The Mountaintop

January 09–February 24

The Mountaintop
By Katori Hall
Directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah

The Lorraine Hotel. April 1968. As Dr. King unwinds and prepares, a visit from a hotel maid raises fascinating and surprising questions. A worldwide sensation, this wondrous new play gets its Baltimore Premiere.

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Cast

Shawn Hamilton*
Dr. King

Myxolydia Tyler*
Camae

Baltimore Center Stage: The Mountain Top. National Tour—Little House on the Prairie The Musical. Regional—Guthrie Theater: Appomattox, Little House on the Prairie The Musical, Pericles, Twelfth Night, Othello, Hamlet, His Girl Friday, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Tempest, The Illusion, Troilus and Cressida, Gross Indecency, Many Colors Make the Thunder King, Marat/Sade, Mother Courage, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; California Shakespeare Theater: Pericles, Titus Andronicus; Yale Repertory Theater: Troilus and Cressida, Hamletmachine, Pill Hill; Trinity Rep: The Illusion; Dallas Theatre Center: The Ups and Down Of Theophilus Maitland, All the King’s Men; Penumbra Theatre: Black Nativity, Seven Guitars, Blue, Stage Directions, Get Ready; Children’s Theater: The Beggar’s Strike, Antigone, Lost Boys of The Sudan. Film—Jingle All the Way, Blue Steel. Education/Training—University of North Texas, Circle in the Square, Yale School Of Drama.

Baltimore Center Stage: The Mountaintop. Off Broadway—The Signature: A Season To Unravel (Narrator). National Tour—Seattle Children’s Theatre and American Girl Inc.: Addy: An American Girl Story (Addy). International Tour—German Theatre Abroad: Start- Up (Liz). Regional—Arkansas Rep: A Raisin in the Sun (Beneatha); The Acting Co./ Guthrie Theatre: Romeo and Juliet (Rosaline/Peter); Syracuse Stage: Commission of self-written play Dreamprints: A Conversation with Harriet Tubman (Harriet Tubman); Trinity Rep: The Winter’s Tale (Hermione), A Christmas Carol (Belle/Lucy). Education/Training—MFA, Brown/Trinity program. Thank you, Glenn.

Creative Team

Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE
Director

Neil Patel
Scenic Designer

Scott Zielinski
Lighting Designer

Victoria Deiorio
Sound Designer

David Burdick
Costume Designer

Alex Basco Koch
Projections Designer

Kate Freer
Projections Designer

Gavin Witt
Dramaturg

Pat McCorkle
Casting Director

Captain Kate Murphy*
Stage Manager

Laura Smith*
Assistant Stage Manager

Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE is a playwright, director, actor, and broadcaster. At Baltimore Center Stage he has directed Jazz, Marley, One Night in Miami…, Amadeus, dance of the holy ghosts, The Mountaintop, An Enemy of the People, The Whipping Man, and Things of Dry Hours. Other directorial credits include One Love: The Bob Marley Musical (originally Marley) at Birmingham Repertory Theatre; One Night in Miami… at London’s Donmar Warehouse; Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, and the world premiere of Detroit ’67 at The Public Theater in New York; Naomi Wallace’s The Liquid Plain and Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew. His works as playwright include One Love: The Bob Marley Musical, Elmina’s Kitchen, Let There Be Love, A Bitter Herb, Statement of Regret, Seize the Day, and Beneatha’s Place, which debuted at Baltimore Center Stage in 2013 as part of The Raisin Cycle. Kwame served as Artistic Director at Baltimore Center Stage from 2011 to 2018, he is now the Artistic Director at the Young Vic in London. He has served on the boards of Theatre Communications Group, Steinberg Playwright Awards, The National Theatre, and The Tricycle Theatre, and as Artistic Director for the World Arts Festival in Senegal. He was named the Chancellor of the University of the Arts London, and was named an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Baltimore Center Stage: Marley, dance of the holy ghosts, Animal Crackers, Mud Blue Sky, The Mountaintop, The Whipping Man, American Buffalo, Working it Out, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Once on This Island, Elmina’s Kitchen, Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Hostage, As You Like It, many others. Broadway—Soul Doctor; Oleanna; Wonderland; [title of show]; Ring of Fire; ’night, Mother; Sideman (also West End & Kennedy Center). Off Broadway—Civilians: Pretty Filthy, This Beautiful City; Signature Theatre: stop.reset, My Children! My Africa!; Second Stage: Water by the Spoonful, By the way, Meet Vera Stark, Gruesome Playground Injuries, Peter & Jerry, Living Out; Roundabout: McReele, Hurrah at Last; Vineyard: Now.Here.This., The Long Christmas Ride Home; MTC: The Lion, Between Us, Glimmer Glimmer and Shine; MCC: The Mercy Seat; NYTW: The Beard of Avon, Lydie Breeze, Resident Alien, A Question of Mercy, Bob, Quills, Slavs!; Playwrights Horizons: Mr. Burns a Post Electric Play, Stage Kiss, Lobster Alice, On the Mountain; Public/NYSF: Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3), Dirty Tricks, Othello. Film/TV—Some Velvet Morning, Loitering With Intent, Dil Dhadakne Do, In Treatment (HBO), Billy and Billie (DirecTV). Awards—Obie Award (2), Helen Hayes Award, Eddy Award, Hewes nom (5), Drama Desk nom (3).

