The tale of Senator John F. Kerry asking for Swiss cheese on the cheese steak he ordered at Pat's King of Steaks last August, might rank as Philadelphia's best recent conception of "political drama." However, according to InterAct Theatre's Playwright in Residence Thomas Gibbons, Philadelphia audiences are yearning for "real" current events.

"Philadelphia provides politically charged events on a regular basis especially for dramatists and audiences who want to see deeper issues being explored," he said.

A pol committing a Philly faux pas is not what Mr. Gibbons meant.

On Friday, October 24th, Mr. Gibbons, who will receive the sixth premiere of one of his plays at InterAct, is now dramatizing the recent controversies that have taken place at the Barnes Foundation. With his renowned emphasis on the relationship between race and power, he has been inspired by the real life chronicle of former Barnes Executive Director Richard Glanton's suit against the foundation, as well as the struggle to relocate the art collection from Merion to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. "Permanent Collection" is the fictional treatment of a conservative institution placed at odds with pressures to become more egalitarian.

In the play, the new African American director Sterling North notices that there are hundreds of works by African American artists stationed in the museum's storage. He faces off against the Caucasian education director who insists that the will of the museum's founder (a character who is based on Dr. Albert Coombs Barnes) must be obeyed. The art, which is mostly the work of Caucasian artists, he says, must stay on the walls, as-is.

An overzealous newspaper reporter catalyzes much of the rage of the piece. A young female foundation staff member's conflicting sympathies clarify both sides of the argument. The private debate becomes public. Philadelphia audiences, while they watch the racial fireworks are forced to ask themselves why there are not more plays like "Permanent Collection," produced in their city.

The forty-eight year-old Mr. Gibbons is a Philadelphia native. He was born in Mayfair and grew up in King of Prussia. He attended Archbishop Caroll High School in Radnor. He was in the honors program at Villanova where he obtained a bachelor in Liberal Arts, which he said, "was the most useful and useless of studies," and concentrated mostly in English with a fair amount of History. Mr. Gibbons teaches a playwriting course at LaSalle University. He works a day job at a publishing company in Philadelphia as a medical editor. His works have been produced in countless states. He lives in Center City, where he both is bringing up his son Benjamin, and, premieres his works at InterAct.

"A play should be dangerous, challenging the viewer to realize the inequalities defining our present culture," Mr. Gibbons explained. "Race relations form the central aspect of life in America whose history cannot be discussed without figuring race relations at the core." He summed up, "Slavery is the original sin in

America, which we are still trying to overcome."

Director Seth Rozin added, "Tom is the only playwright currently being produced in Philadelphia who continually deals with social and political themes, realistically." Mr. Rozin, who directed all six of Mr. Gibbons' InterAct plays continued, "'Permanent Collection' is the continuance of a very fertile relationship between InterAct and him. Tom's works deepen the meaning of our theatre's social and political mission."

Mr. Rozin, who grew up two blocks from the Barnes Foundation, co-founded InterAct in 1988 and is the President of the National New Play Network.

"Tom's messages deal with Philadelphia as opposed to a larger radius yet at the same time reach the nation at large," Mr. Rozin said.

InterAct, where Mr. Gibbons has been Playwright in Residence since 1990, advertises that its mission is to foster positive social change in the workplace, the community and school by producing new and contemporary plays that explore social, political, and cultural issues.

Mr. Gibbons said, "InterAct is exceptional in its attitude regarding original works, understanding that new plays are the life blood of theatre."

InterAct produces three new plays annually. Its staff hones the writing of playwrights through workshops and dramaturgical consultation. The "InterAction" program has partnered with the City of Philadelphia's Commission on Human Relations to bring theatre workshops into public and private schools to reinforce groups to interact with one another.

"It is unavoidable to live in Philadelphia and not see that what happens here has a national impact," Mr. Rozin said.

InterAct Dramaturg Larry Loebell explained that "Permanent Collection" is a diversion from the author's more journalistic mien. "Black Russian," for instance was the true story of an African American agronomist in the Soviet Union. "6221" covered the 1985 Philadelphia MOVE bombings. "bee-luther-hatchee" was inspired by a 1997 newspaper article about a prize-winning book that had been billed as the autobiography of an eighty year-old aboriginal woman, which was actually written by a middle-aged Caucasian man.

Mr. Loebell said, "Tom blurs the line between art and life, through a powerfully and highly original story line about the Barnes Foundation."

