When we say a house has “good bones,” we mean there is a solid foundation, the structure is sound, and regardless of any repairs or improvements that can be made, it shouldn’t be torn down. Good Bones, written by Pulitzer Prize winner and Tony nominee James Ijames, looks at the foundations and structure of a home, a marriage, a neighborhood, and a community as each face change and threat. The play’s Philadelphia premiere — it made its debut at Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C. in May 2023 — features an all-Philadelphia cast and design team and opens January 22 at Arden Theatre Co.

Directed by Akeem Davis, just off his turn as Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in The Mountaintop, Good Bones centers around Aisha, who returns to the neighborhood she grew up in with her husband and begins renovating their home, in hopes to raise a family there. But her plans for the future also include revitalizing her old neighborhood, and she throws her support behind a controversial proposal to put a new sports arena nearby.

To anyone who’s been paying attention to local politics in the past year, this aspect of Good Bones’ plot should sound familiar. Playwright and producer Ijames, who won his Pulitzer for Fat Ham (produced by the Wilma Theater), earned his MFA at Temple University and was a founding member of Orbiter 3, Philadelphia’s first playwright producing collective. He splits his time between South Philly and Morningside Heights in New York City, where he is the head of playwriting for Columbia University’s Theatre department. He wrote and first produced Good Bones in 2023 as the controversy over a proposed Sixers arena in Philadelphia’s Chinatown was ramping up.

The issue, says Producing Artistic Director at Arden Theatre Co. Terrence J. Nolen, was on the playwright’s mind. “James was certainly inspired by the proposed Sixers development, but the play is not specifically about this event,” says Nolen, “I know Philly audiences will connect with the issues that the play addresses in a powerful way.” But, he adds, the story is about more than that. “Good Bones is, in part, about the power of place — something Philadelphians certainly understand.”

The producer and director

This is the first time the Old City theater has produced Ijames’ work. The Arden has, however, worked with him as an actor and director for 17 years. Nolen says he loves “that we are producing the Philadelphia premiere by this great Philadelphia playwright.”

Like Ijames, the play’s director is local (by choice; he’s originally from Miami), has received multiple awards for his theatrical work, and has worked both behind the scenes and onstage. Davis has been acting since he was six years old, earning seven Barrymore Award nominations, a Barrymore Award win for Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Play, a Helen Hayes nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play, and the 2015 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theater Artist. He’s performed at theaters across the Greater Philadelphia Area and in Washington, D.C. He has several productions at Arden Theatre under his belt, including last year’s King Hedley II (directed by Ijames) and this year’s The Mountaintop. Not just collaborators, Davis and Ijames are good friends.

Akeem Davis discusses the set design for Good Bones

“I am and will probably always be an actor first,” he says. “And it is my great love as far as my artistic discipline goes.” But after reading Year of the King: An Actor’s Diary and Sketchbook by British actor Antony Sher as a young man, Davis had an epiphany. “An actor only has one role to play, but an informed actor is one that has an outlook on every aspect of the story and has a relationship to all of the design elements, and is in direct collaboration with not just the other actors, but the playwright and the designers and is in line with the producers purpose for doing the show and all of these things,” Davis says. “I’m a better actor if I actually have a broader, more comprehensive approach to the work.”

Davis’s experience as a director began in 2021 at Bryn Mawr College; he has also directed productions at Desales University and most recently helmed A Raisin in the Sun at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. For Good Bones, Davis credits the cast and crew for bringing his interpretation of the work to life, from lighting, sound, and set design to the way the actors have constructed the characters.

“It is really a self-actualized thing, you know,” he says. “Directing is really about how well you can prompt other artists to do great work.”

The story

Good Bones’ focal point is subjective. Themes and conflicts woven throughout the story are emphasized in different ways by each adaptation — the way each new staging creates different pacing, lighting, blocking, etc. — and will touch audience members in different ways. Without any spoilers: the drama unfolds completely within the kitchen of the home Aisha and her husband Travis purchased in the neighborhood she grew up in, which they are renovating. Gentrification is epitomized by the potential sports arena, displacing long-time residents like Earl, the contractor hired to work on the house, who also grew up here but never left, unlike Aisha, who is … an urban planner. The tension between these two characters is multi dimensional, and inevitably leads to tension between Aisha and her husband as they navigate their home’s renovation and its implication on their future.

Audiences should not expect a clear answer, a good guy, a bad guy, and certainty at the end of the story. The play, Davis says, “is messy” — just like cities.

Though gentrification, the plight of under-resourced communities, and politics are the wide lens through which we see the characters’ stories unfold, it’s the value of personal relationships and the work they require that the director hopes the audience takes away from the performance.

“That’s where I think the heart of the play is,” says Davis. “Sure, there is the aspect of it being born out of Philadelphia’s arena kerfuffle a couple years ago, and that was good fodder for James to think about. But I think the play really is less about the large city plans and more about the personal politics of these very real and very well drawn people. You know, it’s a Philadelphia story at heart.”

Good Bones begins previews at Arden Theater Co.’s Arcadia Stage, 40 N. 2nd Street, on January 22. It opens January 28, and runs through March 15. Tickets are $37-$70.

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The cast and director of Good Bones, courtesy Arden Theatre