Baltimore Center Stage — Mud Blue Sky, The Mountaintop, Intimate Apparel, Fall. Broadway—Topdog/Underdog. New York—Atlantic Theater, Classic Stage Company, Public Theater, Lincoln Center Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Signature Theatre, Theatre for a New Audience, others. International—Productions in Adelaide, Amsterdam, Avignon, Berlin, Bregenz, Edinburgh, Fukuoka, Gennevilliers, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Linz, London, Lyon, Melbourne, Orleans, Oslo, Ottawa, Paris, Reykjavik, Rotterdam, Rouen, St. Gallen, Singapore, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Tokyo, Toronto, Vienna, Vilnius, Zurich, others. Regional—Most theaters throughout the U.S. Dance—American Ballet Theatre, American Dance Festival, Houston Ballet, Joyce, San Francisco Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, others. Opera—Brooklyn Academy of Music, Canadian Opera, English National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lithuanian National Opera, Nederlandse Opera, New York City Opera, Opera de Rouen, Royal Opera House London, San Francisco Opera, Spoleto Festival, others. scottzielinski.com

Baltimore Center Stage: Amadeus, Mud Blue Sky, The Mountaintop, Working It Out. Off Broadway—Sheen Center: Nine Circles; St. Clement’s Theatre: A Christmas Carol; Active Theatre: Two Point Oh; Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater: Cassie’s Chimera; Steppenwolf at The Duke: The Bluest Eye; NYMTF: Arnie the Doughnut; NYC Fringe Festival at The Connelly: Ophelia. Regional—Oregon Shakespeare; The Goodman; Steppenwolf; Hartford Stage; Long Wharf Theatre; Syracuse Stage; Cincinnati Playhouse; Cleveland Playhouse; Chautauqua Theater Company; Indiana Repertory; Milwaukee Repertory; and many other theaters in and around Chicago, NY, and LA. Awards—Nominated for 13 and winning seven Joseph Jefferson Awards, two After Dark Awards, and a SALT Award. Professional—Head of Sound Design for The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, and Co-Chair of the Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association. victoria-sound-design.com

Baltimore Center Stage: Lookingglass Alice, Next to Normal; Amadeus; Twelfth Night; dance of the holy ghosts; Animal Crackers; …Edgar Allan Poe; The Mountaintop; An Enemy of the People; The Whipping Man; A Skull in Connemara; The Rivals; Snow Falling on Cedars; Working it Out; Cyrano; Caroline, or Change; Hearts; Things of Dry Hours; Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Elmina’s Kitchen; Picnic; a.m. Sunday; The Rainmaker; Blithe Spirit; and many others. Regional—Everyman Theatre: Sweat, Dancing at Lughnasa, Intimate Apparel, Long Day’s Journey into Night, The Revolutionists, The Book of Joseph, Dot, Los Ostros, An Inspector Calls, Death of a Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire, Ruined, Ghosts, Blithe Spirit; Walnut Street/Totem Pole: The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Moon Over Buffalo. Opera—Cincinnati: Don Giovanni; Boston Lyric: I Puritani; Tulsa: Tosca, The Barber of Seville, Carmen, Fidelio. Dance—BAM: FLY: Five First Ladies of Dance; Dayton Contemporary Dance: Lyric Fire (world premiere, dir/choreographer Dianne McIntyre). Other—Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: Holiday Spectacular.

