Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Kitchen Theatre Company continues its 25th Anniversary Season with the powerful and provocative The Mountaintop by Katori Hall. The 2010 Oliver Award winning play daringly re-imagines Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last night on Earth.
 
A weary and restless Dr. King returns to the Lorraine Motel after delivering his legendary "I've been to the mountaintop" speech at Mason Temple. He contemplates the events of the evening and what he will say the next day to further support the Memphis workers' demands. Desperate for a cup of coffee, he rings for room service. In playwright Katori Hall's vision of that night, a motel maid, Camae, arrives with not only coffee but unanticipated news of the future. Epic in its vision and intimate in its truth, The Mountaintop is a gripping story in which the larger-than-life icon confronts the meaning of his life and his destiny. Writer Hall explores Dr. King's humor, fear and expansive humanity.

"The play is a fiction, but filled with so much truth. Through Katori Hall's imagining, we are reminded of Dr. King's vision and how this extraordinary and ordinary man continues to affect the lives of so many and the destiny of his country," says KTC artistic director, Rachel Lampert.
 
Director Nicole A. Watson returns to Kitchen Theatre Company to lead this production. She directed Black Sheep by Darian Dauchan last season for our Solo Play Festival. Watson is a freelance director with a focus on new plays and devised work. Most recent credits include the world premiere of Johnna Adams' World Builders (CATF). Landon G. Woodson (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) is making his Kitchen Theatre Company debut. A NYC-based actor, Woodson has an MFA from Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts. He has appeared in Repairing a Nation (Crossroads Theater Company and National Black Theater Festival), Clybourne Park (Chautauqua Theater Company), and Bike America (Ma-Yi Theater Company) and productions of Machinal, Topdog/Underdog and Raisin in the Sun. Angel Moore (Camae) has appeared in Young Jamie (Magic Theatre West Coast Premiere), Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Shakespeare and Company), and in productions of A Raisin in the Sun), Intimate Apparel, Antigone, A Song for Coretta, Repairing a Nation) and Black Nativity. Angel holds an MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University and a BA from Alabama State University. This is her first production at Kitchen Theatre Company.
 
Three new designers are joining KTC for The Mountaintop: Frank Oliva (Set Design), Nik Robalino (Lighting Design) and Brad Peterson (Projection Designer). Among Oliva's recent credits are: The Wolves (World Premiere, Clubbed Thumb/Playwrights Horizons); Blessing: A New Musical (World Premiere, Playwrights Horizons); Exposure (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre); and El Burlador de Sevilla (Repertorio Español). Robalino has worked at Public Theatre, Julliard, Peridance Capezio Center, NY Fringe Festival, and All For One Festival. Peterson has created projections for Fish in the Dark (Broadway); Carousel (Stratford Festival); Labyrinth: Room No. 35 (VIA/BMP/Krannert); Soul Doctor (Off-Broadway); Encounter (BMMF, NCPA - Beijing); This Takes Place Close By (thingNY); The Wiz (Maltz Jupiter); and On The Town (Merry-Go-Round Playhouse). Returning to design costumes is Lisa Boquist (Costume Designer) whose work has been seen for more than a decade at KTC including Buyer & Cellar, Swimming in the Shallows, Thin Walls, A Body of Water, The Whipping Man among many others. Lesley Lisa Greene (Sound Designer) Kitchen Theatre Company credits include: Count Me In, Mary's Wedding, The Brothers Size, The Whipping Man, Last Train to Nibroc, Speech and Debate and many more.

In conjunction with the Ithaca premiere of The Mountaintop, Kitchen Theatre Company will present a number of ancillary events. Post-show talkbacks are scheduled for Sunday, October 11, Tuesday, October 13, and Wednesday, October 14 (preview performances), and Friday, October 23 (facilitated by Lee Rayburn of WHCU). On Wednesday, October 21 at 6:30 PM, there will be a free reception and talk by Rev. Dr. Kenneth I. Clarke, Sr., Director of Cornell United Religious Work. Please check our website for more events:www.kitchentheatre.org.
 
Kitchen Theatre Company's production of The Mountaintop is Underwritten by Travis Hyde Properties and sponsored by Cornell University. The Media Sponsor is WCNY.
 
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