KNOW BEFORE YOU GO
BY Michael
Benjamin Washington Tiberghien
DIRECTED BY Lucie
A co-production with Kansas City Repertory Theatre Production Sponsors
Vivien and Jeffrey Ressler
Brian and Silvija Devine
Recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award
September 8 – October 4
BEFORE YOU GO
KNOW
We look forward to seeing you at La Jolla Playhouse at your upcoming performance of Blueprints to Freedom: An Ode to Bayard Rustin. Below is some additional information about the production and the venue to enhance your theater-going experience.
Parking Parking is free for all subscribers. For all others parking is $2 (subject to change), Mon-Fri. Upon arrival to campus, please purchase your parking permit from one of the automated pay stations located next to the information kiosk. Simply park, note your space number, and pay $2 at the pay station. Pay stations accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express or cash ($1 and $5), and do not give change. You will not need to return to your car. Parking is free on the weekends.
Audience Engagement Events The Playhouse offers unique opportunities for audience members to delve deeper into the play with these special performance series options: Foodie Friday: Buy a ticket to the performance and enjoy San Diego’s finest food trucks, plus a complimentary microbrew tasting from Stone Brewing Company. - Friday, September 25 starting at 6:00 pm Talkback Tuesdays: Participate in a lively discussion with actors and Playhouse staff members after the performance. - Tuesday, September 15 following the 7:30 pm performance - Tuesday, September 22 following the 7:30 pm performance Discovery Sunday: Special guest speakers engage audience members in a moderated discussion exploring the issues and themes in the play. - Sunday, October 4 following the 2:00 pm performance Insider Events: Join Playhouse staff for a special pre-performance presentation that gives an insider’s view of the play. - Wednesday, September 30 at 6:45 pm - Saturday, October 3 at 1:15 pm
Accessibility A golf cart is available to assist patrons with accessibility issues to and from the parking lot. Please notify Patron Services prior to your performance if you are in need of this service; additionally, you may pull into the five minute parking in front of the theatre, and a friendly La Jolla Playhouse greeter will assist you.
ACCESS PERFORMANCES Open Captioned Performance: This performance has open captioning for patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing. - Sunday, September 20 at 2:00 pm ACCESS (ASL Interpreted & Audio Described) Performance: This performance has American Sign Language interpretation for patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing, and audio description for patrons who are blind or have low vision. - Saturday, September 26 at 2:00 pm Dining
James’ Place is the Theatre District’s on-site restaurant. Developed by renowned Sushi Master James Holder, the menu includes his signature sushi, as well as delectable dishes created with Prime and Angus cuts of beef, locally and sustainably harvested seafood, along with seasonal dishes. A lighter fare menu is also served at the newly-redesigned sushi/cocktail bar, featuring craft beer and California wines. James’ Place is open daily. Tuesday – Friday: Happy Hour: 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm | Dinner: 5:00 pm – Close Saturday – Sunday: Happy Hour: 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm | Dinner: 5:00 pm – Close For reservations, please call (858) 638-7778. We also recommend the following nearby restaurants: Café la Rue and The Med at La Valencia Hotel 1132 Prospect Street La Jolla, CA 92037 lavalencia.com Cusp Restaurant and Hiatus Poolside Lounge at Hotel La Jolla 7955 La Jolla Shores Drive La Jolla, CA 92037 cusprestaurant.com Dolce Pane e Vino 16081 San Dieguito Road Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067 dolcepaneevino.com
Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar 8970 University Center Lane San Diego, CA 92122 flemingssteakhouse.com Giuseppe Restaurants & Fine Catering 700 Prospect Street San Diego, CA 92037 giuseppecatering.com Mustangs & Burros at Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa 9700 N. Torrey Pines Road La Jolla, CA 92037 estancialajolla.com
Pamplemousse Grille 514 Via de la Valle, Suite 100 Solana Beach, CA 92075 pgrille.com Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery Playhouse Patrons Get 20% Off
8980 Villa La Jolla Drive La Jolla, CA 92037 rockbottom.com Roppongi Restaurant & Sushi Bar 875 Prospect Street La Jolla, CA 92037 roppongiusa.com
Children under the age of 6 are not permitted in the theatre during performances unless otherwise posted.
A MESSAGE FROM THE
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
MISSION STATEMENT: La Jolla Playhouse advances theatre as an art form and as a vital social, moral and political platform by providing unfettered creative opportunities for the leading artists of today and tomorrow. With our youthful spirit and eclectic, artist-driven approach, we will continue to cultivate a local and national following with an insatiable appetite for audacious and diverse work. In the future, San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse will be considered singularly indispensable to the worldwide theatre landscape, as we become a permanent safe harbor for the unsafe and surprising. The day will come when it will be essential to enter the La Jolla Playhouse village in order to get a glimpse of what is about to happen in American theatre.
