World Premiere of GHOST OF KING Comes to Oakland Theater Project in June

Oakland Theater Project has announced the third show in its 2024 Season with the World Premiere of Ghost of King, by Michael Wayne Turner III at Oakland Theater Project (1501 MLK JR Way) from June 6—23.

Following the sold-out run of Turner's Hat Matter in 2022 (a show currently on its way to performances Off-Broadway and in London), Ghost of King is a one-of-a-kind meditation on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

In this examination of King’s last sermon, delivered a few days before his assassination, the audience is guided through an exploration of King’s brilliance.

Along with embodying King and presenting the entirety of this final sermon, Michael Wayne Turner III weaves an original character and writing that illuminates and explores Martin Luther King Jr in context of today’s modern world.

"To hear these words, not only in the context of the entire speech, but in the voice and presence of a resurrected MLK is to feel elevated into a consciousness willing to tackle the insurmountable crises of our time with radical and transformative love," says Oakland Theater Project Co-Artistic Director, Michael Socrates Moran. "There is something sublime about taking something so simple – a speech by a canonized figure we all think we know – and resurrect him from the canon so that his words no longer belong to the past but live in front of us - sweating, breathing, bellowing - as an impassioned warning, a heeding, and a pleading for our present", says Moran.

"It's common to hear people invoke Dr. King—suggesting what he might say or think about something happening in the world today," says the show's creator and sole actor, Michael Wayne Turner III. "Often what they're actually doing is using his image to push their own agenda. I love having this opportunity to revisit the work itself - and let the man speak for himself. And I think it's telling that these words written in 1968 are still so relevant in 2024."

Ghost of King is the third play in Oakland Theater Project’s 2024 Season: Ghosts of Past, Present and Future, seven plays that echo from the past into the present—in hopes of illuminating the future.

“In our 12th year, we seek to interrogate the ghosts that haunt our collective past, present and future so that we might gain clarity about our global predicaments, and find inspiration to move forward,” says Moran. “With seven shows from divergent lenses all focused on this central theme, we hope this season helps to illuminate the ways in which our experiences can inspire solidarity across difference.”

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