MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
On a hot summer day, a little over six decades ago, a quarter million people gathered peacefully in Washington, D.C., to demand laws to advance civil rights, to protect voting rights and to stop employment discrimination. It was there that the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his now-famous "I Have A Dream" speech. King's preparations with his close allies for that pivotal moment are the subject of Chess Jakobs' new play, "The American Five."
CHESS JAKOBS: Coretta Scott King, Bayard Rustin, Stanley Levison and Clarence B. Jones.
MARTIN: Actor Ro Boddie plays the role of King. Here he is at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., during a rehearsal of a scene where the five are sitting around a dinner table.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As Coretta Scott King) Oh, whee. That's it. That's it. A fresh piece of challah and some collard greens. Whoo, that would make me do the hora to a Negro spiritual, baby.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As Coretta Scott King) Stan. Stan, you have to try this.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As Stanley Levison) Oh, it's OK, Mrs. King. I'm full. We need to get back to work.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As Coretta Scott King) Oh, come on, Stan. Now, this my house.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Can we just go back to...
MARTIN: Jakobs and Boddie stepped aside from the rehearsal for a few minutes, and we started by talking about how elements of the play are drawn from real life. Jakobs said that in doing his research, he learned that...
JAKOBS: There are several mentionings of them getting together over dinner, of them even singing together sometimes. Different moments where it's referred to that Dr. King actually loved to cook. He loved to make smothered greens. He loved to be very hospitable.
MARTIN: So I'm going to turn with you because you're getting ready to go before an audience as Martin Luther King Jr....
RO BODDIE: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...Who's only one of the most famous people...
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: ...In modern history and certainly, at least among many segments of the American population, one of the most revered. No pressure at all.
BODDIE: Yeah, not at all. Not at all. Not at all.
MARTIN: But what drew you to this role, and what are you exploring in it...
BODDIE: Well, I...
MARTIN: ...That is interesting to you as an actor?
BODDIE: Well, I've had the privilege of playing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. four times now. And for some reason, he just keeps coming back into my life. And...
MARTIN: You think it's your voice?
BODDIE: I think it's my height.
MARTIN: Your height.
BODDIE: It's my voice, you know? And so I've got that in my favor. But, you know, it's a privilege. I'm not interested in doing an imitation. I'm interested in working from the inside out and bringing the humanity of who he was and the essence.
MARTIN: Is it ever intimidating?
BODDIE: No, it's not intimidating because we all have our idea of who he was. I had my idea of who he was. And what's beautiful about what Chess has written is that it breaks all of those preconceived notions and the calls to be the boss, you know, and there's a lot. You know, he suffered from depression and he - and morbidity. So I think it's important for people to see the struggles that he faced with trying to get civil rights for us (ph).
MARTIN: Why do you think that's important?
BODDIE: I think that it's important for us to see great people as human and bring them down so that we can say, oh, this great person, who was flawed like anybody else, can do great things. Maybe so can I.
MARTIN: Chess, a similar question for you is...
JAKOBS: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...I mean, the speech is certainly well known.
JAKOBS: Yeah.
MARTIN: There are Martin Luther King...
JAKOBS: Yeah.
MARTIN: There are "I Have A Dream" speech contests...
JAKOBS: Yes, there are.
MARTIN: ...Like, all over the country.
JAKOBS: Yes, yeah.
MARTIN: What is it that you wanted to bring to this story that you feel adds to what people think they know?
JAKOBS: Well, you know, there's history, and then there's hidden history. And so when you go and look back and see that someone like Bayard Rustin, you know, was out and publicly gay in the 1950s and '60s, had been convicted of charges and still persevering and found the wherewithal to keep going, that's pretty much the reason why. It's like, I...
MARTIN: Or Stanley Levison...
JAKOBS: Or - yeah.
MARTIN: ...Who was under surveillance his entire life, and...
JAKOBS: Under surveillance in his entire life and then decided that he was going to work for Dr. King behind the radar, right? Like, for me, I really respect these people because of the well of resilience that they had. But doing that on top of all of the very human things we go through at home and still finding the 35 hours...
BODDIE: (Laughter).
JAKOBS: ...In a day to work and advocate for and stand up civil rights...
BODDIE: Yeah.
JAKOBS: ...For the nation, for me, speaks volumes, right?
BODDIE: Yes.
JAKOBS: So that in today's time, when we feel like we don't have the 30 minutes to go out and advocate, that we recognize that it took this level of commitment to have the rights that we have today.
MARTIN: Is that...
JAKOBS: And that's something I don't take lightly.
MARTIN: Is that what you wanted to get out of it in a way, to sort of motivate people to think about the present moment?
JAKOBS: I have a canvas of hopes...
(LAUGHTER)
JAKOBS: ...For what people get out of this show. For me, it's to see the different kinds of people from the different places in America that it took for this kind of work to be possible, right? And I think this idea of the five - what we have is a queer man. We have a wealthy Black man. We have a woman who was a sharecropper. We have Dr. King who grew up in a low-income preaching family.
MARTIN: We have a woman who has dreams of her own.
JAKOBS: And a woman who had dreams of her own who had two degrees...
MARTIN: Who was able to...
JAKOBS: ...You know? Exactly.
MARTIN: ...At a time when a lot of women didn't go to college...
JAKOBS: Yes.
MARTIN: ...But who had two degrees...
JAKOBS: Yes.
MARTIN: And who...
JAKOBS: Yes.
MARTIN: ...Who was clearly...
JAKOBS: Yes.
MARTIN: ...A presence in her own rights.
JAKOBS: Yes. Absolutely.
MARTIN: So, you know, 1963 was a landmark year. It was also a very traumatic and violent year. You know, a couple of months before the march on Washington, the, you know, civil rights activists - the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi was gunned down in his own driveway in Jackson, Mississippi. Just a month later, after the march, the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed in Birmingham...
JAKOBS: Yes.
MARTIN: ...Killing the four little girls. And then a few months after that, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. And I'm just wondering how you take people to that time.
JAKOBS: I'm always considering the fact that because I'm here dancing in a gay bar with my friends who represent the mosaic of the world, somebody did die so that I could do this, right? Somebody got hosed down. Somebody ran away from a plantation. All of these things happened in order for me to be in this room right now.
MARTIN: Well, before we let you go, we're speaking with you at Ford's Theatre.
JAKOBS: Yes.
MARTIN: It is here that President Lincoln was assassinated. The march on Washington was actually planned to coincide with the centennial of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. So I wanted to ask, like, what's the significance of the fact that this play will be performed here, you know?
BODDIE: Well, for me, I mean, just being here where, you know, the great emancipator was. And I couldn't think of a better time to be doing a history play. And to have this play be done, you know, just a few feet from where that event took place and to have the spirits of all these giants in there, including him...
JAKOBS: Yes.
BODDIE: ...Once we get in there...
JAKOBS: Yes.
BODDIE: ...I hope it shifts the air a little bit.
JAKOBS: Yeah. And that's one of the reasons why this show is called "The American Five" because these are people who fought for rights of Americans in very broad and daring ways.
MARTIN: That is playwright Chess Jakobs and actor Ro Boddie, who plays Martin Luther King Jr. in Jakobs' new play, "The American Five." It runs through October 12 at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Chess Jakob (ph), Ro Boddie, thank you so much for talking with us.
BODDIE: Thank you.
JAKOBS: Thank you for having us.
MARTIN: And congratulations.
JAKOBS: Thank you (laughter).
BODDIE: Appreciate you.
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