The Man in Room 306

By Craig Alan Edwards

About the Play

It is April 3rd, 1968: a rainy evening at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee and the last night in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. These are the declining years of the Civil Rights Movement and the stakes couldn't be higher: the viability of nonviolence in the civil rights struggle and Dr. King's credibility as its symbolic leader are in jeopardy. Under these trying circumstances, Dr. King finds himself alone in Room 306, struggling with his past, anxious about his future, and coming to terms with his life. The Man in Room 306 is a critically acclaimed, intimate, and human portrait of Dr. King: a fictional glimpse into the private passions and fears of an incredible man during an extraordinary time.

This production is a revival of Luna Stage's critically acclaimed, signature piece honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 50th anniversary of his assassination.

Meet the Actor and Director

Jamil A.C. Mangan (Martin Luther King Jr.) returns to Luna Stage Company after his stellar performance as Sam in Master Harold & the Boys. Mangan attended Newark Arts High School, the oldest performing arts high school in the U.S. After graduating from Arts High, Jamil studied theatre arts at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA, the first conservatory for the arts in the U.S. His off-Broadway credits include Mother Courage and her Children (Classic Stage Company), Martin Luther On Trial (The Pearl Theater) and Protect The Poets (Teatro Tea). He received the Audelco Award for Best Supporting Actor in What Would Jesus Do? at the (Billie Holiday Theater), and a Connecticut Critic Circle Nomination for his portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr. in The Mountaintop (Theaterworks Hartford). Other regional credits include Lynn Nottage's RUINED (Philadelphia Theater Company), Water By The Spoonful (Premiere Stages), Othello (Perseverance Theater), and To Kill A Mockingbird (Orlando Shakespeare Theater). He originated the role of Panther in Tammy Ryan's critically acclaimed play, Lost Boy Found In Whole Foods. He has performed the play in a joint production between Premiere Stages and Writers Theater of NJ, Pittsburg Playhouse and Portland Stage Company. In 2010 Mangan received The Viv Award for Best Ensemble for the play August Wilson's Women. Jamil has collaborated with such institutions as Arden Theater, Connecticut Shakespeare, Contemporary American Theater Festival, African Globe, and New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Mangan can also be seen alongside Tony Award Winner Roger Robinson in the PBS Documentary, August Wilson: The Ground On Which I Stand.

Jerome Preston Bates (Director) is an American actor, who has trained at HB studios, Lee Strasberg Actors Studio, University of Tennessee, Knoxville College and LAMDA, London, England. Broadway credits include: Seven Guitars, Stickfly. Off-Broadway and regional theater: Joe Turner's Come and Gone (New Federal Theatre), Macbeth (The Old Globe in San Diego, CA), Two Trains Running (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Richard III (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), The Comedy of Errors (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), King Lear (The Folgers Theatre in The Classical Theatre of Harlem), August Wilson's FENCES (Denver Center, People's Light Theatre, Yale Repertory, Hartford Stage, The Long Wharf, The Alliance Atlanta, The Wilma, Philadelphia Theatre Co, Philadelphia Drama Guild, The Arden, Center Stage Baltimore), Seven Guitars (Chicago's Goodman Theatre). Selected Television and Film credits include: HBO's OZ, All My Children, Law and Order, SVU, Lights Out, NY Undercover, NYPD Blue, Sesame Street, America's Most Wanted, SHAFT 2000, Peeples, Musical Chairs, Tio Papi, Romeo and Juliette in Harlem, The Out of Towners, It Runs in the Family.

Meet the Playwright

Craig Alan Edwards (Playwright) is a New York actor, writer, producer, playwright and original performer of THE MAN IN ROOM 306, a fictional account of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last night in Memphis in 1968 (www.themaninroom306.com). He is a native Philadelphian and a graduate of Boston University.

