Arts & Entertainment

The humanity of MLK

Gay-helmed ‘Mountaintop’ is ‘funny, spirited and serious’

Published

11 years ago

April 4, 2013

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.”

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Nightlife

Ed Bailey brings Secret Garden to Project GLOW festival

An LGBTQ-inclusive dance space at RFK this weekend

Published

2 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Evan Caplan

Ed Bailey's set at last year's Project Glow. (Photo courtesy Bailey)

When does a garden GLOW? When it’s run by famed local gay DJ Ed Bailey.

This weekend, music festival Project GLOW at RFK Festival Grounds will feature Bailey’s brainchild the Secret Garden, a unique space just for the LGBTQ community that he launched in 2023.

While Project GLOW, running April 27-28, is a stage for massive electronic DJ sets in a large outdoor space, Secret Garden is more intimate, though no less adrenaline-forward. He’s bringing the nightclub to the festival. The garden is a dance area that complements the larger stages, but also stands on its own as a draw for festival-goers. Its focus is on DJs that have a presence and following in the LGBTQ audience world.

“The Secret Garden is a showcase for what LGBTQ nightlife, and nightclubs in general, are all about,” he says. “True club DJs playing club music for people that want to dance in a fun environment that is high energy and low stress. It’s the cool party inside the bigger party.”

Project GLOW launched in 2022. Bailey connected with the operators after the first event, and they discussed Bailey curating his own space for 2023. “They were very clear that they wanted me to lean into the vibrant LGBTQ nightlife of D.C. and allow that community to be very visibly a part of this area.”

Last year, club icon Kevin Aviance headlined the Secret Garden. The GLOW festival organizers loved the its energy from last year, and so asked Bailey to bring it back again, with an entire year to plan.

This year, Bailey says, he is “bringing in more D.C. nightlife legends.” Among those are DJ Sedrick, “a DJ and entertainer legend. He was a pivotal part of Tracks nightclub and is such a dynamic force of entertainment,” says Bailey. “I am excited for a whole new audience to be able to experience his very special brand of DJing!”

Also, this year brings in Illustrious Blacks, a worldwide DJ duo with roots in D.C.; and “house music legends” DJs Derrick Carter and DJ Spen.

Bailey is focusing on D.C.’s local talent, with a lineup including Diyanna Monet, Strikestone!, Dvonne, Baronhawk Poitier, THABLACKGOD, Get Face, Franxx, Baby Weight, and Flower Factory DJs KS, Joann Fabrixx, and PWRPUFF.

Secret Garden also brings in performers who meld music with dance, theater, and audience interactions for a multi-sensory experience.

Bailey is an owner of Trade and Number Nine, and was previously an owner of Town Danceboutique. Over the last 35 years, Bailey owned and operated more than 10 bars and clubs in D.C. He has an impressive resume, too. Since starting in 1987, he’s DJ’d across the world for parties and nightclubs large and intimate. He says that he opened “in concert for Kylie Minogue, DJed with Junior Vasquez, played giant 10,000-person events, and small underground parties.” He’s also held residencies at clubs in Atlanta, Miami, and here in D.C. at Tracks, Nation, and Town.

With Secret Garden, Bailey and GLOW aim to bring queer performers into the space not just for LGBTQ audiences, but for the entire music community to meet, learn about, and enjoy. While they might enjoy fandom among queer nightlife, this Garden is a platform for them to meet the entirety of GLOW festival goers.

Weekend-long Project GLOW brings in headliners and artists from EDM and electronic music, with big names like ILLENIUM, Zedd, and Rezz. In all, more than 50 artists will take the three stages at the third edition of Project GLOW, presented by Insomniac (Electric Daisy Carnival) and Club Glow (Echostage, Soundcheck).

Out & About

Washington Improv Theatre hosts ‘The Queeries’

Event to celebrate queer DMV talent and pop culture camp

Published

3 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Tinashe Chingarande

The Washington Improv Theatre, along with the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington DC, will team up to host “The Queeries!” on Friday, April 26 at 9:30 p.m. at Studio Theatre.

The event will celebrate Queer DMV talent and pop culture camp. With a mixture of audience-submitted nominations and blatantly undemocratically declared winners, “The Queeries!” mimics LGBTQ life itself: unfair, but far more fun than the alternative.

The event will be co-hosted by Birdie and Butchie, who have invited some of their favorite bent winos, D.C. “D-listers,” former Senate staffers, and other stars to sashay down the lavender carpet for the selfie-strewn party of the year.

Tickets are just $15 and can be purchased on WITV’s website.