La Jolla Playhouse has received La Jolla Playhouse has received the the highest rating from Charity highest rating from Charity Navigator, Navigator, the nation’s premier the nation’s premier charity evaluator. charity evaluator. P4 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINe
© Howard Lipin/U-T San Diego/ZUMA Wire
One of the themes that recurs in our 2015/2016 season is how communities in crisis come together against staggering odds in order to move forward. In Blueprints to Freedom: An Ode to Bayard Rustin, we focus on a few months in 1963, a year that produced both unconscionable racial violence and one of the zeniths of the Civil Rights Movement: the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
The force behind that epic accomplishment, Bayard Rustin, was an extraordinary figure at an extraordinary moment. Yet Rustin has never fully had his due; for decades, he and his contributions were almost entirely hidden in the shadows. Michael Benjamin Washington’s new play sheds needed light and recognition on a complex and fascinating person. The primary reason Rustin has been absent from our history books is because he was openly and unapologetically gay. For most of Rustin’s lifetime, being gay was dangerous – criminalized, even. Beyond that, his homosexuality made him a potential threat to the Civil Rights Movement; the closer he was to the spotlight, the more visible a target he made, and the more vulnerable the cause became. For Rustin, fighting for the rights of one part of his identity ultimately meant putting aside the rights of another part of his identity. Blueprints to Freedom delves into fascinating questions about the nature of fighting for equality. More and more, it’s obvious that none of us are a singular thing; we exist at an intersection of various identities. Is progress a zero-sum game, or is there room for all at the table? I can’t imagine a more fitting moment for us to re-discover Bayard Rustin. In 1963, even as homosexuality was still taboo, The March on Washington seemed to indicate that we were turning a corner on racial inequality. Just over 50 years later, the tables have turned. We exist in an unprecedented moment for gay rights, and yet racial tension in America is at a distressingly high point. How do we continue our fight for justice when even decisive victories are followed by dispiritingly tragic setbacks? Blueprints to Freedom has been developed at the Playhouse from its first reading (on the 50th anniversary of the March) to its workshop production as part of the 2014 DNA Series, on through this world premiere co-production with Kansas City Rep. I’m thrilled to welcome back director Lucie Tiberghien (Blood and Gifts) and re-introduce Michael Benjamin Washington, best known as a performer in the Playhouse’s productions of The Wiz and Memphis, as a talented and exciting new voice in American theatre.
CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE presents Michael S. Rosenberg Managing Director
Christopher Ashley Artistic Director
BY
Michael Benjamin Washington directed BY
Lucie Tiberghien A Co-Production with Kansas City Repertory Theatre Featuring
Ro Boddie*, Mat Hostetler*, Antonio T.J. Johnson*, Mandi Masden*, Keith Wallace ‥, Michael Benjamin Washington* Scenic Design Costume Design Lighting Design Sound Design Projection Design Wig Design Dramaturg CASTING Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager Project Production Manager
Neil Patel Beth Goldenberg Lap Chi Chu Joe Huppert John Narun Charles G. LaPointe Gabriel Greene Telsey & Co.; Karen Casl, C.S.A. Peter Van Dyke* Amanda Salmons* Benjamin Seibert
THE CAST (in alphabetical order)
Ro Boddie..................................................................................... Martin Luther King, Jr. Mat Hostetler............................................................................................ Davis Platt, Jr. Antonio T.J. Johnson......................................................................... A. Philip Randolph Mandi Masden......................................................................................Miriam Caldwell Michael Benjamin Washington.............................................................. Bayard Rustin Understudy: Keith Wallace‡
Setting: Summer of 1963 New York City and Washington D.C. Blueprints to Freedom: An Ode to Bayard Rustin is performed without intermission.
Additional Staff Associate Projection Designer/Programmer........Grant McDonald Assistant Director...................................................Megan DeBoard Assistant Sound Designer....................................... Melanie Chen Assistant Lighting Designer..............................Sherrice Mojgani
PA System Design.....................................................Gareth Owen Costume Design Assistant...........................................Melissa Ng ‡ Stage Management Assistant........................................... Liz Fiala ‡
Acknowledgements This production is dedicated to the memory of Jordan Ressler, whose life makes new play development possible.
* Members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage
Managers in the United States. The theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association. This theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, an independent national labor union.
This theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE. La Jolla Playhouse is a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and a constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for the nonprofit professional theatre. ‡ UC San Diego M.F.A. Candidates in residence at La Jolla Playhouse.
THE COMPANY Ro Boddie, Martin Luther King, Jr. La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Regional: John in The Whipping Man (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre); Horatio in Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (American Players Theatre); Sylvester in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Center Stage and Philadelphia Theatre Company); Dirt (Studio Theatre); Belize in Angels in America (Forum Theatre); Floyd Barton in Seven Guitars (No Rules Theatre Company). Television: The Good Wife, Person of Interest, Unforgettable. Education: University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Mat Hostetler, Davis Platt, Jr. La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. National Tours: War Horse (North America and Japan). Off-Broadway: A Particle of Dread (Signature Theatre); The Preacher and the Shrink (The Beckett at Theater Row). NYC: Of Orient Are (The Representatives); American Jornalero (Working Theater); Richard II (Sonnet Rep). Regional: The Merry Wives of Windsor, Richard III (Denver Center Theatre); Amber Waves (Indiana Rep); Three Musketeers, Macbeth, Hamlet (Colorado Shakes). TV/Film: The Following, Smash, Boardwalk Empire, White Collar, Six Feet Under, Cold Case, JAG, NCIS, The Utopian Society. M.F.A.: National Theatre Conservatory. B.A.: University of Kansas. For January, for whom I continue to listen and love. Member of Actors’ Equity Association. Antonio T.J. Johnson, A. Philip Randolph La Jolla Playhouse: My Children! My Africa!. An acclaimed local actor and director, Mr. Johnson has appeared in numerous productions at Cygnet Theatre, Lamb’s Players Theatre, Moonlight Productions, Intrepid Shakespeare Company, San Diego REPertory Theatre, The Old Globe, North Coast Repertory and San Diego Black Ensemble, where he also serves as Executive Director. He is the recipient of the San Diego Critics Circle, Drama-Logue, Patté and Playbill Awards, and served as the 2012/2013 Artist-in-Residence at UC San Diego’s Thurgood Marshall College. Dedicated to Miss Thelma Johnson and Buddy. Mandi Masden, Miriam Caldwell La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Off-Broadway: Our Lady of Kibeho, The Piano Lesson (Signature Theatre Company); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Theatre for a New Audience). Regional: Shipwrecked! An Entertainment (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Christmas Carol (Denver Center Theatre Company); Ragtime (PPTOPA). Other theatre credits include Ruined, Angels in America, The Three Sisters, The Winter's Tale, HAIR, Ah! Wilderness, As You Like It, Into the Woods, The Threepenny Opera and The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Film/TV: Julie Taymor's A Midsummer Night's Dream, LFE, The Knick. M.F.A. from The National Theatre Conservatory. Keith Wallace, Understudy is a third-year M.F.A. actor at UC San Diego. La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. University credits: Death of a Driver, Venus, Golden Boy, in the crowding darkness, A Lie of the Mind, Grapes of Wrath. Other credits include: Dance of the Holy Ghosts, Hoodoo Love, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Comedy of Errors, Hairspray, Passing Strange, The Tempest. Directing credits: The Brothers Size, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. La Jolla Playhouse will premiere his solo play, THE BITTER GAME, in the WoW Festival in October 2015. Mr. Wallace holds a B.A. in Drama from Morehouse College and is an alumnus of The British American Drama Academy.
