Matrix Production Of THE MOUNTAINTOP Heads For Memphis For 50th Anniversary Of MLK Assassination
By: A.A. Cristi
Internationally acclaimed playwright Katori Hall, currently artistic director of the Hattiloo Theatre in Memhis, TN, will remount L.A.'s Matrix Theatre production of her play, The Mountaintop, at Memphis's Orpheum Theatre in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Obie award-winner Roger Guenveur Smith, who directed the Matrix production, will again be at the helm, with Larry Bates and Danielle Moné Truitt reprising their Matrix roles. Award-winning Matrix set designer John Iacovelli will design the set.
The Mountaintop is Hall's 2010 Olivier Award-winning play set inside room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Martin Luther King was murdered, on the night before the assassination. Her gripping re-imagining of events as they may have taken place in the hours before his death is rife with humanity and humor, as the celebrated Reverend reveals his hopes, regrets and fears to a seemingly inconsequential hotel maid. The Matrix Theatre Company production, produced by Emmy Award-winner and Matrix artistic director Joseph Stern, ran for three months in 2016 in an acclaimed production that the Los Angeles Times called "funny and emotionally charged... a powerful, poetic take on [King's] legacy." It marked the Los Angeles premiere of Hall's play. An MLK50 event presented by the Orpheum Theatre Group in partnership with the Hattiloo Theatre, performances of The Mountaintop will take place at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis March 28 through April 1. For more information, go to https://orpheum-memphis.com/event/katori-halls-the-mountaintop.
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