Presently, Mr. Gibbons could not have found a "current event" seemingly more volatile than the Barnes dilemma. While the foundation's plan to avoid bankruptcy by moving its multibillion-dollar art collection from Lower Merion to Center City appears to be at risk, subject matter is not scarce. Lincoln University's recent opposition to Barnes' proposal to move to a "museum row" and its claims of racism threaten to scare away backers. Lincoln believes that it had been excluded from helping in the location of the three foundations which have now proposed to donate $150 million toward the move. The three regional private foundations, which are Pew Charitable Trusts, the Lenfest Foundation and the Annenberg Foundation were founded and led by Caucasians. Even though the predominantly African American college nominated four of the five present museum board members (an arrangement granted the school in Dr. Barnes' indenture), the college feels that it has been allegedly blindsided in the relocation plan which proposes to expand Barnes' board to fifteen members. Lincoln's representation would remain at four, losing the majority control of the board which it attained in 1989.

"As a lawyer, I find it amazing that when a person dies, his survivors think they know what the deceased had in mind," said James S. Ettelson, The President of Merion Township's Board of Commissioners, who joked, "I am interested in catching Tom's play at InterAct because maybe the problems will at least work themselves out on stage."

A Merion native, Mr. Ettelson practices in the areas of corporate and business law with an emphasis on equity and debt finance negotiation.

"Although Chicago debuts more new plays than all other cities, and Minneapolis has more theatres per square mile, the talent pool is the deepest in Philadelphia," Mr. Gibbons said.

Mr. Gibbons said that he feels that Philadelphia, where he mentioned there is no shortage of controversial subject matter, is one of the best theatre towns in the USA. His controversial 1993 play about the MOVE bombings not only won Mr. Rozin a Best Director citation by the Philadelphia Inquirer, but proved that Philadelphia audiences appreciate a good political drama now and then.

He explained that New York's legendary reputation for having the largest well of theatrical talent is dubious.

"New York circulates a smaller pool of currently working actors, directors and designers which is only half as large as Philly's," said Mr. Gibbons.

He added, "Although most actors are drawn to Manhattan, the qualitative talent circulating in the five-county area dwarfs that in the Big Apple by two to one."

"However, I wish there were more new plays produced in Philadelphia," he lamented. "There are simply not enough opportunities for local playwrights."

Mr. Loebell explained that the mission of the Washington D.C.-based National New Play Network is to continue the production life of new plays.

"Through the cultivating of audiences, dissemination of plays among member theatres, communities and artists with the location of regional and national funding resources," Mr. Loebell said, "NNPN helps plays survive beyond their premieres. In towns like Philadelphia, that's a boost which the best playwrights need."

He added, "NNPN especially avails works such as 'Permanent Collection' which is the vital continuation and deepening of Tom's themes of race and power calling for a continued production life."

While watching the play, which Mr. Loebell affirmed, "is not a documentary," one will nevertheless be reminded of the troubled tenure of former Barnes Director Mr. Glanton. In 1996, Mr. Glanton filed a federal civil rights lawsuit accusing the Foundation's neighbors and the Merion zoning board of racism after residents protested his plans to build a parking lot. The courts dismissed the suit, calling it "cynically brought" and "frivolous" and ordered African American Mr. Glanton to pay the defendants' legal fees. According to charges made by Barnes' board, Mr. Glanton meanwhile racked up $225,000 in personal expenses, leading the museum to a $3.4 million deficit. Despite the proceeds coming from a very successful world tour of French impressionist artwork which the spendthrift Mr. Glanton had organized, the museum gradually obliterated its $10 million endowment.

According to the 1999 audit, the trustees failed to pass annual budgets for 1993, 1994 and 1996, and supervise Glanton's business decisions or question his expenses. Tim Moyer, who starred in the premieres of "Black Russian" and "bee-luther-hatchee," as well as thirteen other InterAct plays, will portray the fictional Caucasian education director, Paul Barrow who will voice the temerity of a culture viewing innovations proposed by its prodigal African American leaders with cynicism.

Kimberly Camp, Executive Director of the Barnes foundation who has read the play said, "Fictional characters such as Barrow are strictly make-believe."

She mentioned that in the version of the play she read, Mr. Barrow will be leading picketers outside of the museum, protesting the rearranging of the artwork, insisting that such a person has never worked at Barnes.

"Although Mr. Glanton had his difficulties, and although the Merion neighbors were accused of racism, nobody like Barrow ever existed at Barnes," Ms. Camp said. Although in September, the foundation announced that it had won Lincoln University's support for its plan to move the artwork, the storied legacy of the foundation is still worthy of dramatic treatment.