Baltimore Center Stage: SOUL The Stax Musical, Detroit ’67, Pride and Prejudice, Marley, One Night in Miami…, The Mountaintop, An Enemy of the People, ReEntry. Concert Design—The Magnetic Fields: 50 Song Memoir. Broadway—Be More Chill (opening 2019); Irena’s Vow. Off-Broadway—The Atlantic, Playwrights Horizons, Signature Theatre, Ars Nova, Primary Stages, Rattlestick, Ensemble Studio Theatre. Regional and Touring—The Kennedy Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Guthrie Theater, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Alliance Theater, Huntington Theatre Company, Court Theatre, Studio Theatre, Actors Theater of Louisville, Two River Theater. London—Menier Chocolate Factory. Film—Miles Ahead; Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You. alexbascokoch.com.

Baltimore Center Stage: The Mountaintop. Off Broadway and other New York—La Mama: Cry for Peace, Voices from the Congo (Undesirable Element Festival); New World Stages: Bullet for Adolph; HERE Arts Center: Chimera (Under the Radar 2012); 3LD: Václav Havel’s Hunt For the Pig (Ice Factory Festival 2011); National Black Theater: Seed. Regional — Syracuse Stage: The Clean House; Oregon Ballet Theater: Holiday Review. Katherine’s installation work has been exhibited at the National Building Museum, The Hammond Museum, 3LD, Front Room Gallery, and the World Wide Words Festival (Denmark). Current productions in development include Healing Wars (dir. Liz Lerman) to premiere at Arena Stage in Spring of 2014 and Love Machine (dir. Andrew Scoville) to premiere at Incubator in May of 2013. Kate is a founding member of Imaginary Media Artists, a design studio for media in theater.

Director of Dramaturgy and Associate Director Gavin Witt came to Baltimore Center Stage in 2003, after nearly 15 years in Chicago as an actor, director, dramaturg, translator, and teacher—and co-founder of the classically based greasy joan & co theater. Among his translations and adaptations are a half-dozen Shakespeare plays, including a Jeff-nominated version of Pericles and the BCS production of As You Like It; Jeff-nominated translations of Beaumarchais’ The Barber of Seville and Ionesco’s Macbett; and the BCS adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance. A graduate of Yale and the University of Chicago, he is currently on the Humanities faculty at Peabody Conservatory, having previously taught at the University of Chicago, DePaul, and Towson; has served on the advisory boards of several theaters; and spent more than a decade as a regional vice president of LMDA, the national association of dramaturgs, before recently joining its board.

Baltimore Center Stage: A Wonder in My Soul, King of the Yees, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, SOUL The Stax Musical, Mobile Unit Twelfth Night, Animal Farm, Skeleton Crew, Lookingglass Alice, The Christians, Jazz, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Detroit ’67, As You Like It, Pride and Prejudice, Marley, One Night in Miami…, Amadeus, Wild with Happy, Twelfth Night, A Civil War Christmas. Broadway—Amazing Grace, On the Town, End of the Rainbow, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus, She Loves Me, Blood Brothers, A Few Good Men, etc. Off-Broadway—Clever Little Lies, Dr. Ruth, Stalking the Bogeyman, Freud’s Last Session, Tribes, Our Town, Almost Maine and Driving Miss Daisy. Over 50 regional theaters—Guthrie, George Street Theatre, Connecticut Rep, Pittsburgh Public, Barrington Stage. Over 60 films—Senior Moment, Year by the Sea, Child of Grace, Premium Rush, Ghost Town, Secret Window, Tony and Tina’s Wedding, The Thomas Crown Affair, The 13th Warrior, Madeline, Die Hard III, School Ties. TV/Web—Planned Parenthood series Talkin’ About, Twisted, Sesame Street, Californication (Emmy nom), Max Bickford, Hack, Strangers with Candy, Barbershop, Chappelle’s Show. mccorklecasting.com

