This summer, University of Iowa theatre graduate students helped bring a piece of Iowa history to life. Barberman: The Alexander Clark Story, an original full-length play by Iowa Playwrights Workshop student Cianon Jones, premiered June 12–14, 2026, at Muscatine Community College.
The play was commissioned in 2025 by the Stanley Center's Global Education Program and the Muscatine Art Center, following a successful staged reading in spring 2025. Directed by Michael C. Flores, the production featured a full set, lighting, and costumes designed by UI theatre graduate students, with eight actors bringing Clark's story to the stage.
Alexander Clark moved to Muscatine in 1842 and became a successful businessman and civil rights leader, later becoming the second African American graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law — preceded only by his son. His landmark lawsuit against the Muscatine school board led the Iowa Supreme Court to desegregate the state's public schools 85 years before Brown v. Board of Education.
Barberman explored key moments in Clark's life and personal and public struggles for justice, introducing audiences to his wife and children, abolitionist John Brown, Jim White (a formerly enslaved man Clark aided in 1848), and Clark's exchanges with Frederick Douglass.
Performances ran:
- Friday, June 12 at 7:00 PM (Q&A followed)
- Saturday, June 13 at 2:00 PM
- Saturday, June 13 at 7:00 PM (Q&A followed)
- Sunday, June 14 at 2:00 PM (Q&A followed)
The production was filmed and will be used as an educational resource in Iowa high school history classrooms.
Barberman was made possible by the Stanley Center's Global Education Program, the Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine, the UI Office of Community Engagement, the UI Theatre Department, the Iowa Arts Council, and Humanities Iowa.