets you bless you. Paul bravo, bravo. I mean, this is just a small of what the play is about, monumental, two historical characters in our history and their relationship, and you can see the tension between douglas and lincoln in this scene, but as most of us know, there was that tension throughout their lifetime and all of you can join in and china in here, but douglas was one of one ofmost lincolns biggest supporters is , butbly the wrong word after lincoln died, douglas always intoned lincoln because he knew lincoln was on the right side. In my right, richard . Richard i think so. He knew that he went farther than others. I dont think he ever felt he had gone far enough but laudively speaking, he did lincoln for as far as he went. If lincoln had not died, i believe that relationship would have continued. I think he would have had douglas back. The phrase, i keep coming to the phrase the stone that sharpens the knife. I think of douglas as the stone that kept sharpening lincolns knife. Not that lincoln was not sharp to begin with, but he needed to be pushed and guided and the fact that they did see each recognized something of themselves and the other and that is why they were able to listen. It would have been so easy for lincoln to simply say no, im not going to see him. In most famous black man america just showed up outside your door and i have a line of people to see. Him, orgoing to see brought him in and whatever the 19th century equivalent of a photo op was. Great to see you, how do you like the proclamation . Have a nice day. But he brought him in and listened. It didnt mean the agreed and it didnt mean they had differences, but they respected each other enough to listen to what each other had to say. Paul just revisiting your script craig revisiting your script, it strikes me that lincoln had a great way of massaging douglass shoulders so he could relax and they could talk to each other. Sound. Ink we lost your craig am i not with david i can hear you. Paul maybe its me. Craig yeah, great. You know, i mean in the beginning of this play paul i need to be [indiscernible] Craig Douglass goes in there ready for a fight. But lincoln has a way of making him breathe. So they can still have the argument. But thats where the listening actually comes in, which i think is great. Richard i agree with you. I think thats what were talking about with lincolns style, his personal style. When you read about him, everybody talks about his way of disarming people, to bring you along. And i think youre right. It could have been extremely confrontational. Also, hes the president. He couldve easily said, i have no time. Just go. Whats really interesting to me is after the first meeting, when all of this happened, the second meeting was actually lincoln who invited douglass. He issued the invitation because he wanted to talk to him again about what was happening in the country. And where we were going at that point a year later