Michael Benjamin Washington, Bayard Rustin/Playwright has appeared as the Tinman in the Playhouse’s production of The Wiz, directed by Des McAnuff; Memphis, directed by Christopher Ashley; Most Wanted (workshop), directed by Michael Greif; and Letters to Barack (reading), directed by Christopher Ashley. His Broadway credits include Mamma Mia! (original company) and La Cage Aux Folles (2005 Tony-winning revival). Off-Broadway credits include Stephen Sondhiem's Saturday Night. Film and television appearances: Love and Other Drugs, directed by Ed Zwick; Gnome, directed by Jenny Bicks; 30 Rock (Donald Jordan); Glee (Tracy Pendegrass); 100 Questions (Andrew); Law & Order. A member of Broadway Inspirational Voices, Washington received his B.F.A. from New York University/Tisch School of the Arts and is a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. He serves on the writing adjudication panel for the National Young Arts Foundation. Lucie Tiberghien, Director La Jolla Playhouse: JT Roger's Blood and Gifts and the DNA New Work Series readings of Andrew Rosendorf's Tranquil and Monique Gafney's Being Henrietta. Other credits include the world premieres of Emily Schwend's The Other Thing (Second Stage, Uptown); Rehana Lew Mirza's Soldier X (Ma-Yi Theater Company); Christina Anderson's The Ashes Under Gait City (CATF); Charles Randolph-Wright’s Love in Afghanistan (Arena Stage); Stephen Belber’s Don’t Go Gentle (MCC); Geometry of Fire (Rattlestick); A Small Melodramatic Story (LAByrinth); Craig Wright’s Blind (Rattlestick); Katori Hall’s Hoodoo Love (Cherry Lane); Lee Blessing’s Great Falls (Humana Festival) and Flag Day (CATF). Other credits: Quiara Alegria Hudes' Water By The Spoonful (Arden Theater Comapny); Lee Blessing’s The Winning Streak (George Street Playhouse) and Craig Wright’s The Pavilion (Rattlestick and CATF). She recently joined the team of Stew and Heidi Rodewald’s new musical Resurrection City. Neil Patel, Scenic Design La Jolla Playhouse: American Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Peter and the Starcatchers, Private Fittings, Adoration of the Old Woman, Twelfth Night, Down the Road, Don Quixote of La Jolla. Broadway: Oleanna, [title of show], Ring of Fire, Side Man, 'night Mother. West End: Side Man, Underneath the Lintel. Off-Broadway: Mr. Burns, Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3), Dinner with Friends (Variety Arts Theater), Public Theater, BAM, NYTW, Manhattan Theatre Club, Roundabout, Playwrights Horizons, etc. Regional: Kennedy Center, Arena, Guthrie, Steppenwolf, CTG, ACT, ART, Center Stage, etc. Opera: Opera de Montreal, Vancouver Opera, New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Minnesota Opera, Opera Theater St. Louis, Nikikai Opera Tokyo. International: RSC, Parco Tokyo, Theater Archa Prague, Hebbel Theater Berlin. Television/Film: Some Velvet Morning (feature), Billy and Billie (DirecTV), In Treatment (HBO), Alone. Dance: Shadowland (Pilobolus). 2000 EDDY Award; 1996, 2000, 2003, 2009 Drama Desk nominations; 1996 and 2001 OBIE for sustained excellence, Helen Hayes Award 2008. Beth Goldenberg, Costume Design La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Theatre design credits include the premieres of The Other Thing (Second Stage); Engagements (Barrington Stage); Soldier X (Ma-Yi); Family Play (The New Ohio) and productions of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Juilliard); We Are Proud to Present a Presentation... (Fordham) and Souvenir (Portland Stage). Opera credits include Verdi’s Macbeth (dir. Anne Bogart), Pergolisi’s Stabat Mater and the premiere of a new adaptation of David Lang’s the little match girl passion (dir. Francesca Zambello) at Glimmerglass Opera. B.F.A.: Boston University. M.F.A.: NYU/Tisch. www.bethgoldenbergdesign.com
THE COMPANY Lap Chi Chu, Lighting Design La Jolla Playhouse: Ruined, The Orphan of Zhao. Off Broadway: The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Signature Theater, Second Stage Theatre, MCC. Regional: Mark Taper Forum, Geffen Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, The Shakespeare Theater. Awards: LA Drama Critics Circle Angstrom Award for Career Achievement in Lighting Design, Ovation Award, multiple Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards, a “Drammy” for best lighting. Teaching: Lighting design faculty (California Institute of the Arts). Joe Huppert, Sound Design, Music La Jolla Playhouse: Peter and the Starcatchers, Tall Girls, Brahman/i. Regional: Stop Kiss (Pasadena Playhouse); Milvotchkee Visconsin, Extraordinary Chambers, Yellow Face (Mo'olelo PAC); Frozen, Parasite Drag (ion); Rumors, Bedroom Farce, The Substance of Fire, The Last Seder (Organic); Unnecessary Farce, Doubt, The Elephant Man, Master Class, Red Herring (Peninsula Players); The Last Five Years, Live Suspense Radio (Yale Cabaret); Over the Tavern, King o' the Moon, Urinetown (Mercury Theater); Early and Often (Famous Door); Kiss of the Spider Woman, Hit Man (Bailiwick); Bad Dates (Boarshead); Embedded, Hizzoner (Prop Thtr); Art, Sight Unseen (DePaul). John Narun, Projection Design La Jolla Playhouse: The Darrell Hammond Project, The Tallest Tree in the Forest. Other credits: What I Did Last Summer (Signature Theatre); The Tallest Tree in the Forest (BAM); The Radio City Spring Spectacular (video content); The Laramie Project Cycle (BAM); Cirque Du Soleil’s The Immortal Tour (video content). Concerts: Madonna’s Sticky and Sweet Tour, The