The House That Will Not Stand
Marcus Gardley’s darkly funny drama, directed by Kashi Johnson
Lehigh’s The House That Will Not Stand brings a little-known history of free Black women in New Orleans to the Lehigh Valley
BETHLEHEM, Pa. A mother’s determination to protect her daughters collides with their desire to live on their own terms in Marcus Gardley’s The House That Will Not Stand. Lehigh University’s Department of Theatre and Mustard & Cheese Drama Society present the production November 6-8 and 11-14, 2026, in the Diamond Theater at Zoellner Arts Center.
Set in 1813 New Orleans, Gardley’s darkly funny drama follows Beartrice Albans after the death of Lazare, her longtime white companion in a plaçage arrangement (a relationship outside marriage that provided financial support to a free woman of color). His death threatens the security she has built, and the women in her household fight over love, inheritance, and who will decide their future. Inspired by Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba, the play brings family rivalry into a world shaped by slavery and the precarious freedom of free women of color.
Directed by Kashi Johnson, the production stars guest artist Deirdre Van Walters, who received the 2018 Bethlehem NAACP Celebrating the Arts Award, alongside seven Lehigh actors. Camille “Who?” Armstrong, a former performer in the international touring production of STOMP, serves as movement, music, and cultural consultant, helping build the physical and ancestral life of the house.
“They are funny, sensual, strategic, loving, difficult, ambitious, wounded and fully alive. That fullness is what drew me to the play.”
Kashi Johnson, director
The artists shaping the house
Established Black women artists work alongside emerging Lehigh actors.
Kashi Johnson
Director
Johnson, a Lehigh alumna, is a theatre artist, director, and Full Professor in Lehigh University’s Department of Theatre. In 2007, she created Act Like You Know, her nationally known, groundbreaking Hip Hop theatre course. Her directing credits include The Piano Lesson, Flyin’ West, The Colored Museum, and Trouble in Mind. She is an Artistic Associate with the Black Acting Methods Studio.
Deirdre Van Walters
Guest artist / Beartrice Albans
Van Walters is an actor, director, poet, playwright, and U.S. Army veteran. Her artistic path includes the Paul Robeson Black Arts Ensemble at Rutgers University and the Frank Silvera Writers’ Workshop in Harlem. She works with Touchstone Theatre’s Young Playwrights Lab and received the 2018 Bethlehem NAACP Celebrating the Arts Award.
Camille “Who?” Armstrong
Movement, music, and cultural consultant
Armstrong is a multidisciplinary performing artist, choreographer, educator, and artistic consultant whose career spans more than four decades. A former performer in the international touring production of STOMP, she works across movement, rhythm, body percussion, theatre, and music.
This production marks her third creative collaboration with Lehigh
University.
The cast
Deirdre Van Walters Beartrice Albans
Sophia Gonzalez Marie Josephine
Shanti Edouard Agnès Albans
Amayah Wade Makeda
Samantha Barnes Maude Lynn Albans
Madison Danquah La Veuve and Ancestral Ensemble
Kayla Francis Odette Albans
Adrien Simmons Ancestral Ensemble
Creative and Production Credits
Marcus Gardley, playwright; Kashi Johnson, director; Camille Armstrong, movement, music, and cultural consultant; Erica Hoelscher, scenic and costume designer; Mary Ann Swords Greene, costume director; Sawyer Ostapovich, lighting and media designer; Nova Robertson, assistant technical director and sound designer; Trevor Flocco, technical director; Ashton Dodge, stage manager; Casey McGinty, voice and dialect coach.
Headshots courtesy of the artists. Rehearsal photo provided by Kashi Johnson.
Production information and tickets
Information provided to TVL by:
Kashi Johnson
