| I Dream | |
|---|---|
| Music | Douglas Tappin, Cedric Perrier |
| Lyrics | Douglas Tappin, Cedric Perrier |
| Book | Douglas Tappin |
| Productions |
Atlanta, GA |
I Dream is a fully through-composed musical by Douglas Tappin (librettist, lyricist, composer) based on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. I Dream is produced by Dej Mahoney, Cedric Perrier and Tim Bowen, with additional music and lyrics by Cedric Perrier. The world premiere opened in July 2010[1] on the Alliance Stage of the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia and was directed by Jasmine Guy.
Contents |
ACT 1
Stockbridge, Georgia - 1938
A group of black men and women sharecroppers labor in a field. Dressed in shabby work- clothes, they lament their plight. Though they are no longer slaves, the legacy of slavery lives on: reborn as segregation, poverty and oppression. The local preacher, Martin Luther King, Sr., known to his family as ‘Daddy King’, is also beginning his day with his wife and his young children, one of whom is an 8-year old boy, Martin. Unlike the rest of his family, Martin’s priority isn’t yet work, but stealing time away to play with his best friend, Ronald Allen - a young white boy of equal years. Martin’s maternal Grandmother, ‘Grandma’, encourages Martin’s parents to allow him some time to play and reminds them that, as Sunday is just beginning, it is also a time for them to break from work and enjoy time together as a family. As Ronald Allen’s father comes to call him away from playing with Martin, the sounds of joyous peeling bells can be heard ringing out from a beautiful, pristine church building nearby. Hearing the sound too, Martin eagerly follows Ronald and his family towards the steps of the church, where he is met with the sight of well-dressed white families from the community arriving for Sunday morning service. But upon seeing the young black boy approaching, a rank of church Deacons lock arms at the church doors, warning Martin that his kind are not welcome there. Witnessing the scene at the steps of the church, Grandma arrives to comfort Martin, forcefully venting her frustration and anger at the white congregation’s mistreatment of the small boy now holding her hand. Although Grandma’s expression shows great strength of character, it is clear also that her years are beginning to take their toll on her health. As Grandma ushers Martin away, William Allen and his wife Vivien emerge from the church. They speak in disbelief at the scene they have just witnessed – an old black grandmother’s outburst because of the injustice she saw inflicted upon her grandson. Vivien Allen also confesses her growing fear that black folks daring to challenge the social order will eventually wreck her perfect world, and that of their daughter, Katherine. After the incident at the steps of the church, Daddy King takes Martin to town to buy him a much- needed pair of shoes. But Martin is reluctant to accompany his father to the white-owned shoe store. Determined to prove to Martin that their money is as good as anyone else’s, Daddy King persists. On entering the store owned by William Allen - father of Martin’s best friend, Ronald – the Kings are at once reminded to know their place: Allen directs them to wait for service in a small room at the rear, a separate room reserved just for ‘Negroes.’ But proud Daddy King refuses. With no other option, he furiously takes his son’s hand, sweeping out of the store in frustration. Although he tries to console young Martin’s disappointment at the way they have been treated, it is Grandma who ultimately reassures the boy with a lullaby, encouraging him to dream of a better time and day when the specter of racism no longer overshadows their lives. In the closing moments of the lullaby, weaker than ever, Grandma takes her final breath and passes peacefully away.
Boston, Massachusetts - 1952
Now a 25-year old college student, Martin Luther King, Jr. is studying for a Doctorate at Boston University. Dividing his time between his studies and courting the attentions of a group of young women, Martin and his college friends are found flirting in the campus recreation room. The students’ exuberance is cut short when their Professor arrives calling for their dissertation papers, facing down the over-confident Martin and challenging him to deliver a spontaneous address. Rising to the challenge, Martin eloquently responds, demonstrating his developing oratorical skills. In so doing, he inadvertently offends the Professor who mistakenly interprets Martin’s rhetoric for mockery. As a result, Martin will be singled-out by the Professor for special attention and, while his criticism of the young man is often heavy, it soon becomes clear for what it is: spirited character-building encouragement that will prove fundamental in the making of the future preacher. In drawing the Professor’s ire, Martin also attracts the particular affections of a beautiful but calculating woman who confidently draws close to him, seeking to persuade him of the perfect match between her social connections and his ostensible charisma and intellect. But it is the Professor who ultimately draws Martin’s attention to Coretta Scott, a woman of a more stately and graceful disposition. Though not the quintessential skilled social climber, Martin soon realizes that she has much else to offer as his future wife. The young couple soon fall in love and marry. When Martin’s studies come to an end, it is to Montgomery, Alabama they are headed. It is here he will take his place as Pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church....