Spice Girls’ Reunion Tour, Celine Dion’s Taking Chances Tour, Britney Spears’ The Femme Fatale Tour, Ricky Martin’s The Black and White Tour, Christina Aguilera’s Back to Basics Tour. Broadcast: NBC Beijing Summer Olympics Teaser Campaign; ABC News Main Title (2004); The Dr. Phil Show Main Title (2006); CBS Wolf Lake Main Title (Emmy Award nomination); HBO Genre Opens (2002); The Oprah Winfrey Show Main Title (1999). Education: Northwestern University, Theatrical Design and Radio, TV, Film. www.johnnarun.com Charles G. LaPointe, Wig Design La Jolla Playhouse: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Chasing the Song, Side Show, Sideways, His Girl Friday, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, A Dram of Drummhicit, Peer Gynt, Bonnie & Clyde and Memphis. Broadway: After Midnight, Beautiful, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Soul Doctor, Motown, Jekyll and Hyde, Clybourne Park, Bring It On, Newsies, The Columnist, Magic/Bird, Bonnie & Clyde, The Mountaintop, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Merchant of Venice, Memphis, Henry IV, Cymbeline, Lombardi, Fences, Looped, Miracle Worker, Superior Donuts, 33 Variations, Guys and Dolls, In the Heights, Jersey Boys, The Color Purple, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, Good Vibrations, A Raisin in the Sun, Of Mice and Men, The Elephant Man and Honeymoon in Vegas.
Gabriel Greene, Dramaturg joined La Jolla Playhouse’s artistic staff in 2007, and currently serves as their Director of New Play Development. He has dramaturged nearly twenty new plays and musicals for the Playhouse, including Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez's Up Here, The Darrell Hammond Project, Sheri Wilner’s Kingdom City, Herbert Siguenza’s El Henry, Ayad Akhtar’s The Who & The What, Des McAnuff and The Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Kirsten Greenidge’s Milk Like Sugar (Off Broadway transfer; Obie Award) and Joe DiPietro and David Bryan’s Memphis (Broadway transfer; four Tony Awards). In addition to curating and producing the Playhouse’s annual DNA New Work Series, he dramaturged the DNA workshop productions of Michael Benjamin Washington’s Blueprints to Freedom and Aditi Brennan Kapil’s Brahman/i. Other dramaturgy: UCSD’s Wagner New Play Festival (eight years), Steppenwolf, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, South Coast Rep’s Pacific Playwrights Festival and TimeLine Theatre, among others. He is a graduate of University of Michigan and Trinity College, Dublin. Telsey & Co.; Karen Casl, C.S.A., Casting La Jolla Playhouse: Come From Away, Chasing the Song, Hands on a Hardbody, Blood and Gifts, Glengarry Glen Ross, Milk Like Sugar, Little Miss Sunshine, Limelight, Bonnie & Clyde, 33 Variations and Memphis, among others. Broadway/Tours: Fiddler on the Roof, The Color Purple, Allegiance, On Your Feet!, Hamilton, Something Rotten!, An American in Paris, Finding Neverland, The King and I, Hand to God, Kinky Boots, Wicked, If/Then, The Sound of Music, Newsies, Pippin, Motown, Rock of Ages, Million Dollar Quartet. Off-Broadway: New York Spring Spectacular, Atlantic, MCC, Second Stage, Signature. Regional: A.R.T., Goodspeed, New York Stage and Film, Paper Mill, Williamstown. Film: Fun House, Ithaca, The Intern, Ricki and the Flash, Focus, The Last Five Years, Song One, A Most Violent Year, Into the Woods. TV: Flesh and Bone, Peter Pan Live!, Penny Dreadful, Masters of Sex, commercials. www.telseyandco.com Peter Van Dyke, Stage Manager La Jolla Playhouse: The Nightingale. National Tours: Kinky Boots, Million Dollar Quartet, Wicked, Hairspray, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera. Regional: Over 50 productions at The Old Globe; also Long Wharf, Pasadena Playhouse, Geffen Playhouse, Arizona Theatre Company, Denver Center Theatre Company. Amanda Salmons, Assistant Stage Manager La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Regional: Kiss Me, Kate; The White Snake; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike; The Last Goodbye; How the Grinch Stole Christmas!; The Two Gentlemen of Verona; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Inherit the Wind; Somewhere (The Old Globe); Kiss Me, Kate (Hartford Stage). Other San Diego credits: The Foreigner, miXtape, See How They Run, The Music Man, The Rivalry (Lamb's Players Theatre); The Gondoliers, The Pirates of Penzance, Candide, Trial by Jury, Rumpelstiltskin (Lyric Opera San Diego); SummerFest (La Jolla Music Society). Education: B.A. from UC San Diego. KANSAS CITY REPERTORY THEATRE (Eric Rosen, Artistic Director; Angela Gieras, Executive Director) is the largest regional theater in the central Midwest, and, like the LJP/ UC San Diego collaboration, is in residence at the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Under the artistic direction of Eric Rosen, KC Rep's original work and collaborations have been seen across the country. With 22 production transfers in the last five years, including our co-productions of The Tallest Tree in the Forest and Peer Gynt with the Playhouse, KC Rep is emerging as a an important center for the creation of new work of national significance. Recent transfers to Broadway and Off-Broadway include Venice at the Public Theater (with Center Theatre Group), Clay at Lincoln Center/LCT3, A Christmas Story: The Musical (Broadway; Tony nomination, best musical), Tom Sawyer at the New Victory, and The Great Immensity at The Public.
