Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Neil W. McCabe | Soldiers applaud the Jan. 22 performance hosted by the Army Reserve Medical Command,...... read more read more
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. -The Army Reserve Medical Command’s Equal Opportunity’s Office hosted the play ‘The Meeting,’ at the C.W. Bill Young Armed Forces Reserve Center, Pinellas Park, Fla., in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 22, 2014.
The one-act play, written by Jeff Stetson, depicts the supposed 1965 meeting in Malcolm X’s room at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem between the Black Muslim leader, played by Masaud Olufani, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., played by Kelvin Wade, who is the show’s director and producer, the week before Malcolm’s fateful murder while he spoke at the Audubon Ballroom.
King arrives at the invitation of X, and the two men debate the merits of King’s non-violence approach with X’s more aggressive methods. The two trade barbs as they each try to figure out the other and possibly convert the other to his side.
Malcolm X: Are you still a dreamer?
King: Are you still a revolutionary?
Malcolm X: Thank you.
King: I hadn’t realized I had paid you a compliment.
Malcolm X: Ignorance is sometimes the sincerest form of flattery.
Calvin J. Colin, the equal opportunity compliance specialist for ARMEDCOM, said he brought the play to ARMEDCOM as part of the program’s effort to confront racism and eliminate it as a mission distraction.
Colin said he has seen the play four times, in both training and theater settings, and he believes it brings an important lesson and message. “A lot of people have a misconception—because of what they were taught in the history books—about the relationship between Malcolm X and Dr. King.”
Col. Tracy L. Smith, the chief of staff for ARMEDCOM, said the play did not paper over difficult issues.
“I absolutely knew it would be provocative,” she said. “Actually, I thought I would walk away with very differing opinions--and more polarizing opinions, but that is not what it was at all.”
Smith said it was an important presentation of two leaders, who paved the way for others. “I was very moved by the performance. “It was Broadway-quality work.”
Wade said as a “civil rights baby,” he has always been fascinated by the history of the movement, so when he saw ‘The Meeting’ during its run on Broadway in late 1980s, he knew immediately that it was a play he would one day produce himself.
“Even at a young age, I wanted to do my part to keep the legacy of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X alive,” said Wade. “That’s why I’ll continue to do this play for the next 20 years.”
Playing King in the play has given him a new perspective on the man, because throughout the play Malcolm X is attacking King, Wade said.
“It taught me what Dr. King actually went through,” Wade said. “He had a strong passion and a strong love for the cause—and he taught me that you don’t have to be violent or angry to get your point across.”
It took great courage to endure the bricks and the beatings King accepted as he continued to practice non-violence, he said. “I don’t know if I could have done it.”
In the two years before his assassination, Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam for both personal and philosophical reasons. After he left the organization that had been his professional home for the previous decade, it was the first time in his public career that he was in personal danger not just from the opponents of civil rights, but from his former colleagues, who viewed him as a traitor and opportunist.
Olufani said he played Malcolm X with his anticipating his coming death.
“He was struggling with that notion that I need to do the things that I am doing,” said Olufani. “But, he was a human being, so he was afraid of dying.”
The actor said he was anxious about presenting the play with an audience of soldiers. “I always thought it would be in front of a civilian theater crowd.”
But, he understands now how a military audience would appreciate the play at a different level, Olufani said.
“After I thought about it, I thought that it was really a cool context for it to be in,” he said.
“A lot of the conversation is about government, the perception of government and the use of violence,” Olufini said.
“It was great because essentially, you are in front of a governmental body, an agency of the government—and to deal with those issues up front and in the open in front of that body is great,” he said. “It took me a minute to get my mind around it, but once I did, I could see the wisdom in it.”
Sgt. Maj. W. James Wheeler, assigned to the 5th Medical Brigade, Birmingham, Ala., said the play both entertained and enlightened him.
Wheeler said, “I feel blessed and welcome just to be here and I appreciate ARMEDCOM and all those behind the scenes, who put this event together.”
Master Sgt. Valdez C. Matthews, the operations noncommissioned officer in charge at the 3rd Medical Command, said he had read the play as a book, but was seeing it performed for the first time.
Both men were adamant about how to bring about change, he said.
“I thought it was a very good play,” he said. “What jumped out at me was the level of competitiveness in their non-competitiveness.”
Actor Trivon Xavier Howard, who played Malcolm X’s bodyguard and assistant Rashad, said his portrayal was the significant difference between this production and how the play was performed on Broadway.
Howard, who has been in the role for six months, said in the original production Rashad is played by as an older and more confident man, whereas in this version, he and Wade worked to make him an angry young man.
“We wanted to play Rashad as a young hothead-guy, who actually is fired up on the inside, and doesn’t know how to really control it,” he said. “He is still learning.”
At one point in the play, Malcolm X and King are so frustrated with each other that King is ready to walk out and Malcolm X asks Rashad to hail King a cab.
At that request, Rashad responds: “It’ll be my pleasure!” It is the biggest punch line of the show.
“I love that line,” he said. “I can’t wait to say it. I’m waiting on the doorknob, about to turn it right when he says his line.”
Howard said he was moved to be playing in front of a military audience for the first time. “I knew how valuable it was to them—but, their presence was valuable to me onstage.”
When he is off-stage, Howard said he becomes part of the audience and his favorite scene is when Malcolm X and King go out onto the hotel room balcony and look out at Harlem together.
“It just seems like they are one, two different people, two different bodies—but at the end of the day, they are one person to me,” Howard said.
| Date Taken: | 01.22.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 01.28.2014 15:35 |
| Story ID: | 119770 |
| Location: | PINELLAS PARK, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 243 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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