Montgomery, Alabama - 1955
King begins a close friendship with Ralph David Abernathy, Pastor at Montgomery’s First Baptist church. Though he and Abernathy talk often of the dream of living beyond the limits of their day, they soon find themselves leading the nascent social movement in Montgomery - ignited by Rosa Parks’ arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a local bus for a white man. Mrs. Parks’ steadfastness inspires King’s radical call for the black community of Montgomery to boycott the city’s public transportation system. Growing into the role of the recognized leader of the bus boycott, King becomes the target of vicious opposition. Personal threats of violence against him become all-too-common culminating, late one night in January 1956, in the bombing of his family home. Though unscathed, King is shaken. Privately, he begins to struggle to find the strength and resolve to press on. Meanwhile, the Montgomery movement attracts the attention of King’s former college Professor. Reaching out to his former student, he offers King access to his political and financial connections, both in support of the Montgomery movement and to help fund a successful campaign through the courts. Unknown to King, the Professor’s radical activism in social causes, including an active membership of the Communist Party, brings King himself under the watchful eye of the FBI and its long-serving Director, J. Edgar Hoover. Considering King’s association with the Professor considered to be ample justification, Hoover authorizes wiretaps and bugs on the civil rights leader’s offices and hotel rooms. Hoover’s steadfast belief is that King is being groomed by the Professor to wreak political unrest on a national level. Towards the end of 1956, the US Supreme Court finally rules in favor of desegregation across the Montgomery public transportation system. As news of the Justices’ decree reaches Montgomery, King’s supporters press him to escalate their local success in Montgomery into a ‘freedom revolution’ - city by city, state by state, all across America. When King reluctantly agrees to lead the national movement, he finds himself squared-off against the might of Hoover and his FBI who are convinced, more than ever, that King’s agenda is subversive. It is decided he must be stopped, at all costs...
ACT 2
Atlanta, Georgia – 1960-1964
The events in Montgomery, together with a series of decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, are typical of a broader move towards social change that is beginning to take hold across the country. In public transportation systems, stores, restaurants and workplaces throughout the nation, the black race is refusing to stay in the place it had once seemed content to dwell in. In order to extend his reach and strengthen his campaign against King, Hoover finds and recruits a former childhood friend of King to join his network of informants. Together with an army of FBI agents, this informant is tasked with reporting back to Hoover on King’s every move. Wrestling with the prospect of Hoover’s order to spy on his best childhood friend, the informant returns home to share his dilemma with his parents, William and Vivien Allen. To them, Ronald Allen’s responsibility is clear – King must be stopped. Overhearing the conversation between her brother and her parents is Katherine Allen. Seizing the opportunity, she confronts them over the prospect that her brother contribute in any way to King’s downfall. As the tension within the Allen family mounts and threatens to tear it apart, King and Abernathy take Coretta to a lunch counter in Atlanta to test the new desegregation laws. What begins innocently, ends in King’s wrongful arrest by federal agents on an obscure misdemeanor charge. Both King and Abernathy are taken to jail for their trouble - leaving Coretta counting the personal cost of seeing her husband once again dragged away in public. It will not be the last time King is locked away from his own family by white law enforcement officers. From the midst of their incarceration, and amid rising tensions with co-leaders of the civil rights movement, King meets Hosea Williams for the first time, a man embittered by ill-treatment. As King listens to Williams, he begins to crystallize in his mind his hopes and dreams of a brighter future - a time and a place, somewhere beyond their present despair. When they are eventually released from jail, King and Abernathy head straight to a high-profile fund- raising gala. The atmosphere is jubilant. The great and the good have gathered to celebrate King and show support for the movement. The glittering opulence of the event is in stark contrast to the squalor of King’s all-too-familiar jail cell. However, the draw of newly-found power and celebrity only fuels further conflict within King’s inner-circle, with some clearly preferring the spoils to the realities of leading the struggle. Following the brief respite of the gala, King focuses attention back onto the next task: organizing a protest to help a young black man, David, attend the college of his choice in a white neighborhood - a college also attended by Katherine Allen. Even though the U.S. Supreme Court has issued its decree ordering integrated local education, most white students at the college remain committed in their opposition to being forced to mix with black students. But integration in the college finally comes, though only after King and co-leaders of the protest have been arrested and black students have suffered the clubs, tear gas, hoses and rubber bullets of the State Troopers. Slowly, black and white students begin to mix within the classrooms and lunchroom of the college they now share. And Katherine Allen dares to befriend David. Making their own contribution to a wave of reconciliation and change now coursing through a troubled nation, they bridge the greatest of social divides and unite in a daring pledge of friendship.