PLAYHOUSE LEADERSHIP Christopher Ashley, Artistic Director has served as Artistic Director at La Jolla Playhouse since 2007. During his tenure, he helmed the world premieres of Come From Away, The Darrell Hammond Project, Claudia Shear’s Restoration and Arthur Kopit and Anton Dudley’s A Dram of Drummhicit, as well as John Guare’s adaptation of His Girl Friday, Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the musicals Xanadu and Memphis, which went on to Broadway, winning four 2010 Tony Awards including Best Musical. In addition, he spearheaded the Playhouse’s Without Walls site-specific theatre series, the Resident Theatre program and the DNA New Work Series. Prior to joining the Playhouse, Mr. Ashley directed the Broadway productions of Xanadu (Drama Desk nomination), All Shook Up and The Rocky Horror Show (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations), as well as The Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration productions of Merrily We Roll Along and Sweeney Todd (Helen Hayes Award for Direction). Other New York credits include: Leap of Faith, Blown Sideways Through Life, Jeffrey (Lucille Lortel and OBIE Awards), The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Valhalla, Regrets Only, Wonder of the World, Bunny Bunny, Communicating Doors, The Night Hank Williams Died and Fires in the Mirror (Lucille Lortel Award). He also directed the feature films Jeffrey, Blown Sideways Through Life for PBS, and Lucky Stiff, to be released July 2015. Mr. Ashley is the recipient of the Princess Grace Award, the Drama League Director Fellowship and an NEA/TCG Director Fellowship. Debby Buchholz, General Manager has served as general manager of La Jolla Playhouse since 2002. She is the Secretary of the League of Resident Theaters (LORT) and a member of its Executive Committee. In 2009, she received a San Diego Women Who Mean Business Award from The San Diego Business Journal. Previously she served as Counsel to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. She was a faculty member of the Smithsonian Institution’s program on Legal Problems of Museum Administration. Prior to The Kennedy Center, she served as a corporate attorney in New York City and Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of UC San Diego and Harvard Law School. Ms. Buchholz and her husband, noted author and White House economic policy advisor Todd Buchholz, live in Solana Beach and are the proud parents of Victoria, Katherine and Alexia.
Michael S. Rosenberg, Managing Director has served as the Managing Director of La Jolla Playhouse since April, 2009. Working in partnership with Artistic Director Christopher Ashley, he has developed and produced new work by Ayad Akhtar, Trey Anastasio, Amanda Green, John Leguizamo, Carey Perloff, Jay Scheib, Herbert Siguenza, Basil Twist, Michael Benjamin Washington, Sheri Wilner, Doug Wright and The Flaming Lips. Playhouse collaborations have included projects with UC San Diego, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, The New Children’s Museum, San Diego Museum of Man, San Diego Rep, Tectonic Theatre Project, the I.D.E.A. District and the cities of Escondido and Chula Vista. Additionally, he fostered the growth of the Playhouse’s award-winning Performance Outreach Program (POP) Tour, achieving the most performances at local schools in Playhouse history. Previously, Mr. Rosenberg was Co-Founder and Executive Director of Drama Dept., a New York non-profit theatre company, where he produced new works by the likes of Douglas Carter Beane, Warren Leight, Isaac Mizrahi, Paul Rudnick and David & Amy Sedaris. His early work included stints at The Kennedy Center, Kaiser Permanente, National Dance Institute and an Atlantic City casino. As a Theatre Communications Group Board member, he is proud to be on the Global and Diversity & Inclusion Committees. Des McAnuff, Director Emeritus served as La Jolla Playhouse’s Artistic Director from 1983 through 1994, and from 2001 through April, 2007. Under his leadership, the Playhouse garnered more than 300 awards, including the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Playhouse to Broadway credits: Jersey Boys (four Tony Awards); Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays (Tony Award); How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (five Tony nominations); director and co-author with Pete Townshend on The Who’s Tommy (Tony and Olivier Awards for Best Director) and Big River (seven Tony Awards), among others. Film credits: Quills, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, The Iron Giant (9 Animation Society awards) and Cousin Bette. Recipient of the Drama League’s 2006 Julia Hansen Award, Mr. McAnuff served as Artistic Director at Canada’s Stratford Festival from 2007 through 2012. He recently directed the hit productions of Sideways, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and Jesus Christ Superstar at the Playhouse.