His theatre credits include: REGIONAL: Black Gold; The Arch Bishop's Ceiling; Merchant of Venice; King Lear; (Earl Hyman) Taming of the Shrew; Dinner with Friends; Fences; Les Blanc; A Taste of Honey; Much Ado About Nothing; Twelfth Night; Hamlet; Romeo & Juliet; Tracers; My Three Angels; and others. NEW YORK: Waiting for My Man; Box; A Last Dance for Sybil; (Ruby Dee) Love's Labor's Lost; Oroonoko.

Craig's television work includes: How to Make it in America, FRINGE, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU and Criminal Intent; All My Children; As the World Turns. Films include: Sweet & Lowdown, Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop, Don't Nobody Love the Game, and Under New Management.

An Interview with Craig Alan Edwards, Playwright

What inspired you to write the play?

CRAIG: I attended Boston University (same as Dr. King) and their library has a display of his papers and voice recordings they put out every year. I went into the Sound Room—there was vinyl before any of this digital stuff—and listened to the speeches. At 17-18 years old, I got caught up in the power and the idealism of Martin Luther King. It occurred to me that I wanted to do something as an actor, to bring that personal connection to an audience. I started working on some things. I met Cheryl Katz in NYC (Artistic Director of Luna Stage) after I left Boston. I started sharing this with Cheryl. She was there since the beginning.

You’ve created a richly detailed portrait of Dr. King and the circumstances at the end of his life. What was your research process?

CRAIG: In the beginning, it was a phase of listening to the voice. Then we move into a phase of reading: books, magazines, articles that talk about Dr. King—books about the Civil Rights movement, about Dr. King and the FBI, and all these things. Then a phase of viewing: video of Dr. King moving and talking, of all the different fiction and non-fiction movies and footage]. The last phase is to work with a dramaturg to create a shape and a rhythm. You write from history, not about history. You have to mix in imagination there, and that’s what’s fun about it! If you see a piece that inspires you, and you do your own looking into it, and you still can’t find out what was actually real – that’s when you’ve seen a good piece.

You’ve conducted thorough research, and then you sit down to write a play. What do you see as your obligation when writing about a historical figure such as Dr. King?

CRAIG: You should not be gratuitous about what you want to impose on the story. It should have some respect, some care as to how you treat these people. This is their life. Don’t dirty them up unnecessarily. You have an obligation to treat them with respect – but not worship. The drama doesn’t come with the perfection, the drama comes with the conflict within. If these great historical people are brought to life and marry their deeds and their souls together – then individuals should experience these plays and say to themselves, “If they can do it with all these faults, then I can do it too. I can still create something positive in my life and in the life of others.”

An Interview with Cheryl Katz, Artistic Director

What attracted you to this play when you first encountered it?

CHERYL: I had been working with Craig on another play he had written about King. I had seen how fully he was able to embody the character and what a passion he had for the Civil Rights Era, so I was excited at the prospect of creating a play solely about Dr. King with him. I knew he'd have a lot to say. And he did. The first draft was 3 hours!

You've had the chance to revisit the play several times over the years. Is what attracted you to it then different to what you see in it now?

CHERYL: When I first started working on the play, I knew very little about this time period. I was a teenager in the 80s. We were the cynical generation. I never knew what hope looked like until I saw the footage of the Movement. I saw hope in those images, and I saw hope die when King and Kennedy died. It made me realize how we had arrived at where we were. I'd like to say that my response to this play has changed over the course of the last 10 years. Of course, I have changed. I have gained perspective, etc..., but alas, I don't really feel much has changed in the grand scheme of things. The pieces move around and the players change, but too much remains the same.

But I keep reviving it. I keep hoping. I guess I am not so cynical after all.

This is the play that brought you to Luna. In what ways did this play shape or become indicative of what a "Luna" play would become under your tenure as Director of New Play Development, Associate Artistic Director, and Artistic Director?

CHERYL: Well, Jane Mandel was the first one to produce this play professionally, and to this day, I think she is the only one ever to produce it outside of February or April. She said "Isn't his message relevant in Oct. too?". So that was my first introduction to Luna. It was a place to do work that was important, work that had resonance, and work that was bold. It was a place that was willing to take a risk on unknown work and unknown artists and nurture emerging talent. It was a place that leapt with its heart more than its head and trusted that if the work was good and the belief in the work was solid, everything would fall into place. I learned all of this from Jane and I have tried my hardest to carry the torch.

