Many people know about the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and that famous photo of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. waving to more than 250,000 people gathered around the Reflecting Pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963. However, “The American Five,” now at Ford’s Theatre until Oct. 12, shares the larger story behind that historic day — going back more than 70 years.
Beginning in 1952, the play chronicles how King developed into a global leader for equality. The inner circle featured in this production reveals how the group organized the historic march, with King placed at the forefront of the movement when he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
Through playwright Chess Jakobs’ words and Aaron Posner’s directing, the audience witnesses how King’s inner circle grows through their pursuit of equal justice for all.
The play features King, played by Ro Boddie, Renea S. Brown as his wife Coretta Scott King, equal rights organizer Bayard Rustin is portrayed by Stephen Conrad Moore, Aaron Bliden portrays business owner and attorney Stanley David Levison, and Yao Dogbe is Clarence B. Jones, an attorney and writer, residing in Palo Alto, California.
“It imagines the relationships between five civil rights leaders as they work together to meet a defining moment in our country’s history,” wrote José Carrasquillo, director of artistic programming at Ford’s, in the play’s program guide. “It explores the arguments that shaped King’s ‘I Have a Dream Speech.’”
The Play’s Action: ‘Before King Became King‘
There’s been a lot of work to get this work from the page to the stage.
In 2023, Jakobs began the workshop process for “American Five,” through Ford’s Legacy Commissions established in 2021. The initiative is led by Senior Artistic Adviser Sheldon Epps, director of artistic programming, Carrasquillo and Sydné Mahone, Ford’s Theatre Legacy commissions adviser.
After the opening dialog, Jakobs jumps into this story about King’s inner circle through flashback scenes showing a young King and Scott in 1952, dating in Boston.
“Optimism was a scene of an early meeting between Coretta and Martin,” said Brown. “It was important to know a moment of their love life before King became King.”
Through the writing, performances, and scenic design by Andrew R. Cohen — featuring black and white newspaper clippings, photos and television news coverage projected onto a screen — audiences are able to keep track of time.
The audience hears King’s philosophy evolve from a perspective that justifies violence when necessary to a non-violent stance, and throughout the play, Jakobs employs a balance of humor, anger, and fear in the dialogue to convey a realistic sense of ordinary people who were chosen for a special path.
There is brilliant casting with the five actors in “American Five,” who are veterans to D.C. area stages, but are all making their Ford’s Theatre debut.
While this is his first time performing on Ford’s stage, Boddie is familiar with portraying the celebrated civil rights leaders. He was also King in the Round House Theatre production of “The Mountaintop” (2009) by Katori Hall in fall 2023.
In addition, Brown played opposite Boddie in “The Mountaintop,” and is now doing so in this production.
Further, Dogbe is Jones in this Ford’s production, but he was also in “Topdog/Underdog.”
While he, Brown and Dogbe have explored these characters before, Boddie said there’s always more work to be done when portraying these civil rights icons.
“I do an ample amount of research every time I play Dr. King,” said Boddie. “It always comes back to this quiet stillness that he exhibited when he was in rooms and how he was always good at listening.”
After seeing this production, South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn (D), shared his thoughts on the importance of “The American Five.”
“The play showed so much of the human side. People will read about those days, and even people who lived through those days, they saw what was on television and in the newspapers,” Clyburn told The Informer. “But the writer humanized this in a way that made me respect the work.”
For tickets and more information, go to fords.org.