Santa Fe Playhouse to Present THE MOUNTAINTOP in September

Santa Fe Playhouse will present The Mountaintop, by Katori Hall, which explores the inner world of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the last night of his life. The Mountaintop opens at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 24, with previews at 7:30 p.m., Sept. 22 and 23, at Santa Fe Playhouse, 142 E. De Vargas St. Additional performances through Oct. 16. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Matinees begin the second performance weekend.

King was assassinated while standing on the balcony of his hotel room in the early evening of April 4, 1968. The day before, the civil rights titan gave his most famous sermon, telling the crowd "We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop ... And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land."

And then he went back to his room at the Lorraine Motel. What King did there, and who he talked to on his final night on Earth is the subject of The Mountaintop, opening at Santa Fe Playhouse on Saturday, Sept. 24.

In the play, King is kept company by a hotel maid named Camae. Though their initial banter is flirtatious, her true purpose is revealed slowly. Hall's script explores the human side of King, "not the man we saw in front of the camera, who was giving great speeches, who was moving a nation to bring about change," says the director, Zuhairah McGill. "We get to see the man who is just a man in a private moment. A man who makes mistakes, who does things like normal people do."

The Mountaintop premiered at London's Theatre503 in 2009 after Hall found American theaters unreceptive to the play she'd workshopped at the Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace playwriting program. It went on to win the prestigious Olivier Award for Best Play. The 2011 Broadway premiere at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre starred Samuel L. Jackson (in his Broadway debut) as King and Angela Bassett as Camae. It went on to be one of the most produced plays in the United States in 2013 and 2014.

Although she was born after King died, Hall heard stories from her mother, who kept his photograph next to a picture of Jesus. McGill's household also had pictures of King and Jesus, as well as Malcolm X. When she was a little girl, her mother took her to see Malcolm X speak, and her father took her to see Dr. King, whom she watched from atop his shoulders. Her parents' activism set the stage for her own: the Philadelphia-based theater artist is the founder of First World Theater Ensemble, an African American company dedicated to plays about social issues.

Actor Langston Reese, who plays King in the Santa Fe Playhouse production, is from New York, and Catia, who plays Camae, is from Rhode Island.

Tickets are $30 for general admission with reserved tickets up to $75. Discounts are available for students and seniors. Previews are pay-what-you-wish. Go to santafeplayhouse.org or call 505-988-4262.

Santa Fe Playhouse has presented theater by and for Santa Feans for 100 years, from beloved classics to new works by local and national artists. As our city, our country, and our world changes, the Playhouse offers compelling productions that will provoke difficult conversations with compassion, while pushing theatrical forms and opening doors for artists of all backgrounds and identities.