One Night in Miami... Study Guide

STUDY GUIDE

JAN 14–FEB 8, 2015

ONE NIGHT in MIAMI…

By Kemp Powers

BEFORE THE SHOW Introduction to the World of the Play

Tory Andrus*

Malcolm X

Part of my job is to bring the best new plays that I can to our theater. And I’m often surprised at how new works arrive on our stages.

Royce Johnson*

Kareem

Sullivan Jones*

Cassius Clay

Grasan Kingsberry*

Sam Cooke

Genesis Oliver*

Jamaal

This play was recommended to me by a member of our fantastic board, who was right when he thought I’d like it; the day after I read the script I was on a plane to see the first production in LA.

Esau Pritchett*

Jim Brown

Captain Kate Murphy*

Stage Manager

Laura Smith*

Assistant Stage Manager

Now I’m delighted to bring the East Coast premiere of One Night in Miami… to Baltimore. We have been so blessed to have playwright Kemp Powers with us here. It is especially meaningful when a playwright can join us for the rehearsal process, and Kemp’s insights are a treasure.

One Night in Miami… is not only an amazing new play, it is an important play about an iconic moment in sporting history as well as Black history. Cassius Clay wins the heavyweight championship, celebrates the victory with three (quite noteworthy) friends, and then becomes Muhammad Ali within 24 hours. It’s a huge moment for African American history, and for America.

This fact-based play uses fictional dialogue to capture the choices facing these four men at a crossroads in their lives, against the background of a larger sweep of history. And as Playwright Kemp Powers observes, it’s a play about history that encompasses, or perhaps echoes, issues we still face today.

One of the features I admire most about the play is its ability to ground these iconic figures, and this great moment, in history. We are given the chance to glimpse behind the hotel room door and imagine these icons as they were—as men and friends—and this historic event as just one February night in Miami....

Warmly,

CAST/CREDITS

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association THE ARTISTIC TEAM Kemp Powers

Playwright

Kwame Kwei-Armah

Director

Brenda Davis

Set Designer

Clint Ramos

Costume Designer

Colin D. Young

Lighting Designer

Shane Rettig

Alex Koch

Sound Designer Projection Designer

Catherine María Rodríguez Production Dramaturg Pat McCorkle

Casting Director

Brandon Rashad Butts

Assistant Director

CONTRIBUTORS: Editor- Joshua Thomas

Graphic Designer- Katherine Marmion Maggie Beetz

SPECIAL THANKS TO: Rosiland Cauthen Kristina Szilagyi Gavin Witt Catherine María Rodríguez

Kwame Kwei-Armah Artistic Director

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BEFORE THE SHOW THEATER ETIQUETTE

SETTING: TIME: February 25, 1964

PLACE:

The Hampton House Hotel in Miami, Florida On this particular night in Miami, newly crowned heavyweight champ Cassius Clay chose to forgo lavish celebrations at the luxurious Fontainebleau Hotel— opting instead to spend it with his close friends Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown in the Hampton House in Overtown, the Black neighborhood where he’d trained.

We appreciate our yo unger audiences for the energy and honesty they bring to the theater.

Most Center Stage actors will agree that stu de nt matinee audiences are their favorite. Please remember that it is important to give as much support as you can to the performers on stage and do your best not to draw attention to yourself during the performance. The following guidelines are intended to help create a positive experience for everyone at the student matinees.

Before you go inside the theater: • Turn off your cell phone and any other electronic • • •

devices (iPods, Blackberries, etc.)

Leave all food, drinks, and games (of both the card and board variety) outside or dispose of them before entering the theater.

Spit out any gum.

Visit the restroom before the performance begins.

Located on the north side of Miami, literally across the railroad tracks, Overtown was known as “Colored Town” in 1896 when incorporated into the city. The neighborhood developed into a vibrant community that hosted many mainstream Black entertainers—including Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Nat King Cole—at its height in the 1940s and 1950s.

During the performance: • Try to remain still in your seats during the show. If

In the the last days of segregation, the Hampton House thrived. Established in 1954, the hotel was one of the only establishments in the area open to African Americans, and it became a hot spot for many notable Black celebrities and activists—so much so that it was promoted as the “Social Center of the South.” Muhammad Ali had a permanent room, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a regular guest, and the Congress of Racial Equality held weekly meetings here.

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you have to leave, exit during intermission.

Do not speak during the performance. It can be very distracting to the actors on stage.

