One Night in Miami…

January 14–February 22

One Night in Miami...
By Kemp Powers
Directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah

February 25, 1964. Twenty-two-year-old Cassius Clay has just won the world heavyweight boxing title. Instead of hitting the town, Clay chooses to celebrate in a Miami hotel room with three close friends—activist Malcolm X, singer Sam Cooke, and football star Jim Brown. This fictional account of a real night imagines what might have happened in that tiny hotel room. As the Civil Rights movement stirs outside, and the melody of “A Change is Gonna Come” hangs in the air, four men will emerge from that one night ready to define a new world.

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Cast

Tory Andrus*
Malcolm X

Royce Johnson*
Kareem

Sullivan Jones*
Cassius Clay

Grasan Kingsberry*
Sam Cooke

Genesis Oliver*
Jamaal

Esau Pritchett*
Jim Brown

Baltimore Center Stage: One Night in Miami. Off-Broadway—2nd Stage: A Soldier’s Play; New Federal Theater: The Taking of Miss Janie; Urban Stages: My Occasion of Sin (world premiere); Public Theatre: Brother/Sister Plays; Lincoln Center: Fly; New York Theatre Workshop: Light Raise the Roof; Manhattan Theatre Club: Defiance, Burning Ash; Classical Theatre of Harlem: Macbeth. Regional—Hartford TheaterWorks: The Motherf**er with the Hat, God of Carnage(regional premiere), Broke-Ology; CATF: Modern Terrorism; Bristol Riverside Theatre: Fences; Stamford Theatre Works: A Lesson Before Dying (CT Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Debut). Film/TV—American Gangster; Demolition (2015); Learning to Drive (2015); Run; Madam Secretary; Forever; Hostages; The Blacklist; Law and Order: SVU; Law and Order; Law and Order: Criminal Intent; Gossip Girl; Person of Interest; The Following; Do No Harm; Rubicon; Kidnapped; Life on Mars; Guiding Light; Third Watch; Cupid; Daredevil (Marvel/Netflix, 2015); Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Education—BFA, SUNY Purchase.

Baltimore Center Stage: One Night in Miami…. Broadway—Motown The Musical, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Leap of Faith, On a Clear Day…Forever, Catch Me If You Can, Finian’s Rainbow, Color Purple, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Aida. Tour— Motown: The Musical as Norman Whitfield and Smokey Robinson u/s (1^st Nat’l), Color Purple (1st Nat’l), Dreamgirls (u/s Curtis). Regional—Smokey Joe’s Café (MTW), Joseph…Technicolor Dreamcoat (Judah; Casa Mañana); Cabaret: One-night-only solo concert,solo:sharecase (The Triad/Stage 72). Film/TV—I Am Legend (Alpha Guard), Smash,All My Children, Good Morning America, Late Night with David Letterman, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Education—Juilliard. Professional—Grasan has worked with choreographers such as Paul Taylor, Jirí Kylián, Robert Battle, and Ohad Naharin. Gratitude to my loving and supportive family, friends, mentor, and my Yogi: JGB. “Así será,” which translates to “So it shall be.”

Baltimore Center Stage: One Night in Miami…. New York—New Georges: Primal Play; Colt Coeur: Everything Is Ours; 52nd Street Project. Regional—Alliance Theatre: By the Way Meet Vera Stark; Denver Center: Map of Heaven; Actors Theatre of Louisville: Dracula, Game On, Two Or A Carload, The Greekest of Tragedies; Tennessee Shakespeare Company: The Tempest; Seattle Shakespeare Company: Othello. TV—Commercials for AT&T, Bank of America, Honda, & others. Education—National Theatre Conservatory (MFA). Professional—company member, Colt Coeur (Brooklyn, NY). For Toya, George, Granny, Grandaddy, Granny Red, KP, Mr. Duby, Myron, Lee, The Lojewski’s.

Baltimore Center Stage: One Night in Miami…. Broadway—Lincoln Center: A Free Man of Color (Orphee, Toussaint u/s). Other New York—Jambalaya Productions: Othello (Othello). Regional—McCarter Theatre: Antony and Cleopatra (Antony), Fences; Cincinnati Playhouse: The Fall of Heaven (world premiere), Othello (Othello); Orlando Shakespeare Festival: Othello (Othello); Meadow Brook Theatre: I Am a Man. Film/TV—Law and Order; Law and Order: SVU; One Live to Live; How to Seduce Difficult Women. Awards—Kennedy Center ACTF Irene Ryan Acting Award, Detroit News Best Supporting Actor. Education—Oakland University, BA.

