The Mountaintop

byKatori Hall

Karen Sheridan, director\

May 1, and 2, 2021 at 8 p.m. Outdoors Varner Hall Courtyard

The Mountaintopby Katori Hall

Karen Sheridan, directorJaden Leverett, video designer

Graham Devier, sound designerChrista Koerner, costume designer

Kerro Knox 3, lighting designer

Cast

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.…….…….........Jarvis Pitts

Camae.......…................................Sarah Grace Odom

Place

Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel.

Time

April 3, 1968.

The Mountaintop will be performed without intermission.

Note

The Mountaintop is being performed in partial fulfillment of an independent study. As such, we hang our work entirely on the script. Using boxes as a bed, an unconnected phone, an invisible door and ask the audience

to imagine the details.

Lights up. April 3, 1968. Room 306. The Lorraine Motel. Memphis, Tennessee. The outside street lights project the shadows of rain sliding down the pane onto the walls…

Company

Jarvis Pitts (Martin Luther King, Jr.) is a senior who will be graduating this May with a degree in Theatre. He played Caliban in Shakespeare Royal Oak’s production of The Tempest and Thurio in Two Gentlemen of Verona for the Little Door Theatre. Jarvis has been seen on stage at Oakland as Mr. Banks in Blue Stockings, Tei Shiryu in The Battles of Coxinga and Charlie in Exes which was performed this week in our Outside the Box Festival. Jarvis plans to move to Chicago next year to pursue a career in the theatre. He is extremely grateful for the opportunity to work on Katori Hall’s masterpiece The Mountaintop under the direction of Karen Sheridan.

Sarah Grace Odom (Camae) is a graduating senior BFA Musical Theatre major. Recent credits include Columbia in Rocky Horror Picture Show, Belle/Laundress in A Christmas Carol and Michelle Morris in Dreamgirls with The Detroit Actors Theatre Company. Sarah was also an ensemble member in Urinetown and James and the Giant Peach here at Oakland. Sarah spends their time making wire-wrapped crystal jewelry (@RadiantWrappings) and hanging with her sassy cat, Zoe. “Thank you to my friends and family for fiercely believing in me. SO much love to you. BLM.”

Katori Hall (Playwright) is an Olivier Award-winner and two-time Tony-nominated Memphis-native. She is the book writer and co-producer of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. Her latest piece, The Hot Wing King, premiered in Spring 2020 at the Signature Theatre. The Mountaintop won the Olivier Award for Best New Play before opening on Broadway in October 2011. Her other works include Hurt Village, Hoodoo Love, Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, Our Lady of Kibeho, and The Blood Quilt. Other awards include a Susan Smith Blackburn Award, National Black Theatre’s August Wilson Playwriting Award, and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award.

Production Staff

Technical Director ………………………………………………………..………... Joe BeckAssistant Technical Directors …………….. Randy Magner, Jacquelin StauderCostume Shop Supervisor ……………...………………..…………..Christa Koerner Sound Consultant……………………………………….……………..……..Terry HeraldIntimacy Consultant…………………………………...……………...……Jordan TaylorPre-show Announcement…………………………….…………...Brandon A. WrightBoard Operators…………………………….………..Graham Devier, Jaden LeverettPhotography………………..………………...……...…..……….JLBoone PhotographyMarketing Manager………………………….………………..……….……….Carly UhrigPre-show music……………….…Charlie Haden (bass) and Hank Jones (piano)Curtain Call music…………………………...……………..……Mavis Staples (soloist)

Thanks to

Amy Tully, Director of the School of Music, Theatre and Dance for leading with care during these challenging times,

Oakland University’s leadership supporting the ambitious request to have an Out of the Box Festival,

Festival staff – Kathy Boersma, Megan Herald, Terry Herald and Kerro Knox 3,Stage builders, the Theatre faculty, Sam Pollak

And to all our students who moved forward with tenacity during these extraordinary times.

and Special Thanks to

Kevin J. Corcoran, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences since 2013. He has been a champion of the Department of Theatre and the School of Music, Theatre and Dance and a welcome patron in our audiences. The man comes to everything—concerts, plays, musicals, dance concerts, pop-up events, faculty performances and student independent studies. On one occasion, he missed a concert in the Recital Hall because he couldn’t bear to leave a play in the Lab Theatre without knowing how it ended. We will miss his energy, enthusiasm and

leadership. We appreciate from the bottom of our hearts the extra year he gave us, staying to guide the college through the challenges brought by the coronavirus. And although he deserves every moment that retirement

holds for him, we still hope to see him in our audiences.

The Mountaintop is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc.(www.dramatists.com)

Videotaping or any form of recording of this production is STRICTLY PROHIBITED.