Do not kick or put your feet up on the back of the chairs in front of you.

Please DO laugh or respond appropriately during the performance.

Lastly, theater is communal, which means you are just as much an integral part of the show as the actors on stage. So show respect to your fellow audience members, the staff, the performers, and yourself!

MEET THE PLAYWRIGHT

Kemp Powers is a writer, editor, playwright, author, and gumbo enthusiast. A journalist for almost 20 years, he has told countless stories in the pages of magazines and newspapers ranging from Esquire to Forbes. His play One Night in Miami… enjoyed an acclaimed world premiere at Rogue Machine, winning four NAACP awards and the Ted Schmitt Award for outstanding new play. A recipient of a Knight Journalism Fellowship at the University of Michigan, his current projects include the development of his new play, The Two Reds. He is also the author of The Shooting: A Memoir. Kemp’s work was selected for publication in The Moth’s first-ever book of collected works, released in September 2013, by Hyperion Books. He is a resident playwright at Los Angeles’ award-winning Rogue Machine Theatre company.

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LITTLE MALCOLM Malcolm Little was born in Omaha, Nebraska on May 19, 1925. His Mother, Louise Norton Little, was a busy homemaker, and his father, Earl Little, was a Baptist Preacher. The Littles had seven children, and Little Malcolm was number four in the bunch.

Now, the Littles didn’t have very much at all. They were a poor, African American family living on a farm just trying to make it. But Little Malcolm’s father, Earl, made sure that they were self-sufficient. See, Earl was a Civil Rights activist and a supporter of the Black Nationalist leader, Marcus Garvey, so they believed that African Americans should be independent and able to support themselves separately from the intervention of white people. These were dangerous times for anyone who was an African American activist, and Earl Little was no exception. A white supremacist group, the Black Legion, was sending Earl Little death threats. It got so bad that the family had to relocate twice before Little Malcolm was even four years old. They ended up in Lansing, Michigan.

Even though they had moved, the Littles were not able to escape the violence. The Black Legion set the Littles’ house in Lansing on fire. No one was hurt, but that wasn’t the end of it. Two years later, Little Malcolm’s father, Earl, was found dead on the trolley tracks. The police ruled both the fire and the death on the trolley as an accident, but everyone was certain that the Black Legion was responsible. Little Malcolm was only six.

committed into a mental hospital. Little Malcolm was left to live in orphanages.

Time passed and Little Malcolm wasn’t so little anymore.

He had moved around the East Coast and was getting into trouble. He was in Harlem, New York, and was a hustler on the streets. He made his living as a drug dealer, a burglar, a pimp, and other not-so-legal occupations. He got in trouble with the police and another hustler, moved to Boston, got arrested, and was sent to prison.

While in prison, Malcolm’s brother had joined the Nation of Islam (NOI), an African American sect of the Sunni Muslim religion. Malcolm was reluctant to join at first, but he was craving guidance. He began to explore the principles and ideals that the NOI was teaching, and he was drawn to its leader, Elijah Muhammad. He joined the NOI and denounced his given name, Little, because he felt it was a slave master’s name imposed upon his family.

He replaced it with a symbol of the African name of his ancestors that he would never know. That symbol was a simple “X.” This change would make his name one of the most recognizable names in American history. This is how Little Malcolm grew to become the man we know today as Malcolm X… and the rest is history.

A few years went by and Little Malcolm was getting older.

His family was breaking apart after his father’s death, and he was becoming unruly. His mother had found another man, was pregnant and was hoping to marry the man.

When the man left her, the stresses of her life became too much to handle—she had a breakdown and was

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THE FIGHT BEFORE THE FIGHT The scene: Convention Hall, Miami Beach, Florida. The year: 1964. The occasion: Cassius Clay, a fresh-faced, 22-yearold loud-mouth has defeated the seasoned Heavy Weight Champion, Sonny Liston, to be crowned the new Heavy Weight Champion of the World… but who is this Cassius Clay? Does “Muhammad Ali” ring a bell?

The play, One Night in Miami…, is set on the night that Cassius Clay won the Heavy Weight Championship. Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown were known to be friends with each other, but what isn’t widely known is that the four actually stayed together in the same small motel the night Clay won the Title. The next day, Cassius Clay announced his conversion to Islam, and a few days later was given the name Muhammad Ali. The night of the fight, Cassius Clay (soon to be Muhammad Ali) was the severe underdog. No one in the media thought he stood a chance against Sonny Liston. Liston had a reputation as being a monster in and outside the ring. Not only was his nickname “The Big Bear,” he was also known for beating up tough thugs and fighting cops outside the ring. Did any of this stop Clay from running his mouth?

