The Williamstown Theatre Festival has announced the world premiere
of Oliver Award-winning Mountaintop playwright Katori Hall‘s Whaddabloodclot!!! as part of it 2012
summer season. New additions to Williamstown’s summer lineup also include a newly conceived
production of Oscar Wilde‘s The Importance of Being Earnest, staged
by Tony winner David Hyde Pierce (June 26-July 14). It is described as a
Guys and Dolls meets “Downton Abbey” take on the classic comedy.

Tony winner Richard Nelson will stage the world premiere of a new
translation of Ivan Turgenev‘s A Month in the Country (Aug. 1-19).
Nelson collaborated with Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky on the
translation.

Jessica Stone will stage Neil Simon’s classic comedy The
Last of the Red Hot Lovers (July 11-22), and a free staging of Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle’s The Valley of Fear, adapted by Steve Lawson, will also be
offered (July 18-27).

Whaddabloodclot!!! (Aug. 8-19) is presented in association with the
Signature Theatre Company, which is currently presenting Hall’s Hurt
Village.
Here’s how the new play is described: “One-percenter Eden Higgenbotham lives
a cushy Upper-East-Side life surrounded by equally affluent, vain, and snobbish
friends. When a sudden stroke causes her to contract the very rare Foreign
Accent Syndrome, which makes her speak uncontrollably with a Jamaican accent,
she’s forced to embrace a dramatically altered identity.”

As previously reported, Williamstown will produce Far From Heaven, a
new musical with a book by Tony Award winner Richard Greenberg (Take Me
Out) and an original score by Tony-nominated Grey Gardens songwriters
Scott Frankel (music) and Michael Korie (lyrics). Michael Greif (Next to Normal, Grey Gardens, Rent) will
direct (July 19-29). Three-time Tony Award nominee Kelli O’Hara will star.

Also announced in recent weeks was the world premiere of Lucy Boyle’s The
Blue Deep, starring Tony winner Blythe Danner, under the direction of Bob Balaban (July 11-22).

Single tickets will go on sale in April. Visit WilliamstownTheatreFestival

CLICK PHOTO TO WATCH VIDEO

Katori Hall, the playwright behind “The Mountaintop,” stopped by the WSJ studio to discuss the world premiere of her new play, “Hurt Village,” at the brand new Pershing Square Signature Center in New York City.

Hall, who now lives in Washington Heights, New York, is a native of Memphis, and said the inspiration for the play came from growing up as a young girl near the real-life Hurt Village housing project.

“I grew up playing with kids from Hurt Village, playing with kids from other housing projects, Lamar Terrace, because my grandmother lived in that particular area,” Hall said in the interview. “So, I always wondered how I would have turned out if I would have lived in that particular given circumstance.”

“Hurt Village,” which opened on Monday, tells the story of an African-American family during its last days in a Memphis housing project—too poor to afford better housing, but considered too well-off to qualify for public housing. At its heart is Cookie (Joaquina Kalukango), a gifted 13-year-old girl who wants to continue her education and improve her life.

Hall is one of three playwrights being celebrated in the inaugural season of the Pershing Square Signature Center — a 70,000-square-foot, Frank Gehry-designed space that opened earlier this month. Along with Hall’s “Hurt Village,” Signature is staging Edward Albee’s “The Lady From Dubuque” and Athol Fugard’s “Blood Knot.”

“It’s freaking mind-blowing to be rehearsing and you come out of the door and there’s Mr. Fugard eating cookies on his break,” Hall said. “I feel so honored to be in such amazing, amazing company. I feel like when they embrace me, it’s showing me that they feel like there’s room for all of us. All of these stories deserve to be told.”

Hall’s play, “The Mountaintop,” was a recent production on Broadway starring Samuel Jackson and Angela Bassett. When asked how that experience differed from playing at the off-Broadway Signature Center, Hall said, “It’s so different because obviously it’s Broadway, there’s more at stake. You gotta get your $3.1 million back. You’re working with stars—not just stars but STARS… You do have to deal with producers coming to you and like, how many minutes you gonna cut off? You have to deal with that I think more so on the Broadway level. But I think the major difference is, you’re under the radar at Signature and they say Broadway is playwright-centered and it’s not, no more [laughs]. It’s actor-centered at this point in time because of the economy. But off-Broadway, particularly at Signature, it’s playwright-centered, absolutely”

Signature Theatre Company’s Romulus Linney Courtyard Theater in the new Pershing Square Signature Center on West 42nd Street is unveiled to the public Feb. 7 with the first performance of the world premiere of Hurt Village, the new work by Katori Hall, the Olivier Award-winning writer of The Mountaintop.