Creative Team

Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE
Director

Brenda Davis
Set Designer

Clint Ramos
Costume Designer

Colin D. Young
Lighting Designer

Shane Rettig
Sound Designer

Alex Basco Koch
Projection Designer

Catherine María Rodríguez
Dramaturg

Pat McCorkle
Casting Director

Captain Kate Murphy*
Assistant Stage Manager

Laura Smith*
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: One Night in Miami… Regional—Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, Media Theater (Media, PA), Foundry Theatre (NY), Yale Cabaret, About Face at Steppenwolf Studio and Goodman, Teatro Luna, Piccolo Theater Company, Organic Theatre Company, Live Bait, The Playwright’s Center. Associate design work—Teatro alla Scala (Italy), Mark Taper Forum, Kansas City Rep., Hartford Stage, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Long Wharf Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company (Australia). Assistant design work—The Metropolitan Opera, Circle in the Square, Walter Kerr, Donmar Warehouse, Barbican, Lookingglass, Playwright’s Horizons, 2nd Stage, Delacorte, BAM, Chicago Shakespeare, Perseverance Theatre Co., Seattle Rep., McCarter, Berkeley Rep. Education—MFA, Yale School of Drama (Donald Oenslager Scholarship in Stage Design); BA, Loyola University Chicago (Kennedy Center ACTF: Best set design, The House of Blue Leaves.) Professional—Adjunct Professor, Doane College (Crete, NE).

Baltimore Center Stage: One Night in Miami…(Costume Designer), Bus Stop, Ah! Wilderness, And God Created Whales. Broadway (Sets and/or costumes)—The Elephant Man and Violet. Other New York—Here Lies Love (Public Theater, NY & National Theatre, London); Punk Rock (MCC), Appropriate (Signature Theatre Company); Bootycandy (Playwrights Horizons). Regional—Five Guys Named Moe (Arena Stage & Cleveland Playhouse). He has over 100 regional and international design credits. Awards—2013 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence, three Lucille Lortel Awards, TDF Irene Sharaff Young Master Award, two American Theater Wing Henry Hewes Awards and a Helen Hayes Award. Upcoming: Kid Victory (Signature Theatre), The Colored Museum (Huntington Theater Company), Buzzer (Public Theater) and Blood Quilt (Arena Stage).

Baltimore Center Stage: One Night in Miami…. Off Broadway—Public Theatre/NBT: Detroit ’67; Signature: Fragments by Edward Albee, Talking Pictures; Primary Stages/Perry Street: In the Continuum; Classical Theatre of Harlem: Native Son, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Blacks: A Clown Show, Crazy Locomotive, Henry V, Seed; 59E59 Theatres: The Jazz Age, Havana Bourgeois, Rearviewmirror, Widows; Reverie Productions: Fatboy, Mephisto, Beowulf; New Victory/World Science Festival: Spooky Action; Regional—Yale Rep, Woolly Mammoth, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Goodman, Philadelphia Theatre Co. and Cincinnati Playhouse. Awards—4 Audelco noms., 2003 Audelco Award for Crazy Locomotive. Education—Yale School of Drama. Professional/Other—Senior Design Partner for LDNY; Co-founder & Artistic Director: Reverie Productions; Founding Festival Tech Director: New York International Fringe Festival; Playwright/Translator: Beowulf.

Baltimore Center Stage: Jazz, Marley, One Night in Miami…, The Whipping Man, Things of Dry Hours, Elmina’s Kitchen, a.m. Sunday. New York—The Public, The New Group, Signature, Roundabout, Vampire Cowboys, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Ma-yi, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, The Flea, New Victory, La MaMa, Soho Rep, Rattlestick and HERE. Music/Co-Lyrics for War is F**cking Awesome with Qui Nguyen, 2013 Sundance Lab. Music for The Unknown, 2005 NYMF. Regional—Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Arena Stage, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Children’s Theatre Company, Dallas Theatre Center, La Jolla, Williamstown, Yale Rep, Prague Quadrennial. Awards—Drama Desk and Lortel Nominations.

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: Marley, One Night in Miami…, Next to Normal, dance of the holy ghosts, Stones in His Pockets, and Wild with Happy. Catherine facilitates Center Stage’s Wright-Right-Now, hosts the Dramaturgy Open Office Hours Project in Baltimore/DC, and is a visiting instructor of dramaturgy in the Department of Drama at Catholic University. In fall 2015, Catherine will sashay away from Baltimore to attend Yale School of Drama. Before she does, she’d like to say to Center Stage & Baltimore: Thanks for being my home, my family; nos vemos hasta pronto. Awards: 2014 Dramaturg Driven Grant, LMDA; 2014 Leadership Institute Fellow, National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures; 2013 Regional Student Dramaturgy Award, LMDA & Kennedy Center; 2013 Dramaturgy Debut Panelist, Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Carnegie Mellon: BFA, Dramaturgy; BA, Hispanic Studies. Laissez les bons temps rouler! Adelante.

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

“Delves deeply into the fears, ambitions, foibles, and contradictions of an iconic group of men.”— The Root

“Superbly acted… It is hard to imagine a more effective cast.”— The Baltimore Sun

“Center Stage has gone all out for the play's East Coast premiere.”— The Baltimore Sun

“Director Kwame Kwei-Armah… superbly helms Powers’ compelling work.”— OutLoud

“A riveting play… Keenly directed.”— Baltimore Post Examiner

“HISTORY NOT ONLY COMES TO LIFE, BUT CATCHES FIRE.”— DC THEATRE SCENE

In the News

01.24.15: The Baltimore Sun—An engrossing, revelatory 'Night in Miami'
01.24.15: DC Metro Theater Arts—‘One Night in Miami…’ at CENTERSTAGE
01.25.15: Baltimore Post Examiner—Centerstage scores TKO with riveting play about Civil Rights era
01.17.15: The Baltimore Sun—Four icons and their ‘One Night in Miami’

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