Absolutely not. He was famous for not only his superb boxing skill, but also for his pre-fight antics. He was known for being a big talker, drawing attention to himself and to his fights like none other. His charisma was impeccable, and his hijinks were an absolute spectacle—but what if all of it was all a part of his scheme?

Most boxers study their opponents—the way they move, the combinations they throw, their rhythms, etc.—but Clay took it a step further. He studied the way Sonny Liston thought. He studied interviews Liston did, articles published about what Liston’s lifestyle was like, anything he could get his hands on to figure out Liston’s mental weaknesses. The media was giving Liston all the hype while at the same time making Clay out to be an easy win. That along with the hype of his already notorious reputation made Liston extremely confident—a little too confident. Clay revealed in an interview with Alex Haley that Liston’s overconfidence was making him the perfect setup for Clay. Clay capitalized on this advantage.

Not only did he talk to the media and call Liston all sorts of names like “big ugly bear,” for the first time in his career he used his antics to psychologically affect opponent. On one occasion, Clay took a tour bus to Liston’s home at 3 am, blew the horn and screamed, banged on his door and told yelled at him to come out and fight. The neighborhood was upset and the police came to break up the scene.

Another time, Clay began haggling with Liston at a casino in Las Vegas. Clay grabbed Liston’s poker chips and made a show out of it, but Liston wasn’t giving him the reaction he wanted, so Clay shot him with a water gun and began yelling and screaming in the casino. Liston became visibly upset, pulled Clay to the side, and gave Clay some words in private. Clay admitted to being intimidated by Liston, but this was exactly the reaction he wanted—he knew he was getting under Liston’s skin and into his mind.

When the two arrived in Miami, the taunting only escalated. Clay was at the airport when Liston arrived in Miami with his wife. Clay made such a show of yelling and threatening that Liston actually threw a punch at him (which of course Clay dodged). After the two were broken up by friends and police, Clay yelled and taunted and banged his cane outside of Liston’s airport lounge.

Clay, along with people from his camp and teenage girls, picketed Liston’s camp. They weren’t allowed to have picket signs by city ordinance, so they put the signs on a bus and screamed and honked the horn outside of Liston’s camp. At the press weigh-in, Clay went berserk. He put on a show that cost him a $2,500 fine, and had reporters saying that he was “dangerously disturbed,” “scared to death,” “hysterical,” etc. By the end of it all, Liston was out for blood—and this is exactly what Clay wanted.

The saying, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” is one of the most famous sayings in sports history. Clay said that the phrase was not just a saying, but his fighting strategy.

It is history that he beat Sonny Liston that night, but that fight began long before the bell rang. Clay wanted for the press to make a joke out of him so that Liston would underestimate him, which it did. He wanted Liston to be angry out of his mind so that his anger would overshadow the skill that it takes to fight, which he was. He wanted to use his wit as a psychological weapon to win his first Heavy Weight Title at age 22, which he did. This was the fight before the fight, which he won.

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IN CLASS

IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES: BATTLE OF WITS

Boxing, especially with Muhammad Ali, was all about the pre-fight hype. Boxing fans today hear so much about Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and the things he says and how cocky he is. Muhammad Ali was the master at showing off his confidence through his words. This activity will give students the opportunity to show the world that they can talk with the best of them.

• Have each student create a nickname for themselves as fighters.

• Have each student write a short poem about how great they are as a fighter, and how badly they will beat their opponent.

o Example: “Jones likes to mix / So I’ll let it go six. / If he talks jive / I’ll cut it to five. / And if he talks some more / I’ll cut it to four. / And if he talks about me / I’ll cut it to three. / And if that don’t do / I’ll cut it to two. / And if you want some fun / I’ll cut it to one. / And if he don’t want to fight / He can stay home that night.”

–Muhammad Ali

• Call students two at a time and announce them as fighters.