The play set in a Memphis housing project features Lloyd Watts, Charlie Hudson III, Marsha Stephanie Blake(The Merchant of Venice; Joe Turner’s Come and Gone), Nicholas Christopher (Rent, In the Heights), Corey Hawkins (Suicide, Incorporated), Ron Cephas Jones (Gem of the Ocean, The Bridge Project), Joaquina Kalukango(Godspell), Tonya Pinkins (Play On!; Jelly’s Last Jam; Caroline, or Change; “All My Children”) and Saycon Sengbloh (Fela!, Hair).

Patricia McGregor directs the gritty drama about life and change in a family. Hurt Village opens Feb. 27 and continues to March 18. The play is part of the Off-Broadway Signature’s newly expanded mission to produce new works, in a program dubbed Residency Five, which guarantees five playwrights three world-premiere productions each over the course of a five-year residency.

Here’s how Signature bills Hurt Village, which received a 2011 Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award from TCG: “It’s the end of a long summer in Hurt Village, a housing project in Memphis, Tennessee. A government Hope Grant means relocation for many of the project’s residents, including Cookie, a 13-year-old aspiring rapper, along with her mother Crank and great-grandmother Big Mama. As the family prepares to move, Cookie’s father Buggy unexpectedly returns from a tour of duty in Iraq. Ravaged by the war, Buggy struggles to find a position in his disintegrating community, along with a place in his daughter’s wounded heart.”

The inaugural production of Katori Hall’sHurt Village begins previews February 7 at the Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at off-Broadway’s new Signature Center. The Signature Theatre Company production, directed by Patricia McGregor and starring Tonya Pinkins, officially opens February 27. Hurt Villagewill play a limited engagement through March 18.

Hurt Village also features Marsha Stephanie Blake, Nicholas Christopher, Corey Hawkins, Ron Cephas Jones, Joaquina Kalukango, Saycon Sengbloh, Charlie Hudson III and Lloyd Watts.

For the Hurt Village housing project in Memphis, a government Hope Grant means relocation for many residents, including 13-year-old aspiring rapper Cookie, her mother Crank and her great-grandmother Big Mama. But as the family gets ready to move, Cookie’s father Buggy unexpectedly returns from a tour of duty in Iraq. Buggy struggles to find a place in the disintegrating community and in Cookie’s wounded heart.

Katori Hall, photographed at the National Civil Rights Museum in 2010, opened "The Mountaintop" in England because the British "are used to cracking open the masks of their kings."

© 2012 Memphis Commercial Appeal. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

“I am a man. Just a man.” These are the words from playwright Katori Hall’s recent play The Mountaintop, a fictional civil rights-era piece set at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis the night before Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The play premiered in London and moved on to Broadway, and has been met with both controversy and praise for its down-to-earth portrayal of King the man, rather than the public, heroic figure we are more familiar with.

theGrio: Black women ready to take Broadway by storm

Hall’s mother Camae was a major influence in the direction of the play.

“When I was young my mother told me of how she wasn’t able to see King speak when he was in Memphis. She has always regretted that,” Hall told theGrio.

Actor Samuel L. Jackson plays Dr. King in the play. Hall, who is from Memphis, uses this play, as she told the theGrio, “to look around themselves during the show and see all the people sitting there that have the potential to do just as much, if not more, than Dr. King did.”

Katori Hall is making history … through The Mountaintop and the international attention it has garnered. The Columbia University graduate received several awards and fellowships, including the 2010 Oliver Award for the Best New Play and the Juilliard School’s Lila Acheson Wallace playwright program.

What’s next for Katori Hall?
On Feb. 7, Hall will debut her latest play, Hurt Village, at the Signature Theater in New York City. The play is also set in Memphis near the Lorraine Motel, depicting life at a housing project.

Katori in her own words …

“I think what we need is for people of color to see the power behind cultural capital,” Katori Hall told theGrio in October. “The arts are tools for a people to talk about themselves. People of color have to use this tool. We need more producers of color.”

A little-known fact about Katori Hall’s work…
Samuel L. Jackson made his official Broadway debut with his portrayal of King in The Mountaintop.

THE GRIO’S Q & A TIME WITH KATORI HALL

Q: What’s next for you in this chapter of your life?

A: My play HURT VILLAGE is being produced by Signature Theatre in New York City. We begin performances Feb 7th and officially open February 27th.

Q. What’s a little fact about you that many people don’t know?

A: I started writing for my hometown newspaper The Commercial Appeal at age 14.

Q: What’s your favorite quote?

A: Don’t do things to be liked, do things you want to do, so that you’ll be liked for who you are. –Happy Gertrud

Q: Where do you get your inspiration from?

A: Memphis, Family history, the news, social issues I care about.

Q: Who are/were your mentors?

A: Lynn Nottage was my greatest supporter when I first started writing professionally. She helped me to develop my first play Hoodoo Love and started me off on my playwriting journey.

Also, John Eisner, the founder of the Lark Play Development Center, which provided me artistic and financial support when I wrote the Mountaintop. He has seen the play, like 68 times, readEVERY draft. He’s an angel.