Atlanta, Georgia - 1964, Birmingham, Alabama - 1967, Memphis, Tennessee - 1968
As King’s social responsibilities make increasing demands on his family life, Coretta learns to live life without him. Ever-committed to raising their children, she also unerringly plays her own part as ‘queen’ to her husband’s prominent role as the internationally-recognized and acclaimed ‘king’ of the civil rights movement. But not without quietly feeling the pain of isolation. The movement itself has now spread, gaining momentum through to the end of the 1960’s with King still at the helm - sometimes before Presidents, often before huge crowds and, all-too-frequently, from behind bars. Though the people King once shared a jail cell with were all black, now they are a mix of races: men, women and young people of all colors choosing to stand together in solidarity against oppression. But as King’s leadership role has grown, so too has the intensity of Hoover’s personal vendetta against the black leader. The pressure of his own treacherous role eventually forces the conflicted Ronald Allen to choose in favor of his one-time friend, King, finally joining him in the fight for equality. Allen’s brave choice naturally sets him against the powerful and increasingly despotic Hoover. Frustrated, the FBI Director orchestrates a dramatic personal confrontation with King. But the man he meets is not the weak, seditious character he expects. Instead, Hoover finds himself face-to-face with a giant - a man of unshakeable fearlessness and resolve. Their meeting leaves Hoover convinced that only in death will King and his movement be silenced. As King prepares to travel to Memphis to lend his support to a group of striking sanitation workers, Allen warns him of an especially serious threat to his life. Undeterred, King heeds the call and joins the local protestors in a bold and public declaration of their rights. But as he takes his place once more at the head of a righteous march, a single rifle shot rings out. An assassin’s bullet finally finds Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and he is killed. In the aftermath of King’s tragic and unexpected death, what becomes of the dream he leaves behind - which inspired so many? The dream becomes far greater than Hoover, the assassin or even King himself could have imagined. Men, women and children of every color and denomination unite in the tragedy, rising to a triumphant closing ensemble: a declaration of hope, reconciliation and freedom that will leave an indelible mark on America itself…
I. Prologue - Sharecropping |
I. Prologue - "The Corridors of Power" |
Starring:
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I Dream opened to mostly positive reviews from both the press and those involved with the Civil Rights Movement. RollingOut.com said "The life of Dr. King as chronicled in the stage musical I Dream, is right on time as a reminder of what the fight was for. The dynamically talented cast delivered stirring performances to move audience members through each riveting scene.”[2] Creative Loafing reported that "Tappin's hugely ambitious world premiere follows the example of Broadway's big, rock-influenced musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita and Les Miserables."[3] The Huffington Post stated "[The show brought] some of the heartiest former Civil Rights activists in the house to tears, before raising them to their feet at the finale for, perhaps, the greatest standing ovation the show will ever receive."[4]
Nominated in 10 categories for Atlanta's 2009-2010 Suzi Bass Awards, I Dream won in the "Outstanding World Premiere" (Play or Musical) category and, following the awards ceremony, the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Howard Pousner reported of "a potential transfer of the musical to the Big Apple"[5] for 2011.