Arts & Entertainment
The humanity of MLK
Gay-helmed ‘Mountaintop’ is ‘funny, spirited and serious’
New York-based Robert O’Hara says he finds it artistically rewarding to both write and direct. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
‘The Mountaintop’
Through May 12
Arena Stage
1101 Sixth Street, SW
$40-$85
202-488-3300
arenastage.org
Early in playwright Katori Hall’s “The Mountaintop” (now at Arena Stage), Martin Luther King, Jr., smokes a cigarette and audibly uses the restroom.
“Quickly this iconic figure of history is defined as very human,” says the play’s director Robert O’Hara. “This can be hard on those who prefer that King retain his saint-like status, but really there’s nothing to be offended about. The work’s theatricality makes it clear we’re not doing bio drama but rather we’re asking ‘What if?’ The playwright is exploring King’s psyche.”
Set in Memphis’ Lorraine Motel in 1968 on the last night of King’s life, Hall’s play imagines an unexpected meeting between the already legendary 39-year-old civil rights activist and a feisty 20-year-old maid, Camae. Their 80-minute exchange (at turns funny, spirited and serious) is filled with biography and politics, prompting King to examine his past and unfinished dreams.
Arena’s production (featuring Bowman Wright as King and Joaquina Kalukango as the maid) is in collaboration with Houston’s Alley Theatre where it played before moving to D.C.
“But being in Washington makes it a different experience,” says O’Hara, who’s gay. “President Obama and the Martin Luther King Memorial are here. Dr. King made his ‘I Have a Dream Speech’ here. Washington audiences seem more political. Arena’s Kreeger Theater is much more intimate than the Houston venue. So much about the production is altered because it’s in this new Washington environment.”
O’Hara was introduced to the play in its early developmental stages. “The director originally slated to do the workshop reading pulled out at the last minute and I stepped in. In those days, a lot of people were cold on the project. But from the start, I liked how it revealed King’s humanity and enjoyed its explosive and erotic elements.”
Soon others would agree: In 2009, Hall’s play premiered in London where it was a sleeper hit, winning that season’s Olivier Award for best new play. It opened on Broadway in 2011 in a production starring big names Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett.
As an undergraduate at Tufts University, O’Hara rather fleetingly considered a career in law. But by his third year, he knew he was destined to work in theater. O’Hara went on to at Columbia University where he studied directing. His mother wasn’t thrilled and suggested her son find something practical to fall back on. He did — playwriting. Not exactly what mom had in mind, but at 43, O’Hara has forged a busy and productive career involving both.
“With directing you have to wait for the phone to ring,” says O’Hara who lives in New York City with his longtime partner, a psychiatrist and avid theatergoer. “And others control whether you work or not; whereas with playwriting you can write whenever you want. Hopefully you have a few commissions to sustain you. I like to alternate the two. I’m happiest when I have a couple things going on at once.”
To live in New York, many playwrights have to work elsewhere. For O’Hara, that frequently means Washington. He’s premiered several plays here including his wild, time-traveling tragicomedy, “Insurrection: Holding History” at Theatre Alliance, and Woolly Mammoth’s productions of “Antebellum” (his exploration of race and history), and “Bootycandy,”a terrific autobiographical work about growing up black and gay in Cincinnati which he also directed. O’Hara is currently playwright in residence at Woolly Mammoth, a loosely defined gig that doesn’t require him to live in D.C.
“This town has been very good to me. Washington’s theater community is vibrant and it has been very receptive to my work. I’ve always enjoyed my time here. And now I’m happy to be working at Arena Stage.”
O’Hara’s career isn’t focused on being black and gay. “I don’t tend to think about that when I wake up in the morning. The same way I’m not conscious about being upright and breathing. Maybe other people look at me and see black and gay. I don’t feel that way,” he says. “I’ve never really felt part of a group on any subject. I don’t know many out writer/directors of color. I’m not interested in writing the well-made play. But what separates me is also what makes me unique. And while I think of myself as a shy person, I’m increasingly confident when it comes to my work.”
The Petal Release Party and Drag Show was held at Spark Social on Friday, July 31. Performers included Tiara-Missou, Labianna and Darcy de la Cuadra.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
Celebrity News
Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam
Kylie Minogue made surprise appearance alongside gay icon
AMSTERDAM — Madonna on Sunday headlined the final night of the World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam.
The gay icon took the stage shortly before 2:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday) during Club Confessions, a set that MISTR, a telehealth platform that offers free access to PrEP, Doxy PEP, STI testing, and long-term HIV care, organized.
“Mother is here and this is gay heaven,” said Madonna when she took the stage inside Amsterdam’s AFAS Live concert hall that can hold up to 6,000 people.
Stuart Price, who produced Madonna’s 2005 “Confessions on a Dance Floor” album and “Confessions II,” which debuted on July 2, DJed the set.
Kylie Minogue made a surprise appearance. She and Madonna performed a new remix of “Love Sensation” from “Confessions II.”