Q: What advice would you give to anyone who’s craving to achieve their
dreams?

A: Aim for the stars, for if you fall, at least you’ll be caught by the treetops, which is much better than where you started–the ground.

On Sunday, January 22, The Mountaintop took its final bow on Broadway.  The play, starring Samuel L. Jackson in hit Broadway debut and Angela Bassett, was written by Katori Hall and directed by Kenny Leon. BroadwayWorld was on hand for the final curtain call and brings you photo coverage below!

THE MOUNTAINTOP announced last week that it had recouped its investment. The show began performances on September 22, 2011 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre and opened on Thursday, October 13, 2011 for its limited engagement through Sunday. Upon closing The Mountaintop played 24 preview and 117 regular performances.

Taking place on April 3, 1968, The Mountaintop is a gripping reimagining of events the night before the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. After delivering one of his most memorable speeches, an exhausted Dr. King (Samuel L. Jackson) retires to his room at the Lorraine Motel while a storm rages outside. When a mysterious stranger (Angela Bassett) arrives with some surprising news, King is forced to confront his destiny and his legacy to his people.

Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski

Click link to view more photos! http://broadwayworld.com/article/Photo-Coverage-THE-MOUNTAINTOP-Takes-Final-Broadway-Bow-20120124##ixzz1kQYweUma

The Broadway production of “The Mountaintop,” Katori Hall’s drama about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final night before his assassination, has recouped its entire capitalization of $3.1 million, the lead producers Jean Doumanian and Sonia Friedman announced on Wednesday. The play opened to mixed reviews in October, but ticket sales proved durable in part because of the drawing power of its stars, Samuel L. Jackson (as King) and Angela Bassett (as a mysterious motel maid).

One-third of straight plays have turned a profit on Broadway in recent years, though most of those are not significant money-makers on the scale of hits like “A Steady Rain,” which starred Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig on Broadway in 2009.

“The Mountaintop” will end its Broadway run on Sunday at the Jacobs Theater; the new musical “Once” is set to begin previews there on Feb. 28. Ms. Hall’s next production in New York will be her play “Hurt Village,” which begins performances Off Broadway at Signature Theater Company on Feb. 7.

In a statement, the “Mountaintop” producers said, “We are absolutely thrilled by the audience’s response to this inspirational new play,” adding, “we look forward to the future life this work will undoubtedly have throughout the world.”

Producers Jean Doumanian and Sonia Friedman announced today that their premiere Broadway production of Katori Hall’s Olivier Award-winning play, The Mountaintop, which is playing to sold out houses at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (242 W45th Street), has recouped its entire initial investment of $3.1 million. The Mountaintop stars Samuel L. Jackson as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Angela Bassett, and is directed by Tony Award® nominee Kenny Leon (Stick Fly, Fences, A Raisin in the Sun).

In a joint statement, Doumanian and Friedman said, “We are absolutely thrilled by the  audience’s response to this inspirational new play, and even happier to be able to announce this news so close to Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. It’s been a joy to see packed houses of engaged, and cheering theatergoers night after night, and we look forward to the future life this work will undoubtedly have throughout the world.”

The Mountaintop began performances on September 22, 2011 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre and opened on Thursday, October 13, 2011 for a limited engagement through January 22, 2012. Upon closing The Mountaintop will have played 24 preview and 117 regular performances.

Taking place on April 3, 1968, The Mountaintop is a gripping reimagining of events the night before the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. After delivering one of his most memorable speeches, an exhausted Dr. King (Samuel L. Jackson) retires to his room at the Lorraine Motel while a storm rages outside. When a mysterious stranger (Angela Bassett) arrives with some surprising news, King is forced to confront his destiny and his legacy to his people.

Tickets for the remaining performances of The Mountaintop are available at Telecharge.com, by calling (212) 239-6200, or at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre box office (242 West 45th Street). Prime tickets to The Mountaintop are reserved for each and every performance, even in cases when the show is otherwise sold-out, for the low price of $34.50: Twenty Same-Day Reserve tickets will be available each day when the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre box office opens at 10:00 a.m. (Noon on Sundays) for that day’s performance(s). They can be purchased with cash or a credit card on a first-come, first-served basis. There is a limit of two Same-Day Reserve tickets per person.

For all sold-out performances, 25 standing room tickets will be made available at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre box office for $26.50 each.

The Mountaintop is produced by Jean Doumanian, Sonia Friedman Productions, Ambassador Theatre Group, Raise the Roof 7, Ted Snowdon, Alhadeff Productions/Lauren Doll, B Square + 4 Productions/Broadway Across America, Jacki Barlia Florin/Cooper Federman, Ronnie Planalp/Moellenberg Taylor, Marla Rubin Productions/Blumenthal Performing Arts, and Scott Delman.

Read more: http://broadwayworld.com/article/THE-MOUNTAINTOP-Recoups-Broadway-Investment-20120118#ixzz1kFRz65mv