PATRON SERVICES PATRON SERVICES is located in the lobby area of each theatre. A representative is available to answer questions and hand out assisted listening devices, restaurant guides, performance schedules and subscription information.
THEATRE TOURS – Tour the stages and production shops of the Playhouse facilities and learn more about the history of La Jolla Playhouse and the role that it plays in the community. Contact (858) 550-1070 x101.
BARS AND CONCESSIONS are provided by James’ Place and are open one hour prior to curtain and during intermissions. To avoid the rush, intermission beverages can be ordered before the show.
ACCESSIBILITY
CAMERAS AND RECORDING DEVICES are strictly prohibited in the theatre. Please check these items with the P9 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINe House Manager and turn off your camera phone. PARKING is free for subscribers; $2 for the general public on weekdays (free on weekends). Upon arrival to campus, please enter your parking space number and pay the automated paystations located in the parking lot. Spaces that are not paid for are subject to ticketing by UC San Diego Campus Police. BABES IN ARMS – Out of respect for fellow audience members and the performers, babes in arms are not permitted in the theatre during performances.
La Jolla Playhouse provides wheelchair-accessible seating and parking. Wheelchair seat locations are available for wheelchair users and a companion at all performances; be sure to advise the reservationist that you require a wheelchair location. Additionally, a golf cart is available to assist patrons with accessibility needs to and from the parking lot. Please notify Patron Services prior to your performance if you are in need of this service; additionally, you may pull into the five minute parking in front of the theatre, and a friendly La Jolla Playhouse greeter will assist you.The Playhouse also provides assisted listening devices for patrons who are hard of hearing. Devices are available, free of charge, at the Patron Services Center prior to performances (subject to availability). Listening Devices Provided in Part by
PLEASE SILENCE all electronic devices including cellular phones, watches and pagers before the performance. Safety in the Theatre District – La Jolla Playhouse is constantly working with the UC San Diego Police Department and UC San Diego Transportation and Parking Services, which operates the parking lot and security system, to maintain and improve security conditions for patrons and staff members. Additionally, patrons and staff are welcome to use UC San Diego Community Service Officers (CSOs) for an escort to their cars by calling (858) 534-WALK (9255). Further questions regarding security may be addressed to UC San Diego Police at (858) 534-HELP (4357). DOCTORS AND PARENTS expecting calls during the performance should leave their names and seat numbers with the House Manager before the show. Leave the following number with your service: (858) 550-1030. LATECOMERS or PATRONS WHO LEAVE THEIR SEAT DURING THE PERFORMANCE Please arrive on time. Latecomers will be admitted at the discretion of the House Manager. La Jolla Playhouse accepts no liability for inconvenience to latecomers.
A conversation between playwright/actor Michael Benjamin Washington and Director of New Play Development Gabriel Greene Michael Benjamin Washington in the La Jolla Playhouse DNA New Work Series Workshop production of Blueprints to Freedom; photo by J. Katarzyna Woronowicz
Gabriel Greene: Considering all of the things that Bayard Rustin accomplished in his life, it’s astounding he has largely been left out of the official history books. How did you first encounter his story? Michael Benjamin Washington: In 2009, I did a reading in New York of a Tarell Alvin McCraney play called Choir Boy. I was playing a gay sixteen year old boy in a black, all-boys prep school – I was about fifteen years too old for the part – and this character is suffering the slings and arrows of being out. Afterwards, I was talking with the director, Kent Gash, and he brought up Bayard Rustin. I said, “Who’s that?” And he gave me that look of, “Oh, you need to know who he was.” So I ordered Brother Outsider, the documentary about Bayard, and his book of letters, I Must Resist. I was in the process of moving from New York to L.A., and in the whole “forwarding of mail” thing, I didn’t get them for almost a year. I was hitting a wall as an actor in Hollywood. I said to myself, “I need to know what I am supposed to do next,” and the DVD of Brother Outsider fell off my shelf, still in that cellophane wrapper. It just literally fell at my feet, so I watched it and I was like, “I know.” GG: What was it about Rustin that spoke so clearly to you? MBW: I don’t think I had ever read, heard or seen a gay black male protagonist who was fairly complete within himself, in terms of understanding and accepting who he was and still having some kind of religious vein. That blew me away: the courageousness of being who he truly was, and then finding out all the ways that he was withheld for that. But at the same time, I was stunned by how many people rallied behind him to let him be who he was, for the movement’s needs.
