Peter Levy joined Baltimore Playwrights Festival during its Season 44 2025 reading series for a staged reading of his play Mrs. Richardson, shortly after his retirement as a history professor. Among his teaching areas was documenting the many aspects of the Civil Rights era. He returns for Season 45 2026 with his play 43 Deep Green Lane, directed by Melissa Fortson.
BPF Board Advisor Larry Lambert re-connected with Peter to catch up with his work over the past year and discuss what projects are on the horizon.
L – Your play 43 Deep Green Lane is the inaugural staged reading for the BPF Season 45 2026. Coming after the success of last year’s Mrs. Richardson, how does it feel to have the lead-off presentation slot two years in a row?
P – It’s an honor to have the opportunity to participate in the Baltimore Playwrights Festival two years in a row. I received a lot of great feedback from audience members and the cast last year and hope for more of the same this year. In terms of leading off this year’s readings, I just hope that potential viewers aren’t deterred by the remaining piles of snow and ice.
L – What led you to choose Daisy and Bill Myers’ experience in the desegregation of Levittown, Pa as your subject?
P – As you may remember, I am an historian of the civil rights movement and I am especially interested in lesser-known figures in the fight for racial equality, such as the Myers. As their daughter, Lynda, declares at the end of the play, Daisy and Bill Myers’ story “is not just a historical footnote but a living testament to the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity and inspire change.”
L – What were your sources for the creation of this play?
P – I had lots of great sources, including memoirs written by two of the main characters, Daisy Myers and Lew Wechsler, as well as contemporary newspapers, archival material, interviews and scholarly works on Levittown.
L – Has 43 Deep Green Lane been presented before, and if so, what were the audience reactions?
P – I enjoyed a staged reading of an abridged version of the play at the York (Pa.) History Center in the spring of 2024. Audience feedback was very favorable, including from the children of the main characters, who have encouraged me to continue to work on the play.
L – Is there any specific thing that you want our audience to take from this play?
P – Perhaps that Daisy Myers deserves to be recognized as one of our great heroes. Indeed, in my play, she is occasionally referred to as the Rosa Parks of the north, for her courage, dignity and perseverance.
L – You have another year of retirement under your belt. Has having this time made any changes to your research and writing schedule?
P – Not really, except that I have joined a couple of writing groups and my participation in them has prevented me from slacking off. More seriously, I feel very lucky to have lots of time to write.
L – What projects are on the horizon for you?
P – I have a couple of other historical dramas in the hopper, including one that revolves around the trial of the mayor of a nearby community for the murder of a young black mother of two. She had been killed thirty years earlier; he had been a policeman at the time. I also expect to continue to make revisions to my plays about Gloria Richardson and “43 Deep Green Lane.”
L – Last question: where do you do the bulk of your creative writing and why?
P – I do most of my writing in the morning, from approximately 9 to noon in this space.