World of the Play

A Timeline of MLK, from the Stanford MLK Research and Education Institute

1929
15 January
Michael King, later known as Martin Luther King, Jr., is born at 501 Auburn Ave. in Atlanta, Georgia.

1941
Summer
The King family -- Martin Luther King, Sr. (Daddy King), Alberta Williams King, Willie Christine King, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Alfred Daniel Williams King (known as A. D. King) -- moves from 501 Auburn Avenue to 193 Boulevard in Atlanta.

1944
20 September
King begins his freshman year at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

1946
6 August
The Atlanta Constitution publishes King’s letter to the editor stating that black people "are entitled to the basic rights and opportunities of American citizens."

1948
25 February
King is ordained and appointed assistant pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

8 June
King receives his bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Morehouse College.

14 September
King begins his studies at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania.

1951
6-8 May
King graduates from Crozer with a bachelor of divinity degree, delivering the valedictory address at commencement.

13 September
King begins his graduate studies in systematic theology at Boston University.

1953
18 June
King and Coretta Scott are married at the Scott home near Marion, Alabama.

1954
1 September
King begins his pastorate at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

1955
5 June
King is awarded his doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University.

17 November
Yolanda Denise King, the Kings’ first child, is born.

1 December
Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to vacate her seat and move to the rear of a city bus in Montgomery to make way for a white passenger. Jo Ann Robinson and other Women’s Political Council members mimeograph thousands of leaflets calling for a one-day boycott of the city’s buses on Monday, 5 December.

5 December
At a mass meeting at Holt Street Baptist Church, the Montgomery Improvement Association(MIA) is formed. King becomes its president.

1956
27 January
According to King’s later account in Stride Toward Freedom, he receives a threatening phone call late in the evening, prompting a spiritual revelation that fills him with strength to carry on in spite of persecution.

30 January
At 9:15 p.m., while King speaks at a mass meeting, his home is bombed. His wife and daughter are not injured. Later King addresses an angry crowd that gathers outside the house, pleading for nonviolence.

13 November
The U.S. Supreme Court affirms the lower court opinion in Browder v. Gayle declaring Montgomery and Alabama bus segregation laws unconstitutional.

21 December
Montgomery City Lines resumes full service on all routes. King is among the first passengers to ride the buses in an integrated fashion.

1957
10-11 January
Southern black ministers meet in Atlanta to share strategies in the fight against segregation. King is named chairman of the Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration (later known as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, SCLC).

18 February
King appears on the cover of Time magazine.

6 March
King attends the independence celebrations of the new nation of Ghana in West Africa and meets with Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah.

17 May
At the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., King delivers his first national address, "Give Us The Ballot," at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom.

13 June
King and Ralph D. Abernathy meet with Vice President Richard M. Nixon and issue a statement on their meeting.

23 October
Coretta King gives birth to their second child, Martin, III.

1958
23 June
King and other civil rights leaders meet with President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Washington.

17 September
King’s first book Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story is published.

20 September
During a book signing at Blumstein’s Department Store in Harlem, New York, King is stabbed by Izola Ware Curry. He is rushed to Harlem Hospital where a team of doctors successfully remove a seven-inch letter opener from his chest.

1959
3 February
King embarks on a month-long visit to India where he meets with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and many of Gandhi’s followers.

1960
1 February
King moves from Montgomery to Atlanta to devote more time to SCLC and the freedom struggle. He becomes assistant pastor to his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

25-28 May
King is found not guilty of tax fraud by a white jury in Montgomery.

23 June
King meets privately in New York with Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy.

19 October
King is arrested during a sit-in demonstration at Rich’s department store in Atlanta. He is sentenced to four months hard labor for violating a suspended sentence he received for a 1956 traffic violation. He is released on $2000 bond on 27 October.

1961
31 January
Dexter Scott, King’s third child, is born.