Bayard Rustin was not only what has been termed a “lost prophet” of the Civil Rights Movement, he was also the truest personification of a Renaissance man: a classical singer and a trained actor who performed on Broadway with Paul Robeson. To have the meticulous mindset to be able to organize anything, on any level, in any period of time, to great effect is such a rare, heroic quality. The thing is, he was [also] a flawed man who had “a past.” I think most of us have a past and wonder if any of our skeletons are going to come tumbling out at the most inappropriate or worst time. That is when I really started to fall in love with the man, when I started to figure out, “Oh wow, despite your great understanding of yourself and your great capabilities that are gifts from God, there were demons that you had inside,” which makes him a survivor. GG: At the same time he was fighting for the civil rights of African Americans, the rights of homosexuals were virtually non-existent. That intersection of identities was such a tricky landscape to navigate. MBW: One of the things I learned from I Must Resist is the struggle Rustin had with his sexuality in the 1940s. His spiritual father, Rev. A.J. Muste, wanted him to be with a woman. To be able to come out of that and say, “No, I choose a man and I will choose him openly,” speaks to the bravery of who he was in his twenties and thirties, at a most inconvenient time, which was the 1940s and 50s. Homosexuality was the great stigma. It wasn’t so much a deep-seated hatred against him. I think his homosexuality frightened most people because it could be used as weapon against the movement. The issue with Bayard Rustin was that he was instrumental in setting up platforms for so many other people, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, which Bayard helped co-found for Martin to speak. He was very good at putting people at the forefront so that the movement could progress. However, he was put into the shadows by the movement out of fear that he would paralyze them. GG: As Bayard says in the play, “The making of a movement is about marketability.” MBW: Well, that’s the thing. In 1942, Bayard Rustin was arrested for refusing to give up his seat on a bus. Claudette Colvin was arrested in 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks. But Bayard was gay and Colvin was pregnant out of wedlock. Rosa Parks ignited the bus boycott because the leaders were trying to sell this movement and themselves as human beings. I think Bayard knew that his purpose was different than Martin’s or Rosa’s or Malcolm X’s. Everybody was playing a different role. One of the great things about this particular time in history is we were moving from radio into television, where we could see Bull Connor washing kids down the streets with fire hoses, where we could see President Kennedy addressing Civil Rights from his office, where we could send the March on Washington into people’s homes. It was a great instrument of change that a lot of the leaders talked about. If television hadn’t been reporting [this struggle], if people didn’t see it, then it would still be this myth.
GG: The first reading of Blueprints to Freedom was on August 28, 2013 – the 50th anniversary of the March. How did it feel to hear your play for the first time that night? MBW: It became almost like a spiritual event, like I could just feel the ancestry in the room. You could feel that people from different walks of life who made up the audience seemed to really understand the resonance of this man’s story. GG: How did the play continue to evolve during its workshop in the 2014 DNA New Work Series? MBW: What was so incredibly helpful about the DNA workshop was to discover that it’s one thing to read a play, but to see it live and breathe on its feet is very different. Ideas translate differently; there are things that you realize you don’t need as soon as it becomes animated. What I learned was the DNA of a good play has to have forward- moving action. And I wrote a very poetic play, so it became this balance of finding the poetry, yet: what’s the scene about? Where are we going? How do we get this man to this thing that he needs by the end of the play?
“Bayard said that if you really believe in social change, if you believe in a god, if you believe in some kind of progression of humanity, then the evidence is in your action.”
GG: I’m instantly reminded of the Black Lives Matter movement. MBW: Yes, in 2015 – with the influx of police brutality caught on cell phones and [posted on] social media – people are awakened to the consciousness that this is still happening; it’s not just a chip on black people’s shoulders. Fifty years later, we’re again looking at how technology helps put the problem in front of people’s faces, and the question becomes, “what do you choose to do in response?” GG: Once you knew you wanted to write a play about Bayard Rustin, how did it take shape? MBW: I wrote this 30-page treatment [that covered Rustin’s entire life] and I brought it to La Jolla Playhouse. The folks here suggested finding a specific window to focus on, and the moment that seemed the most important in terms of Bayard Rustin – the intersection of everything he had done before and everything he wanted to do – was the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
GG: Did you feel bound to historical fact, or were you able to grant yourself artistic license?
MBW: I am a fan of history. I love documentaries and enjoyed History class in high school, so I put my random Journalism minor from NYU to use and read suitcases of books, letters, articles, etc. Then, I let my mind wander to “what would be the greatest obstacles for this well-made man – spiritually, politically, emotionally?” There is a lot of freedom, artistically, when you know and honor the ground you're walking on. Nobody wants to pay to see a factual lecture on an unknown civil rights leader, but historical narrative combined with inventive theatricality can be exhilarating drama. I'm aiming for the latter. GG: Looking back at the victories the March brought about in the 1960s, it’s surreal to think that 50 years later, there have been remarkable strides for gay equality, and yet the conversation about race in this country seems more fraught than ever. MBW: The racial energy of America right now is fraught because you’ll never be able to hide your color, but many people hide their sexuality. Therefore, you’re going to be on the receiving end of judgment simply because of how you were made. Externally. (continued)
The thing I always wonder is, if we [changed] the Civil Rights Movement to a Human Rights Movement and started standing up together, would we be further along? Bayard Rustin didn’t want to marry any two movements together; he thought it would cloud the specificity of the people who are going to benefit from standing up and demanding their rights. Each community must stand up for itself and push its own agenda forward. I think the force of the gay rights movement now has reached that apex of, “We can get federal legislation now; it doesn’t matter necessarily what you think about us, we want that same right as an equal American.” That’s what we did in 1963; that’s what the women’s movement had to do. The gay community is doing it now, and we will find out if the transgender or gender fluidity movements will do the same. GG: For audiences in 2015, who exist in this atmosphere of great victories and setbacks, what can Bayard teach us? MBW: We currently live in a two-week hashtag nation, where you are allowed to have a hashtag for two weeks, and then after that it’s a little passé. If I were to mention, “#BringBackOurGirls,” I’d probably get some looks, like, “Oh, wasn’t that a year ago?” For the last three years, I’ve been taking nonviolent civil disobedience workshops with Rev. James Lawson, who was an advisor to Dr. King and organized the Nashville Sit-In campaign of 1959. Rev. Lawson is 86 years old, and he runs monthly workshops at Holman United Methodist Church in Compton. He’s working to keep the philosophy of nonviolence in a world where apathy is reigning supreme again. People are choosing “That’s not my fight” as a motto, but Dr. King believed that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. So we have to be willing to have each other’s backs in humanity. Bayard said that if you really believe in social change, if you believe in a god, if you believe in some kind of progression of humanity, then the evidence is in your action. What are you doing to change or activate or progress humanity? Are you putting your body in places so that wheels of oppression don’t turn? Are you making your government change the constitution to make you a part of it? When I first started writing Blueprints, Bayard Rustin was very much a hero. But every month that I get older, and with every news article about the tragic, vicious deaths of black people in places of worship or on the front lines of justice, there’s something about everything Rustin had been through – it’s heroic but it’s also a cautionary tale. The play had to look at his life differently than just, “I need to let the world know that somebody like you existed.” Now it’s more like, “Everybody has seen you before, I need to show them why they recognize themselves in you.”