In 1996, Mr. Glanton had sued to break the by-laws that prohibit selling the Barnes' paintings, but he lost that suit as well. Frank X will play Sterling North, the fictional director who attempts to modify the museum's exclusionary charter.

"Frank X who has starred in three of my premieres is one of the great Philadelphia actors for whom I write parts," said Mr. Gibbons.

Mr. X has appeared in eleven InterAct productions, playing Misha in "Black Russian," for which Mr. Gibbons won the 1997 Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play in 1997. Mr. X won the 1996 Barrymore Award for Outstanding Lead Actor. Mr. Moyer has acted in or directed thirteen InterAct productions, including two of Mr. Gibbons' premieres and has been starring in Philadelphia theatres for twenty-five years. Maureen Torsney-Weir, who has appeared in six InterAct productions since 1997, plays the reporter Gilian Crane who contemplates whether defying the will of the founder would injure an institution whose originator had boldly intended to promote the works of African Americans in a Caucasian-dominated society.

Tom McCarthy, a forty-plus-year veteran Philadelphia stage and television actor, plays the character based on Dr. Barnes, seen in flashback sequences. He intends "Dr. Morris" to be a figure every bit as controversial as Dr. Barnes.

While promoting African American artists such as Horace Pippin and Aaron Douglas, a character based on Dr. Barnes might betray the truth that his will has eventually served to oppress African American artists and the working class whose creative energy Dr. Barnes had sought to preserve. Was Dr. Barnes, who in denying upper crust visitation, really so myopic in his cynicism toward mainline bluebloods that he could not foresee that his foundation's future would become aggravated by the line which he had scored deeper between the classes by encouraging the media circus embodied in the Gilian Crane character? Could he not have foreseen when he indentured in his will that the arrangement of the art on the walls should never change, that the museum would never again display the new artwork of African American artists?

"There is nothing in over eight-hundred-thousand archival documents which my staff and I have read, which shows that Dr. Barnes was either spiteful, or, a racist," Ms. Camp said.

T.S. Eliot was refused the right to visit the art work. Dr. Barnes responded to the poet's request to visit with a single word, "Nuts." After three failed attempts, James A. Michener had to pretend that he was a poor steel worker in order to gain access.

"When Albert was alive he provided a lot of drama of his own and long after his death the drama continues," said Mr. Ettelson.

Was Dr. Barnes an eccentric millionaire inventor whose cynicism prevented future art lovers to see his collection? Or, was he merely an enlightened art scholar and early advocate for African Americans? How can his museum survive if its charter is meant permanently to separate the less fortunate from the privileged few whose money could save the institution? Perhaps Dr. Morris will let us know.

"Dr. Barnes was a brilliant man, who had a righteous sense of humor and whose enlightened legacy made the best of the deep lines which do happen to be etched between race and class, in their relationship with culture and privilege." Ms. Camp explained.

Mr. Gibbons did not give his opinions about the foundation's relocation and the ongoing racial brouhaha.

"Muckrakers have been abusing his legacy for decades," Ms. Camp said.

"I will say this," Mr. Gibbons started, "The play is, on one level, about empathy and the necessity of entering another's life imaginatively---to see the world through other eyes, if only for a second. This is what art tries to accomplish."

The play opens with a monologue by Dr. Morris, and the first line in the monologue is "Put yourself in my place." Act Two opens with a monologue by his opponent, the Caucasian education director, and his first line is also "Put yourself in my place."

Mr. Gibbons said, "There are also cultural and political forces that would deny that such empathy is possible."

Ms. Camp said, "Mr. Gibbons had announced to me that his interest was in looking at race, class and art, but after he gave me a copy of the play, I found that the storyline lent itself mostly to the invented mythic renown created by unmotivated reporters in Philadelphia."

Ms. Camp explained that Mr. Gibbons had lent her a rough draft of the play several months ago. She said that he had told her that the piece was loosely based on Dr. Barnes and the foundation.

"But I found that the story had very little to do with what Tom said, but a lot to do with the unfortunate and parroted mainstream views," Ms. Camp said.

She mentioned that the play, which counts one-hundred-and-eighty Renoir's, in the fictional 'Morris Foundation', is unmistakably based on the Barnes museum. However, she says Mr. Gibbon's writing promotes a misguided and popular conception about the foundation's troubles.

Ms. Camp mentioned, "I understand that Mr. Gibbons is writing fiction and trying to stir things up, but I must clarify that there was never any internal racial discrimination within our foundation."

