Geva Theatre Center Presents THE MOUNTAINTOP, Now thru 4/26

Geva Theatre Center presents The Mountaintop - a soul-stirring reimagining of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last night on earth by playwright Katori Hall, directed by Skip Greer. The Mountaintop begins performances tonight, March 31, opens April 4 (the anniversary of Dr. King's assassination), and runs in the Elaine P. Wilson Mainstage through April 26.

After delivering one of his most memorable speeches, an exhausted King retires to his room at the Lorraine Motel. A visit from the feisty hotel maid compels him to confront his own doubts, destiny and legacy. Dramatic, magical storytelling gives insight into King, the man, and reaches a summit that will leave audiences breathless.

Katori Hall is a playwright and performer hailing from Memphis, Tennessee. Her award-winning play, Hoodoo Love, premiered at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 2007 and received three AUDELCO nominations. Her other plays include Remembrance, Hurt Village, Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, The Mountaintop, On The Chitlin' Circuit, and Freedom Train (KCACTF ten-minute play national finalist). Her work has been developed and presented at the American Repertory Theatre, Kennedy Center, Cherry Lane Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Schomburg Center, BRICLab, Women's Project, World Financial Center, Lark Play Development Center, New Professional Theatre, The O'Neill, the Juilliard School, Stanford University, and Columbia University. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lecompte du Nouy Prize, North Manhattan Arts Alliance Fellowship, New York State Council on the Arts Commission Grant, New Professional Theatre's Writers' Festival award, Fellowship of Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship in Playwriting and Screenwriting, Royal Court Theatre Residency, and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award. She has also been a Kennedy Center Playwriting Fellow. As an actor, her credits include "Law & Order: SVU," The President's Puppets (The Public), Growing Up a Slave (American Place Theatre), Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (American Place Theatre), the world premiere of Amerika (Theatre de la Jeune Lune/American Repertory Theatre), Spring Awakening (Moscow Art Theatre School), Ain't Supposed To Die a Natural Death (Classical Theatre of Harlem), Schooled (WOW Café Theatre), and Black Girl (Sande Shurin Theatre). As a journalist, her work has been published in The Boston Globe, Essence, Newsweek, and The Commercial Appeal. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003 with a major in African-American Studies and Creative Writing. She was awarded top departmental honors from the university's Institute for Research in African-American Studies (IRAAS). In 2005, she graduated from the American Repertory Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University, receiving a Master of Fine Arts in Acting. She is now a student in the Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. She is a proud member of the Women's Project Playwrights' Lab, the Lark Playwrights' Workshop, and the Dramatists Guild.

The Mountaintop premiered in London in 2009 and won the Olivier Award for Best New Play. Hall was nominated for the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award. The Mountaintop premiered on Broadway in 2011 in a production starring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett.

Making their Geva Theatre Center debuts in The Mountaintop are Royce Johnson as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Joniece Abbott-Pratt as Camae.

The Mountaintop is directed by Skip Greer and the design team includes Robert Koharchik (scenic design), Ann R. Emo (costume design), Derek Madonia (lighting design), Dan Roach (sound and video design) and Carvin Eison (video design).

The 2014-2015 Wilson Mainstage Season is sponsored by ESL Federal Credit Union. The Mountaintop is produced with support from Co-Producer Nixon Peabody, LLP and Media Sponsors WARM 101.3 and Fox Rochester.