21 May
After the initial group of Freedom Riders seeking to integrate bus terminals are assaulted in Alabama, King addresses a mass rally at a mob-besieged Montgomery church.

16 October
King meets with President John F. Kennedy and urges him to issue a second Emancipation Proclamation to eliminate racial segregation.

16 December
King, Ralph Abernathy, Albany Movement president William G. Anderson, and other protesters are arrested by Laurie Pritchett during a campaign in Albany, Georgia.

1962
27 July-10 August
King is arrested at an Albany, Georgia prayer vigil and jailed. After spending two weeks in jail, King is released.

28 September
During the closing session of the SCLC conference in Birmingham, Alabama, a member of the American Nazi Party assaults King, striking him twice in the face.
1963
28 March
Bernice Albertine, King’s fourth child, is born.

16 April
Responding to eight Jewish and Christian clergymen’s advice that African Americans wait patiently for justice, King pens his "Letter from Birmingham Jail." King and Abernathy were arrested on 12 April and released on 19 April.

7 May
Conflict in Birmingham reaches its peak when high-pressure fire hoses force demonstrators from the business district. In addition to hoses, Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor employs dogs, clubs, and cattle prods to disperse four thousand demonstrators in downtown Birmingham.

5 June
Strength to Love, King's book of sermons, is published.
28 August
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom attracts more than two hundred thousand demonstrators to the Lincoln Memorial. Organized by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, the march is supported by all major civil rights organizations as well as by many labor and religious groups. King delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech. After the march, King and other civil rights leaders meet with President John F. Kennedy and Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson in the White House.

18 September
King delivers the eulogy at the funerals of Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, and Cynthia Dianne Wesley, three of the four children that were killed during the 15 September bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Carole Robertson, the fourth victim, was buried in a separate ceremony.
10 October
U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy authorizes the FBI to wiretap King’s home phone.

1964
3 January
King is named "Man of the Year" by Time Magazine.

18 January
President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with King, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, and James Farmer and seeks support for his War on Poverty initiative.
9 February
Robert Hayling, leader of the movement in St. Augustine, Florida, invites King and SCLC to join the struggle.
26 March
King meets Malcolm X in Washington, D.C. for the first and only time.

June
King's book Why We Can’t Wait is published.

11 June
King is arrested and jailed for demanding service at a white-only restaurant in St. Augustine, Florida.

20 July
King and SCLC staff launch a People-to-People tour of Mississippi to assist the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in the Mississippi Freedom Summer campaign.
18 November
After King criticizes the FBI’s failure to protect civil rights workers, the agency’s director J. Edgar Hoover denounces King as "the most notorious liar in the country." A week later he states that SCLC is "spearheaded by Communists and moral degenerates."

1 December
King meets with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover at the Justice Department.

10 December
King receives the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway. He declares that "every penny" of the $54,000 award will be used in the ongoing civil rights struggle.

1965

The King family moves to their new home at 234 Sunset Avenue in Atlanta.

7 March
In an event that will become known as "Bloody Sunday," voting rights marchers are beaten at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama as they attempt to march to Montgomery.

17-25 March
King, James Forman, and John Lewis lead civil rights marchers from Selma to Montgomery after a U.S. District judge upholds the right of demonstrators to conduct an orderly march.

12 August
King publicly opposes the Vietnam War at a mass rally at the Ninth Annual Convention of SCLC in Birmingham.

1966
26 January
King and his wife move into an apartment at 1550 South Hamlin Avenue in Chicago to draw attention to the city's poor housing conditions.

23 February
In Chicago, King meets Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad.

7 June
King, Floyd McKissick of CORE, and Stokely Carmichael of SNCC resume James Meredith’s "March Against Fear" from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi, after Meredith was shot and wounded near Memphis.

1967
4 April
King delivers "Beyond Vietnam" to a gathering of Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam at Riverside Church in New York City. He demands that the U.S. take new initiatives to end the war.

June
King’s book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? is published.

4 December
King publicly reveals his plans to organize a mass civil disobedience campaign, the Poor People's Campaign, in Washington, D.C., to force the government to end poverty.
1968
28 March
King leads a march of six thousand protesters in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis. The march descends into violence and looting, and King is rushed from the scene.