Baltimore Center Stage: One Night in Miami…, Next to Normal, Animal Crackers, Mud Blue Sky, The Mountaintop, …Edgar Allan Poe, A Skull in Connemara, American Buffalo, Crime & Punishment, Let There Be Love, The Santaland Diaries, The Importance of Being Earnest, Things of Dry Hours, Trouble in Mind, Three Sisters, Radio Golf, The Murder of Isaac, Once on This Island, King Lear. Regional—Trinity Rep: Boeing-Boeing; Actors Theatre of Louisville: All Hail Hurricane Gordo*, The Clean House, Moot the Messenger*, Dracula, The Ruby Sunrise*, Tall Grass Gothic*, The Drawer Boy, Amadeus, As You Like It (*premieres at the Humana Festival of New American Plays); Contemporary American Theater Festival: The Overwhelming, Pig Farm; Totem Pole Playhouse: Over 75 productions through 13 summer stock seasons. Film/TV—Route 30, Route 30 Too!, The Father and the Bear, Next Food Network Star. Professional—Director of Stage Management at Virginia Tech University. Proud Actors Equity and ASCAP Member. For Whitney – with love and gratitude.

Baltimore Center Stage: Detroit ’67, As You Like It; 4000 Miles; After the Revolution; It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play; Amadeus; Wild with Happy; Twelfth Night; Stones in His Pockets; dance of the holy ghosts; Clybourne Park; Beneatha’s Place; The Mountaintop; Bus Stop; An Enemy of the People; The Whipping Man; Gleam; The Rivals; Snow Falling on Cedars; Cyrano; Working it Out; Fabulation or, The Re-Education of Undine; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Regional—Shakespeare Theater Company: Salome; Contemporary American Theater Festival: World Builders; Everyman: Pygmalion, Shipwrecked, The Exonerated, Rabbit Hole, Doubt, Gem of the Ocean, And a Nightingale Sang, The School for Scandal, A Number, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, Yellowman; Woolly Mammoth: Gruesome Playground Injuries, House of Gold, The Unmentionables, Vigils, After Ashley; Folger: Measure for Measure, Olney Theatre: Stuff Happens; Theater Alliance: Headsman’s Holiday, Pangea.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association

In the Press

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Reviews

“...you will never think of King the same way again.”— BroadwayWorld

“Kwei-Armah...should be applauded for bringing this fresh look at the Reverend King...”— BroadwayWorld

“Hamilton and Tyler bring a tremendous amount of chemistry to their performances.”— OUTspoken

“Shawn Hamilton as King wisely steers clear of what could have been a bare imitation and instead delivers a very humanportrayal of the famous civil rights leader.”— Baltimore Post Examiner

“Together Hamilton and Tyler make an explosive team...”— DC Metro Theatre Arts

“DIRECTED BY KWAME KWEI-ARMAH, THIS PLAY IS A GRIPPING ROLLER COASTER OF HEIGHTENED EMOTIONS, RICH COMEDY, AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING MOMENTS OF LIFE AND ITS MEANING, THE PURSUIT OF JUSTICE, TRUTH, AND RIGHTEOUSNESS ALL MELDED INTO ONE IMPRESSIVE DREAM OF A SHOW.”— DC METRO THEATRE ARTS

In the News

01.11.13: WYPR—Lines Between Us: Martin Luther King, Jr., as a Voice for Labor
01.23.13: The Washington Blade—Centerstage hosts Black Pride Night
01.18.13: The Baltimore Sun—Katori Hall's play about MLK gets effective production from Center Stage
01.30.13: The Afro—Fine Acting, Intriguing Plot Highlight The Mountaintop

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