(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
“Throughout my career, I’ve always supported efforts to fight HIV and AIDS, and that fight begins with education and access,” said Madonna in a MISTR press release. “With MISTR, (CEO) Tristan (Schukraft) is expanding access to HIV prevention and sexual healthcare for everyone. Through this work, he’s helping preserve and strengthen LGBTQ+ spaces while investing in the communities and culture that have long sustained us.”
Minogue in an Instagram post thanked Madonna, Price, Schukraft, and MISTR.
Madonna appeared at The Abbey in West Hollywood, Calif., in April. Madonna in June celebrated Pride month with a pop-up performance in New York’s Times Square.
Jake Resnicow and Insomniac produced the World Pride Music Festival that also featured Bebe Rexha and Paris Hilton, among others.
“Pride has always been about bringing our community together,” said Resnicow. “At a moment when too many people are being told to hide or make themselves smaller, gathering openly, joyfully, and without apology matters more than ever. I couldn’t be prouder of what this festival brought to life in Amsterdam — one dance floor, completely free.”
Theater
Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth
First five shows a reminder that ‘pressure is a privilege’
Madly talented and preternaturally energetic, Reggie D. White, 38, is about to launch his first season as artistic director of D.C.’s boundary-pushing Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.
White brings a lot to the job. As actor, playwright, and director, his varied resume includes a 2019 Broadway acting debut in Matthew López’s Tony Award–winning play “The Inheritance,” his semi-autobiographic play “Fremont Ave.” that opened to acclaim last season at Arena Stage, and a number of exciting regional directing credits.
A longtime admirer of Woolly, the out theater-maker was selected from a pool of candidates before receiving the offer last November and starting work in January. His season of five world premieres kicks off with gay playwright Steve Yockey’s “Venus” (Sept. 9-Oct. 4), a darkly funny study of modern relationships told through two lesbians looking back on their first encounter.
White was introduced to Woolly Mammoth as a pre-law student at Cal State Hayward in the San Francisco Bay Area, long before he foresaw a life in the arts. “As part of a random theater history course, I was assigned to write a paper on a counterculture company called Woolly Mammoth,” he recalls “Strange name. I was like what the hell is that?”
Nineteen-year-old White was intrigued. Research acquainted him with Howard Shalwitz who co-founded Woolly in 1980, and the company’s commitment to living playwrights and new work. He also learned how theater could be used as a tool for difficult conversations and shape the way people thought about social issues by employing imagination and rigor.
“Never in a million years did young me envision that one day I’d be Woolly’s third artistic director in its 46-year history,” says White. “It’s kind of serendipitously insane.”
WASHINGTON BLADE: Was there a moment when the enormity of the job hit you?
REGGIE D. WHITE: After I’d signed my contract and finished all the paperwork, I got my keys and sat in the theater by myself in the dark and thought about what an incredible honor it is to be trusted with what happens in this beautiful space [in D.C.’s Penn Quarter]. I might have cried. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remember it’s real.
BLADE: Are you curating the upcoming 2026–2027 season?
WHITE: Yes, I am. It’s very rare that an incoming artistic director gets to program their first season, but I was lucky in terms of time. After being hired late last year, I asked Woolly’s managing director Kimberly E. Douglas, if she thought it would be crazy if I programmed the season. She warned me it would be hard.
I invoked tennis legend Billie Jean King’s maxim “pressure is a privilege” and got to work.
These plays [dubbed White’s “first five”] represent both the kind of theater that Woolly can do really well and speak directly to my voice as curator and how I want to contribute to the larger theatrical conversation in the DMV.
Getting here has meant a lot of late nights. But I knew the juice would be worth the squeeze.
BLADE: As a queer artistic director, what makes you unique?
WHITE: When I was playing in “Inheritance” on Broadway, after a performance, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayer came backstage to meet the cast. She spoke about how her lens on the world as a Puerto Rican woman shapes her decisions. Similarly, because I’m a queer Black man I see through a lens that shapes my work.
I know I’m not the only queer artistic director in town. For me, it influences how I make editorial decisions. Out of this season’s five plays there are explicitly queer characters in four [“Venus,” “Chanukkah Spectacular,” “Ten Grand,” and “Love I Awethu Further”] and I’m directing two [“Venus,” “Ten Grand”].
BLADE: Will we see familiar faces?
WHITE: Every show this season will feature a Woolly Mammoth company member in its cast. Our company also includes designers and directors who we’ll include. I’m invested in continuing to provide a showcase for their work.
BLADE: How do you think queer audiences will receive the season?
WHITE: Very well, I think. For queer people who’ve had to navigate the world subversively and solve problems in unique ways, I think it will be especially interesting. I find theater a potent place for questions.
Like all artistic directors. I’ll show up for the job in my own way. I’m just excited that I’ve been invited to bring the fullness of myself to the role.
PHOTOS: Petal Release Party
Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam
Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth
PHOTOS: Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade
Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade draws hundreds of thousands
Madonna to perform at World Pride in Amsterdam
BLADE ENDORSEMENT: Susan Stewart for mayor of Rehoboth Beach
PHOTOS: Lambda Legal in the Pines
Calendar: July 31-August 6
