“The Mountaintop” by Katori Hall to Open on Broadway This Fall
Rick Miramontez / Philip Carrubba
rick@oandmco.com / philip@oandmco.com
FOR RELEASE ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2010
FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT
OF NEW BROADWAY PRODUCTION
JEAN DOUMANIAN PRODUCTIONS
AND SONIA FRIEDMAN PRODUCTIONS
TO PRESENT
“T H E M O U N T A I N T O P ”
BY AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHT KATORI HALL
ON BROADWAY THIS FALL
KENNY LEON TO DIRECT
LONDON PRODUCTION RECEIVES
2010 OLIVIER AWARD BEST PLAY NOD
New York, NY – Jean Doumanian Productions (August: Osage County, Our Town, Superior Donuts, When The Rain Stops Falling),in partnership with Sonia Friedman Productions (The Norman Conquests, The Seagull, Boeing-Boeing, La Cage aux Folles and Rock ’n’ Roll)is moving forward to mount a Broadwayproduction of the newplay, The Mountaintop, by Katori Hall, following the recent announcement of the 2010 Olivier Award Best New Play nomination in London (actress Lorraine Burroughs alsoreceived a nomination for Best Actress for her performance). The Mountaintop will open on Broadway this Fall as part of the upcoming 2010-11 Season. The producers are in negotiations with Kenny Leon (Fences, A Raisin in the Sun) to direct this American premiere.
In a joint statement, Ms. Doumanian and Ms. Friedman said, “The Mountaintop is a brilliantly conceived gem of a play. An ambitious work of fiction that is powerful, heartbreaking, humorous and exhilarating. We are honored to be bringing Katori Hall’s remarkable work to New York, and to present a singular new American playwright to Broadway audiences.”
The Mountaintop received its world premiere to critical acclaim in a three-week run at Theatre 503 in June 2009, and subsequently transferred to the West End’s Trafalgar Studio 1. The production featured powerful performances by David Harewood as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Lorraine Burroughs as the mysterious Camae, under the direction of James Dacre. (The Mountaintop also received two Evening Standard Awards Nominations for Most Promising Playwright and Best Actor.)
Taking place on April 3, 1968, The Mountaintop is a gripping reimagining of events the night before the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., as he retires to Room 306 in the now famous Lorraine Motel in Memphis, after delivering his legendary ‘From the mountaintop’ speech to a massive church congregation. When room-service is delivered by a young woman, whose identity we puzzle over, King is forced to confront his past, as well as his legacy to his people.
Katori Hall, an American actress and playwright, grew up in Memphis and is a child of the post-civil rights era. She is a recent graduate from the Juilliard School playwriting program and was the recent recipient of William Inge Theatre Festival's 2010 Otis Guernsey New Voices in the American Theatre Award. She is an alumnus of both Harvard and Columbia Universities.
The cast of The Mountaintop will be announced shortly.
Praise for The Mountaintop:
“An ambitious work of historical fiction draped in magical realism.”
Time Out UK
“Sometimes a play comes out of the blue and knocks everyone for six… It is a beautiful and startling piece… A play that keeps you marveling to the end.”
The Telegraph
“Wondrous, hilarious, and heartbreaking.”
The Independent
“Faultless.”
The Times
“Future life Stateside is beyond doubt”
Variety
Bios____________________________________________________________
Katori Hall (Playwright). Plays include Hoodoo Love which was produced Off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre, and The Mountaintop, which was recently produced to great acclaim at London’s Theatre 503 and transferred to the Trafalgar Studios in London’s West End. Other plays include Remembrance, Hurt Village, Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, On the Chitlin’ Circuit, Oreogirl and Freedom Train. Her work has been developed and presented at the Bay Area Playwrights’ Festival, the American Repertory Theatre, Kennedy Center, Classical Theatre of Harlem, BRICLab, Women’s Project, Lark Play Development Center, New Professional Theatre, Stanford University, and Columbia University.
Hall has been published as a book reviewer, journalist, and essayist in publications such as The Boston Globe, Essence and Newsweek. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2009-2010 Lark Play Development Center Playwrights of New York Fellowship, the Van Lier Fellowship from the Public Theatre, two Le Compte du Nouy Prizes from Lincoln Center, NYSCA Grant, New Professional Theatre Writers’ Festival award, Fellowship of Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, NYFA Fellowship, Royal Court Theatre Residency and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award.
She has been a Kennedy Center Playwriting Fellow at the O’Neill. She was a member of the 2007-2008 Lark Playwrights’ Workshop and the 2006-2008 Women’s Project Playwrights’ Lab. She is currently the playwright-in-residence at the Women’s Project. She is a member of the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writer's Group at Primary Stages and the Old Vic New Voices program.
As an actor, Hall’s credits include Law & Order: SVU, The President’s Puppets (The Public), Growing Up a Slave (American Place Theatre), Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (American Place Theatre), the world premiere of Amerika (Theatre de la Juene Lune/American Repertory Theatre), Spring Awakening (Moscow Art Theatre School), Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death (Classical Theatre of Harlem), Schooled (WOW Café Theatre) and Black Girl (Sande Shurin Theatre).
She graduated undergrad from Columbia University in 2003 with a major in African-American Studies and Creative Writing. She was awarded top departmental honors from the university’s Institute for Research in African-American Studies (IRAAS). In 2005, she graduated from the American Repertory Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University with a Master of Fine Arts in Acting. She is a recent graduate of the Juilliard School’s Lila Acheson Wallace playwriting program. She is a native of Memphis, Tennessee and lives in New York City.
Jean Doumanian Productions (Producer) produces works for theatre, film, and television. Most recent Broadway productions include Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts, and August: Osage County, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play, now on tour in the US. Currently running Off-Broadway is David Cromer’s acclaimed production of Our Town (Lortel Award) at the Barrow Street Theater. Other Broadway Productions include, Jumpers, Democracy, Amour, Frankie and Johnnie at The Clare de Lune. JDP is now adapting August: Osage County for the screen. Other upcoming screen adaptations include UK feature Woman's World, and Blackbird adapted from David Harrower's Olivier Award-winning play. Upcoming projects include Andrew Bovell's play When The Rain Stops Falling at Lincoln Center. JDP has produced over 20 films by directors such as David Mamet, David Gordon Green, Woody Allen, and Barbara Kopple, earning multiple Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.
Sonia Friedman Productions (Producer) is one of the most significant and prolific theatre producers in the West End and on Broadway, initiating and producing more than 90 new productions over the past 15 years. Recent productions include Jerusalem (Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards), A View From the Bridge (West End and Broadway), A Little Night Music (West End and Broadway), The Norman Conquests (Tony Award), Legally Blonde (West End only), The Seagull (Broadway), Arcadia, Boeing-Boeing (Tony Award), La Cage aux Folles (Olivier and Critics’ Circle Award), Rock ’n’ Roll, Faith Healer, Othello, The Mountaintop, Dancing at Lughnasa, No Man’s Land, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg and Noises Off. Upcoming productions include La Cage aux Folles (April 2010) on Broadway, and Private Lives (February 2010), All My Sons (May 2010) and La Bete (May 2010), in the West End. SFP is currently actively developing over 25 major new productions. Sonia founded SFP, a subsidiary of the Ambassador Theatre Group, in 2002. In 1993, Sonia co-founded Out of Joint Theatre Company, one of Britain’s leading new writing companies.
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