"More important," she continued, "our troubles are solely financial. The play's racist education director would have created a massive travesty if he ever existed at the foundation. We have more expensive and realistic worries here in the real Barnes world."

She added a side note, "The character of Sterling North who is based on Richard Glanton, was written by Tom to be a staff member even though Richard was a board member."

The Barnes Foundation exists in a predominantly Caucasian neighborhood. In 1996, when the neighbors complained about Barnes' plans to expand its hours and increase the number of visitors to its museum, the foundation sued Merion Township, claiming that the complaints had been motivated by racial animus. Since last winter, despite some recent squabbling about parking arrangements, the relationship between the museum and its neighbors has not been racially charged.

"I don't think Merion Township has a say in what happens inside the museum, but we do have a say about what happens outside of it," Mr. Ettelson said, nevertheless staying his watch.

"The traffic and parking, moreover, have been lighter on North Latch's Lane, lately," he added.

Ms. Camp, who joined the foundation in 1998 last Spring, bewailed the fact that visitation has been kyboshed by the township, which under zoning laws, restricts visitors to 400 a day, three days per week but allegedly counts students from its own public schools against that number. She has heralded the unequal treatment by the township, such as permitting lawn parking at St. Joseph's University, Episcopal and Akiba academies while ticketing cars that parked in that manner at the Barnes. However, under her watch, Barnes has not ballyhooed racism.

"I am a perennial optimist," Mr. Ettelson insisted. "As long as the foundation can control its impact on the township, we (the township) will remain interested only in the impact of what happens outside of the museum, rather than inside."

Mr. Ettelson again mentioned that he would like to see the play.

In 1999, when Barnes gained court approval for it, visitation was increased from two-and-a-half to three days and from five hundred to twelve hundred visitors per week. This did not seem to disturb the neighbors. Ms. Camp, who created the museum's first professional staff, has been perceived as having a steady hand. In the comparative quietus, a happy medium seems to have been reached.

The visitation increases were meant to bring more money into the foundation. The memory of the charges of racism began to fade into the background in Merion. However, whenever rich, Caucasian neighbors have blamed African American business leaders for the traffic jams on their blocks, few would doubt that the drama is not at least partially a racial one in pretext-or at least, Ms. Camp said, "that is what the media would have us believe."

"The problems which Barnes faces now are thoroughly financial ones." Ms. Camp said. "Charges of racism happen at every institution. The recent charges-whether by Lincoln University or our neighbors have been blown out of proportion and are not important now."

Nobody can guess the drama's denouement.

Mr. Ettelson, who is the former president of the Merion Civic Association, said that he remembered seeing Dr. Barnes standing next to the foundation's gate on North Latch's Lane.

"He looked as if he was about to yell at somebody," Mr. Ettelson joked.

Ms. Camp complained, "Another misconception about Dr. Barnes perpetrated by the media is that he left the foundation to a 'small African American college' in order to be spiteful, which is completely wrong. Since his death in 1951, uninventive journalists have loved to amplify the fact that both a mere handful of wealthy, influential persons and, the founder himself had shunned one another."

"The museum was an important part of my youth, and is an historical, artistic element that I don't want to see leave Merion," Mr. Ettelson said.

The Gibbons play uses as pretext the conception that the Caucasian Dr. Barnes, who railed against the overt racism of his time, may have shot himself in the post mortem foot. Suddenly, the character deigns to become interesting to audiences who could otherwise care less about a political drama set within the art world. Dr. Barnes attended black churches and held gospel concerts at the Foundation. He battled Caucasian-run cultural institutions and left part of the control of the Barnes to Lincoln University, a historically African American school.

"A phenomenally contradictory person whose character it is my good fortune to direct," Mr. Rozin concluded.

Mr. Gibbons would not reveal what he feels were Dr. Barnes' motives.

"As for whether 'Dr. Morris' was racist, or whether the Foundation would do better in the city than in the suburbs-- again, I'd rather let an audience draw its own conclusions."

Mr. Ettelson agreed with Ms. Camp, "The real problems that Barnes now faces are financial ones. The racism part is not as important as the money part. Unfortunately, the situation seems now to come down to move or die."