A Timeline of Bayard Rustin’s Life
1912
Born in West Chester, PA
1932
Begins studying at Wilberforce College in Ohio; later transfers to Cheyney State Teachers College
1947
Helps plan the Journey of Reconciliation "freedom ride," a precursor to the 1960s freedom rides; serves 22 days on a chain gang after his arrest for defying segregation laws Relationship with Platt ends
1936
1953
1937
1956
Declares himself a Quaker
Arrested in Pasadena, CA
Moves to New York City; attends City College of New York
A. Philip Randolph sends Rustin to assist the Montgomery Bus Boycott; Rustin persuades Dr. King to embrace Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violent protest
Becomes an organizer for the Youth Communist League; repudiates the organization in 1941
1956-57
Trains with the American Friends Service Committee
1940
Appears on Broadway alongside Paul Robeson in John Henry
1941
Serves as Race Relations Secretary for the Fellowship of Reconciliation With A. Philip Randolph and Rev. A.J. Muste, proposes 1941 March on Washington to protest discrimination in the military; the March is called off when President Roosevelt signs an executive order establishing the Fair Employment Practices Committee
1942
Serves as Field Secretary for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Arrested and beaten for refusing to give up his seat on a bus
1943
Begins relationship with Davis Platt, Jr.
1945
Sentenced to three years in a Kentucky prison for failure to appear before the draft board; serves 26 months, during which time he integrates the prison
Helps Dr. King form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
1957
Organizes the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
1960
King severs ties with Rustin
1963
Serves as Deputy Director and chief organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
1964
Co-founds the A. Philip Randolph Institute
1977
Begins relationship with Walter Naegle, with whom he will spend the rest of his life
1987
Dies in New York City
2013
Posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama
Bayard Rustin 1963; ustin in Bayard R
K. y Warren photo b
Leffler
in His Own Words
T TO POLITICS: THE EXCERPTS FROM “FROM PROTES VEMENT” (ORIGINALLY FUTURE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MO FEBRUARY 1965) PUBLISHED IN COMMENTARY, the 1954 The decade spanned by on school Supreme Court decision il Rights Act of Civ desegregation and the orded as rec be 1964 will undoubtedly ndations fou al leg the the period in which re destroyed. of racism in America we , without making [...] On the other hand rifices involved in light of the human sac s (sit-ins, the direct-action tactic rest) that were the d an freedom rides, s achievement, so instrumental to thi t in desegregatwe must recognize tha tions, we ing public accommoda ich are wh s on uti tit affected ins th to the bo ral he rip pe relatively mic order and to American socio-econo ions of life of the fundamental condit highly industrithe Negro people. In a ilization, we alized, 20th-century civ ere it was wh hit Jim Crow precisely able, and ns pe most anachronistic, dis counters, ch lun vulnerable – in hotels, pools, ng mi im sw terminals, libraries, of lue va the is at and the like. […] Wh da mo om acc c bli pu winning access to e k money to us tions for those who lac movement the te them? The minu s compelled wa it , ion faced this quest yond race to expand its vision be ations, rel c mi no relations to eco ation in uc ed of e rol including the at also modern society. And wh these became clear is that all their very by s, lem ob pr interrelated by private, nature, are not soluble uire voluntary efforts but req or politics. government action —
EXCERPT FROM "NONVIOLENCE VS. JIM CROW" (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN FELLOWSHIP, JULY 1942) RECENTLY I WAS PLANNING to go from Louisville to Nashville by bus. I bought my ticket, boarded the bus, and, instead of going to the back, sat down in the second seat. The driver saw me, got up, and came toward me. “Hey, you. You're supposed to sit in the back seat.” “Why?” “Because that's the law. Niggers ride in back.” I said, “My friend, I believe that is an unjust law. If I were to sit in back I would be condoning injustice.” Angry, but not knowing what to do, he got out and went into the station. He soon came out again, got into his seat, and started off. This routine was gone through at each stop, but each time nothing came of it. Finally the driver, in desperation, must have phoned ahead, for about thirteen miles north of Nashville I heard sirens approaching. The bus came to an abrupt stop, and a police car and two motorcycles drew up beside us with a flourish. Four policemen got into the bus, consulted shortly with the driver, and came to my seat. “Get up, you
nigger!”
“Why?” I asked. “Get up, you black
!”
“I believe that I have a right to sit here,” I said quietly. “If I sit in the back of the bus I am depriving that child—” I pointed to a little white child of five or six — “of the knowledge that there is injustice here, which I believe it is his right to know. It is my sincere conviction that the power of love in the world is the greatest power existing. If you have a greater power, my friend, you may move me.” How much they understood of what I was trying to tell them I do not know. By this time they were impatient and angry. As I would not move, they began to beat me about the head and shoulders, and I shortly found myself knocked to the floor. Then they dragged me out of the bus and continued to kick and beat me. Knowing that if I tried to get up or protect myself in the first heat of their anger they would construe it as an attempt to resist and beat me down again, I forced myself to be still and wait for their kicks, one after another. Then I stood up, spreading out my arms parallel to the ground, and said, “There is no need to beat me. I am not resisting you.”