A Disgraced Profession Is Spotlighted In ‘The Story’ At Long Wharf

By Julie Stern

NEW HAVEN — Over the past decade the names Janet Cooke, Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair have become notorious for being caught in plagiarism, bringing disgrace on their own heads and discredit to the written media profession. The Washington Post, The New Republic and the “gray lady” herself, The New York Times, were all embarrassed by the revelation that these “hot” young reporters were climbing the fast track by fabricating stories.

Because Cooke and Blair were African-Americans, the issue was complicated by charges that “affirmative action” had led to their being given favorable treatment and freedom from editorial supervision.

This is the material from which playwright Tracey Scott Wilson has drawn for The Story, her sizzling drama of ambition, competition and racial politics on a big city newspaper, currently in production at Long Wharf Theatre.

Yvonne (Lizzy Cooper Davis), a young woman with impeccable credentials (summa cum laude from Harvard, graduate work at the Sorbonne) resents the fact that in her first job at “The Daily” she is assigned to the “Outlook” desk, a section of the paper devoted to printing positive stories about the black community.

Since her career plan aims at reporting national and international news, she chafes at a routine of covering PTA meetings and community center openings, arguing that she considers herself “a journalist” rather than a “black journalist.”

This brings her into conflict with her editor, Pat (Sharon Washington), an attitude-laden veteran of the days when she was the first African American to integrate the newsroom, and her young fellow reporter, Neil (Duane Boutte), who sees everything from a racial perspective and accuses her of being an “uncertain sister,” i.e. uncertain of her identity and driven by self-hatred to try to deny her blackness.

At first the audience sympathy is clearly drawn to Yvonne, who finds herself caught between Pat’s hostility and Neil’s blatant attempts to hit on her (while being forced by workplace rules to hide the fact that she is involved with another editor, Jeff, whom Pat and Neil contemptuously refer to as the white trust-fund baby).

However, the city, and the paper, are shaken up by the unsolved murder of Jeff Dunn, a young white schoolteacher, who is shot when he and his pregnant wife find themselves lost in a ghetto neighborhood, a few blocks from where they both work as part of the Teach For America program.

The story of “The Dunn Murder” becomes the catalyst for exploring matters of journalistic ambition, ethics and racial attitudes in a way that transcends stereotypes, even as it examines the invidious nature of stereotypes themselves.

While Pat worries that the killing will generate the kind of negative attitudes and aggressive police profiling of blacks that she has crusaded against all her life, Neil pursues the possibility that Jeff Dunn was actually killed by his wife who then blamed the shooting on a black man (as was actually the case with Charles Stewart in Boston, who was ultimately convicted of murdering his wife).

Yvonne then makes headline news by uncovering a brilliant but troubled teenager, Latisha, who confides it was her gang of angry girls dressed as boys who actually committed the crime. Where the story goes from there – beginning with Yvonne’s refusal to betray her source – and the escalating set of consequences and revelations make for a gripping, edge of your seat play with biting dialogue and terrific performances.

Without revealing the plot, it suffices to say that the characters are neither as villainous or as virtuous as they seem, or imagine themselves to be. Questions about what really constitutes “the black community” and how the portrayal of news in the white media affects black lives are honestly addressed. So are matters of ambition, pressure, honesty and self-deception, with some of the best insights coming from Latisha, who may or may not actually exist.

In a world where tabloids are free to make money by churning out scurrilous rumors and lies about political figures, where television “news shows” pander to the national appetite for sex and violence soundbites, and where the ability of computer technology to produce doctored photographs is used to support government policy, it may seem quixotic to expect serious newspapers to remain faithful to high ethical standards.

However, a few of them still do exactly that. If they do get burned sometimes by opportunistic strivers, we should be grateful that there are some publications with the courage and integrity to pursue the truth, even if it means accepting responsibility for the lies.

 (Performances continue through March 14, with Tuesday through Saturday evening and Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinee shows. Call 203-787-4282 for details.)