A 1999 audit by Deloitte & Touche which was made public last spring, estimated that as a result of misappropriation and misuse of funds by Mr. Glanton and his staff, Barnes needs $85 million to ensure its long-term survival, including $15 million over the next five years for a "stabilization fund." By September, 2002, bankruptcy seemed imminent and Barnes declared its intention to seek court approval to rewrite by-laws that currently stipulate that the museum's location should remain in Merion. The petition to break the will's stipulations was filed in the Court of Common Pleas, the so-called Orphan's Court in Montgomery County by Barnes lawyers. The money from the three corporate backers whom the Barnes camp enlisted last year, would fill needy coffers. However, utilizing the new funds and moving the artwork, would be acts which would defy both Dr. Barnes' goal of keeping Lincoln in control, and, the keeping of Merion as the traditional location of the museum.

"Even though Dr. Barnes had every right to create the indenture that he created, the real-life denouement might show how anyone stilted in their thinking about art will miss a lot of trains," said Mr. Ettelson.

Mr. Camp contrasted, "Lincoln University was never named as the inheritor of the foundation in the founder's will. Dr. Barnes merely stipulated that that Lincoln would always be allowed to nominate four board members, not 'appoint'."

The backers, who had contemplated that their association with the volatile foundation would spell negative advertising if their names appeared on the construction signs, may have undermined the move to Center City if they had pulled out. Then, control of the museum would have remained with Lincoln University, which itself might have found comparable backers-- presumably foundations founded and led by African Americans. If Lincoln would have been unable to find new backers, the state would have taken possession of the museum. Dr. Morris makes his entrance in "Permanent Collection" on the threshold of disaster or a moral victory for Barnes.

But because an agreement was reached, the tigers of war seem to have fled from the gates. However, the foundation, which oversees operation of the multi-billion dollar collection, currently housed in Lower Merion Township, still must go before Montgomery County Orphans' Court Judge Stanley Ott, who will decide if a move to the famed Benjamin Franklin Parkway will indeed take place. The fictional Dr. Morris makes his entrance in "Permanent Collection" on the threshold of disaster or a moral victory for Barnes.

"There is so much to dramatize about this situation," Mr. Loebell said.

Ms. Camp said that until she sees the play, she will remain set in her opinion that the playwright did his homework by reading news stories, instead of investigating primary sources.

"Although in the rough draft, Tom failed to show Dr. Barnes' mission of enlightenment, Tom told me that he would change the play to make it more relevant," Ms. Camp said.

"I would prefer to see a work about a man and a mission whose legacy has been important for aesthetic, rather than anthropological reasons," Ms. Camp explained.

She further criticized, "the play's highlighting a young, sexy female African American staff member's becoming star-struck by the Jaguar-driving Glanton character also seemed too formulaic to me." Philadelphia actor Ayoká Dorsey will play the staff member.

She said that when she handed the play back to Mr. Gibbons, several months ago, she gave Mr. Gibbons advice.

"I told Tom that he should take the time to learn more about the real deal, avoid newspaper stories and even studying here at the foundation before going back to deal with racial and formulaic issues which you typically like to cover as a playwright."

She concluded, "Anyway, I'll be pleased to see how Tom has resolved the issues."

InterAct publicizes that "Permanent Collection," is not intended as an historical account either of actual events or of persons living or dead.

Mr. Gibbons insisted that his play is, "a work of fiction."

It is possible that Ms. Camp, whom the media, neighbors and Barnes enthusiasts laud for her steady administrative hand, is taking this work of fiction a little too seriously-- perhaps even more seriously than she takes art!

Mr. Gibbons is the recipient of a 1997 Pew Fellowship, a six-time recipient of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Playwriting Fellowship, a 1997 Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play, the Barrie Stavis Playwriting Award and a 1993 Roger L. Stevens Award from the Fund for New American Plays. He was also a fellow at the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in 1996.

Mr. Rozin was twice named Best Director by the Philadelphia Inquirer, for directing "6221," and Israel Horovitz' "Lebensraum" the latter of which acquired the 1999 Barrymore Award for Outstanding Direction of a Play and Outstanding Overall Production of a Play.

Mr. Gibbons' plays have been published through the years. "Bee-luther-hatchee," is available through Playscripts.com, an on-demand play publisher. "Homer" was published in the journal "Dramatics," (January 1985). His play "The Exhibition" was included in the periodicals, "Best Short Plays of 1981," (Radnor, PA : Chilton) and in "Private Lives, Public Voices," (Toronto: Oxford University Press).

Previews of "Permanent Collection" will occur on October 24th, 25th, and 28th. The production opens on Wednesday, October 29 and runs through Sunday, November 23rd. Tickets at $14 - $25 are available by calling InterAct at (215) 568-8079. "

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