A CHANGE IS GONNA COME

Shortly before he passed away, Sam Cooke wrote a song that would shake the nation; that song was “A Change is Gonna Come.” The song is about hoping for a change through a struggle, and not allowing that struggle to defer the dream. In this exercise, the students will listen to “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke. They will then listen to an instrumental version and write lyrics about the change they want to see happen in the world they live in today.

o Example: “In this corner, reigning from Fed Hill, we have a tenth grade phenome with the lines to prove it—John ‘The Baddest-Man-in-Maryland’ Smiiiiiittthhh!!! And in this corner…” etc.

• After both fighters have been announced, have them recite their poems to each other one-at-a-time in a Battle of Wits.

THINGS TO WATCH/READ/LISTEN TO Watch

• Muhammad Ali Highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs8Ls6Dx1F0 • Muhammad Ali Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijwS9n8G3KI • Muhammad Ali vs Sonny Liston Weigh In https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaTbr5TrnHA • Jim Brown Highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGupe7nKuU • Jim Brown Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGpcifQcgrA • Malcolm X Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuHYZdf-ad0 • Malcom X (Featuring Denzel Washington) • Ali (Featuring Will Smith)

Listen

• Sam Cooke “A Change is Gonna Come” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOYuhLNwh3A • Sam Cooke “You Send Me” (live) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Pegd-M4p8 • Sam Cooke “A Change is Gonna Come” (instrumental) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZE21mDNWSg

Read

• Muhammad Ali Interview http://www.alex-haley.com/alex_haley_cassius_clay_ interview.htm • Jim Brown Interview http://www.alex-haley.com/alex_haley_jim_brown_ interview.htm • Malcolm X Interview http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/ a-summing-up-louis-lomax-interviews-malcolm-x/ centerstage.org

QUOTE TRIVIA Malcolm X, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke, and Muhammad Ali were all driving forces in the Civil Rights Movement. They each said things that inspired and challenged a lot of people. In this exercise, the students will break into groups.

Each team will have one chance to guess which quote belongs to which person. The teacher will write a new quote on the board for each team, and the team with the most points wins!

Muhammad Ali • “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t Jim Brown • “I’m not interested in trying to work on people’s

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perceptions. I am who I am, and if you don’t take the time to learn about that, then your perception is going to be your problem.”

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“Communications are out. We’ve been putting out the word, but so far there’s not much.”

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“That’s what we were hoping for, gain a little momentum heading into the Big Ten. We have as good a chance as anybody if our guys play the way they can.”

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“A huge crisis like this lets new leadership step forward.”

“I was just a big guy running down with a big, deep pocket and little short stick putting it against my chest.”

“The typical elected official is constantly surrounded by crisis. We don’t act, we react. We don’t typically look at the big picture. You need time to think in the big picture. It is hard for us to do.”

“They all know that they have to play better. Most of it is course management and short game. We have really been trying to concentrate on that the whole year.”

“This is the best schedule I’ve had in 33 years at Ohio State. The fields are so deep and so competitive. We always try to play a tough schedule because you have to see where you stand. It is important to play tough competition. And we expect to do well. You don’t get any points for showing up. We have to take advantage of these opportunities.”

“I loved the game. We played because we loved it.”

“I had a choice to be lazy or lean... If I hadn’t changed, things probably would catch up with me.”

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quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’”

“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”

“Friendship… is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.”

“I know where I’m going and I know the truth, and I don’t have to be what you want me to be. I’m free to be what I want.”

“A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

“I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was.

I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.”

“Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.”

“Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them—a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion.

Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”

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Malcolm X • “A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.”

• “Don’t be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn’t do •

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what you do or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn’t know what you know today.”

“There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time.”

“A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself.”

“I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they’ll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action.”

Sam Cooke • “I was born by the river in a little tent, and just like the • • • • •

river I’ve been running ever since.

It’s been a long, a long time coming, but I know a change gonna come. Oh yes it will.”

“It’s been too hard living, but I’m afraid to die. ‘Cause I don’t know what’s up there beyond the sky.”

“I go to the movie and I go down town. Somebody keep telling me don’t hang around.”

“Then I go to my brother and I say, ‘Brother, help me, please,’ but he winds up knockin’ me back down on my knees.”

“Oh, there been times when I thought I couldn’t last for long, but now I think I’m able to carry on.”

“If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary.”

“I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing.

I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation.”

“Without education, you’re not going anywhere in this world.”

“You don’t have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent human being.”

“I am not a racist. I am against every form of racism and segregation, every form of discrimination. I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color.”

Pictured Right: Muhammad Ali and Sam Cooke

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