Park City Institute Presents LA Theatre Works' Powerful Play, THE MOUNTAINTOP

Marking history with art, Park City Institute presents L.A. Theatre Works' Olivier Award-winning play, The Mountaintop, by Katori Hall. The powerful two-person play imagines the story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's last night on earth. "This year marks the 50th Anniversary of Dr. King's assassination," said PCI Executive Director, Teri Orr. "We wanted to honor his memory, his work, and his life, by presenting The Mountaintop. The play is filled with humor, political jabs, and offers a glimpse at the human side of this larger-than-life figure. And, it carries a message that is still relevant, today."

The play will star film, television, and stage actors Karen Malina White and Gilbert Glenn Brown. Shirley Jo Finney will direct. In The Mountaintop, playwright Hall fantasizes what may have transpired in the overnight hours between the legendary civil rights leader and a seemingly inconsequential hotel maid, in room 306 of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis. It is the night before King was assassinated, outside room 306. The Independent (London) said, "It is a relationship that is breathtaking, hilarious, and heart-stopping in its exchanges, and in its speedy ability to reveal character and pull the audience into the ring."

Hours after his famed final speech, punctuated by the immortal line, "I've been to the mountaintop," the celebrated Reverend reveals his hopes, regrets, and fears, creating a masterful bridge between mortality and immortality. In 2018, America and the world marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr., yet, struggles to resolve racial tension remain a challenge for communities everywhere. The Mountaintop premiered in London in 2009 and subsequently ran on Broadway starring Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson.

Karen Malina White has received two NAACP Image Awards as well as the LA Drama Critics Award and the L.A. Ovation Award. She has been seen on screen in Lean On Me with Morgan Freeman and numerous independent films such as The Ties That Bind and Where Do We Go From Here. Her television credits include The Cosby Show, How To Get Away With Murder, Living Single, Animal Kingdom, and VEEP among many others.

Gilbert Glenn Brown is an accomplished stage actor with credits ranging from The Goodman Theatre to True Colors Theatre Company to the National Black Theatre Festival. Television appearances include Stranger Things, Valor, C.S.I. Miami, Cold Case, The Shield, and others. On film, he's been seen in Best of Enemies, Dreamgirls, Drumline II, and Raising the Heights.

Shirley Jo Finney is a multi-award winning director with credits that include The Goodman Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, McCarter Theater, the Humana Festival, Kennedy Center, and the Sundance Theater Workshop, among many others.

Katori Hall is a playwright/performer from Memphis, TN, with many awards to her name. Hall's plays include: The Mountaintop (2010 Olivier Award for Best New Play), which ran on Broadway at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre starring Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson, Hurt Village (2011 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Signature Theatre), Children of Killers (National Theatre, UK and Castillo Theatre, NYC), Hoodoo Love (Cherry Lane Theatre), Remembrance (Women's Project), Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, WHADDABLOODCLOT!!! (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Our Lady of Kibeho (Signature Theatre) and Pussy Valley (Mixed Blood). Hall is an alumna of the Lark Playwrights' Workshop, where she developed The Mountaintop and Our Lady of Kibeho, and a graduate of Columbia University, the A.R.T. at Harvard University, and the Juilliard School.

L.A. THEATRE WORKS Under the leadership of Producing Director, Susan Albert Loewenberg, L.A. Theatre Works (LATW) has been the foremost radio theater company in the United States for four decades. Dubbed "a national theatrical treasure," by The Philadelphia Inquirer, L.A. Theatre Works has been called "consistently superb," by The L.A. Times, and "proven to be original, eciting, and highly theatrical," by American Theatre Magazine. L.A. Theatre Works is broadcast weekly in America on public radio stations, daily in China on the Radio Beijing Network, streamed online at www.latw.org and programs are aired internationally on the BBC, CBC, and many other English language networks. LATW has single-handedly brought the finest recorded dramatic literature into the homes of millions. On the road, LATW has delighted audiences with its unique live radio theater style performances in over 300 small towns and major cities, including New York, Boston, San Francisco, Washington and Chicago, Beijing and Shanghai. An L.A. Theatre Works performance is immediate, spontaneous, and features a first-rate cast, live sound effects, and a connection to the audience rarely felt in a traditional theater setting. This theater... is an event.

Tickets to L.A. Theatre Works' performance of, The Mountaintop, are available at parkcityinstitute.org, or by calling the box office at 435-655-3114. Individual tickets range from $29 to $79. Discounts are available for children (16 and under), seniors, and Summit County students (K-12). Call the Box Office at 435-655-3114 for more information. The Box Office is located within the Eccles Center (1750 Kearns Boulevard, Park City). Box office hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from noon through show time, on the day of a performance. The Mountaintop contains some mature language.

**PCI MEMBERSHIP EXCLUSIVE: Season punch cards of 10 are available for $240 (sapphire) $420 (ruby) and $690 (amethyst). For membership information, please visit parkcityinstitute.org.

Park City Institute is a non-profit organization, dedicated to bringing world-class performances and new ideas to the community. Since 1998, PCI has presented internationally renowned and cutting edge musicians, actors, authors, comedians, dancers, speakers, and film, at the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Center for the Performing Arts (a joint-use facility with the Park City School District). The organization will embark on its 15th season of headliner concerts, next summer. PCI is dedicated to introducing young people to the arts through free student outreach workshops, shows and demonstrations. Since 2010, PCI has offered a free, after-school literacy program to students in grades one through 12 at the thinky and fun tutoring hub, The Mega-Genius Supply Store and IQ HQ (located at 435 Swede Alley)

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