3 April
King returns to Memphis, determined to lead a peaceful march. During an evening rally at Mason Temple in Memphis, King delivers his final speech, "I’ve Been to the Mountaintop."

4 April
King is shot and killed while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

9 April
King is buried in Atlanta.

Craig Alan Edwards as the original performer of The Man in Room 306

Articles

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference

1963 Birmingham Campaign

1963 March on Washington

1965 Selma to Montgomery

Voting Rights Act of 1965

1966 The Rise of Black Power

1967 The Poor People's Campaign

1968 Sanitation Worker's Strike

Eyewitness Account of King's Assassination

MLK and Gun Control

50 Years After King's Death

Where Does This Resonate Today?

Links

Death at an Early Age (1967) Excerpts

Savage Inequalities (1991)Excerpts

School Segregation is Not a Myth- The Atlantic (2018)

MLK's Dream to be Continued: Segregation in Schools

Jonathan Kozol is a teacher, author, and education activist. In 1967, 13 years after the end of public school segregation, he published his first book, Death at an Early Age, documenting the extreme poverty of black public schools in Boston. After marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Boston and becoming an education activist, he continued to publish writings on the disparity that black children face at school. In 1991, 37 years post-segregation, he published another book, Savage Inequalities, documenting the continually bleak conditions of inner-city schools across the nation.

In 2018, 64 years after the legal end of segregation, what has changed? What more must be done before “the dream” is realized?

Page to Stage

Our set designers, Christopher and Justin Swader, were aiming for a set that's as close as possible to the real Room 306 in Memphis. Look at our set versus the real thing!

The Man in Room 306 Set

The Real Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel

Memphis, TN

An Interview with Deborah Caney, Costume Designer

In speaking about your design for this production, you talked about the idea of "seeing him without his armor." What do you mean by that, and how important is that to telling the story of the play?

Public figures are very aware of how they are seen in public. It is also important to remember that African American men were acutely aware of their appearance so that they would be given the same amount of respect and dignity as a white man. Dr. King was always impeccably dressed because he was not only a reverend but also an activist. It was almost a uniform that he wore at his public appearances. So seeing him without that specific set of clothing, that “armor”—he is so vulnerable, so human. That is the access this play is giving us.

Jamil A.C. Mangan as Dr. King

Photo by Christopher Drukker

Jamil A.C. Mangan as Dr. King

Photo by Christopher Drukker

Our Community Partner

Luna Stage is proud to highlight THE NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE as our Community Partner for this production

New Jersey Institute for Social Justice

The Institute’s mission is to empower urban residents to realize and achieve their full potential. Established in 1999 by Alan V. and Amy Lowenstein, the Institute’s dynamic and independent advocacy is aimed at toppling load-bearing walls of structural inequality to create just, vibrant, and healthy urban communities. We employ a broad range of advocacy tools to advance our ambitious urban agenda, including research, analysis and writing, public education, grassroots organizing, communications, the development of pilot programs, legislative strategies, and litigation. Using a holistic approach to addressing the unique and critical issues facing New Jersey’s urban communities, the Institute advocates for systematic reform that is at once transformative, achievable in the state, and replicable in communities across the nation.

Social justice should be the underlying goal of all humanity.
Alan V. Lowenstein, Esq., Founder, NJISJ

Our Goals

Protecting and Promoting the Right to Vote
We are working to make the promise of democracy real for people of color across New Jersey by working to expand access to the polls and restoring the right to vote to people with criminal convictions.

Expanding Economic Opportunity
Economic mobility remains the great unfinished business of the civil rights movement. Fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke about the existence of “two Americas” sharply divided by race. The Institute is committed to bridging these “two Americas” through research and advocacy.

Criminal Justice Reform
From policing to closing New Jersey’s youth prisons, we seek to end criminal justice policies that result in the criminalization of communities of color, racial injustice, and mass incarceration.

For more, visit http://www.njisj.org/