New Route Climbs Back to Katori Hall's MOUNTAINTOP

New Route Theatre and director Don Shandrow have decided to bring their production of Katori Hall's The Mountaintop back one more time for area audiences.The image you see here is from their previous production in 2013, so pay no attention to those dates! The new dates are January 31, and February 1-9. But the venue is the same -- the McLean County YWCA on Hershey in Bloomington -- and you can still email new.route.theatre@gmail.com or call 309-827-7330 for reservations. Tickets are $10.

Hall's play imagines Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the last night of his life at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He is visited by a hotel maid who brings coffee and stays for conversation that ranges from the mundane to the spiritual. The Mountaintop has become a spiritual phenomenon for playgoers, too, as they've flocked to see it in London, Broadway and regional productions.

New Route last performed The Mountaintop in February 2013, featuring Gregory D. Hick as Dr. King and Fania Bourn as Camae, the maid who is not necessarily what she appears to be. They will both be back for this 2014 version, and that's Bourn at left in character.

The Mountaintop opens in New Route's YWCA space on January 31, 2014. For more information on this production, you can visit the event's Facebook page here.

THE MOUNTAINTOP Continues This Weekend at New Route Theatre

I apologize for being under the weather and seriously late with info that you must have to celebrate your February properly.

So, apologies to New Route Theatre, which opened its production of Katori Hall's The Mountaintop last week. Hall's play imagines what might have happened in the last night in the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., if he'd had the opportunity to ponder life, cigarettes and his earthly and heavenly missions with a lively debating partner -- the maid who brings his room service -- in his room at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis.

Early reports are that this is a terrific production, starring Gregory D. Hicks as the Reverend King and Fania Bourn as the maid, under the direction of New Route Artistic Director Don Shandrow. Fans have taken to the event's Facebook page to call it "terrific work" and note it was a "powerful presentation and a moving experience."

Performances of The Mountaintop continue Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week and next. Friday and Saturday performances are scheduled for a 7:30 pm curtain, while Sunday matinees will be at 2:30 pm.

You can secure tickets by emailing new.route.theatre@gmail.com or by visiting the New Route Facebook page. Or you can purchase them at the door on the night of performance.

New Route Climbs to THE MOUNTAINTOP

As New Route Theatre gears up for the last production of their 2012-13 season, they are also celebrating their accomplishments from 2012.

It was a very good year for New Route, moving into a new space in the YWCA on Hershey Road in Bloomington, producing shows with longer runs, adding the Word Weavers writing program for seniors and still keeping the One Shot Deal series alive at the Eaton Gallery. That's a lot of production for one small, fairly new company! But, after all, New Route has a mission. What is the mission? To do professional quality theatre using a broad spectrum of artists who represent the community in all of its diversity.

As Artistic Director Don Shandrow notes, "If you look at our 2012-2013 season that reaches its summit with The Mountaintop you will see ten productions, across all of our programs, that reflect the diversity of this community."

He explains: "Of these ten productions, three were compilation scripts. Of the seven remaining scripts, six were by women playwrights. Of those six, one was by a Palestinian-American woman and the remaining three by African-American women.

"As we move forward into 2013 and beyond, it is our intent to build on this foundation as we work toward an even more diverse and inclusive theatre company."

And about that Mountaintop... Katori Hall's play about the last night in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. premiered in London in 2009 in a much-acclaimed production directed by James Dacre with British actor David Harewood as Dr. King, then hit Broadway in 2011 with Samuel L. Jackson in the lead role. Jackson's costar was Oscar nominee Angela Bassett.

Katori Hall, Samuel L. Jackson, Angela Bassett and Kenny Leon, who directed the Broadway Mountaintop, each did a brief video piece about the play if you'd like to learn more.

Don Shandrow will direct The Mountaintop for New Route, with Gregory D. Hicks as his Dr. King. Hicks has been involved with New Route Theatre with productions like Fabulation, which he directed and acted in last year, and with area theaters like Heartland Theatre Company, where he played young poet Franco Hicks in Superior Donuts last spring. He's also worked with the Black Actors Guild at Illinois State University, directing The Mystical Willie Lynch in February, 2011.

Fania Bourne will star opposite Hicks as Camae, a mysterious maid who brings coffee to King's hotel room on that last day and begins a conversation with him about life, death, what it is to come up short, and what it means to dream big. The name Camae is a nickname for Carrie Mae. Or perhaps "Carry Me."

Bourne has also appeared before with New Route, most recently in Fat Jack's, a One Shot Deal show in 2011.

The Mountaintop will begin performances at 7:30 pm on February 8th, continuing with 7:30 shows on the 9th, 15th, 16th, 22nd and 23rd, and 2:30 pm matinees on February 10th, 17th and 24th. New Route's performances of The Mountaintop will take place at the YWCA of McLean County, which is located at 1201 North Hershey Road in Bloomington. Tickets can be reserved by e-mailing new.route.theatre@gmail.com.

For more information about New Route Theatre and their entire schedule, you can visit their Facebook page here.