The University of Delaware’s Resident Ensemble Players (REP) opens the 2017-18 season with Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop, the powerful and poetic re-imagination of Dr. Martin Luther King’s final night on earth. Performances begin Thursday, Sept. 14, and run through Sunday, Oct. 8, in the Thompson Theatre at the University’s Roselle Center for the Arts.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.rep.udel.edu, by phone at 302-831-2204 or in person at the REP box office in the Roselle Center for the Arts.

In the play -- set in Memphis on April 3, 1968 -- King returns to the Lorraine Motel, exhausted from yet another rally and speech addressing issues of economic justice. His requested room service coffee appears in the hands of Camae, a feisty and mysterious maid with a sassy sense of humor and some surprising news that forces King to look at his life and confront his hopes, dreams and destiny. 

“What Hall has done is dared to go beyond the iconic image of Martin Luther King and instead delve into what she imagines is the psychological and spiritual center of this man’s fears, desires and intentions,” says director Walter Dallas.

“She looks at this great man, not through historical fact but through an emotional, and magical, lens and sees a human being at a personal crossroads of absolute exhaustion on one hand and the burning hope and desire to continue the fight on the other.”

The Mountaintop runs approximately 95 minutes, with no intermission. The play contains profanity and strong language and is recommended for those 14 years of age and up.

The Mountaintop begins previews on Thursday, Sept. 14, opens Saturday, Sept. 16, and runs through Sunday, Oct. 8. Single tickets are $26-$31, with discounts available for seniors, full-time students, military and groups of 10 or more. For tickets, call the REP box office at 302-831-2204, www.rep.udel.edu or visit the box office in the Roselle Center for the Arts, 110 Orchard Rd, Newark, DE.

Special events

Question-and-answer sessions with actors Hassan El-Amin (Martin Luther King Jr.) and Antoinette Robinson (Camae) take place after every performance, excluding Sept. 14 and 15.

Free pre-performance prologues will take place beginning at 1:15 p.m. on Sept. 23 and Oct. 1. Prologue speakers are REP company members or guest scholars who discuss the play itself or topics and issues surrounding the play.

Also on stage Sept. 21-Oct. 8

The REP’s production of the raucous and delightfully madcap comedy You Can’t Take It With You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart performs Sept. 21 through Oct. 8 in the Thompson Theatre in the Roselle Center for the Arts. 

What happens when the creatively eccentric Sycamore family meets the high society parents of their daughter’s fiancé?  Anything but a quiet evening with the in-laws. From snakes in the living room to dreamy candy in the kitchen, to fireworks in the basement, this madcap yet tight-knit family offers proof that love and laughter can lead to happiness, even in the hardest of times.

Tickets and information can be found at www.rep.udel.edu.

About Walter Dallas, director of ‘The Mountaintop’

Walter Dallas has directed numerous productions on and off Broadway including over 30 world premieres that include August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, named one of the Top 10 Best Theatre Events by Time Magazine, (Chicago’s Goodman Theatre); James Baldwin’s The Welcome Table (New York’s Lincoln Center); and John Henry Redwood’s The Old Settler (Princeton’s McCarter Theatre). Most recently, he directed the New York premiere of Richard Wesley’s political drama Autumn, for the Billie Holiday Theatre, and George Stevens Jr.’s one-man play, Thurgood, for the Olney Theatre Center in Maryland. 

Dallas has received numerous accolades, including two Atlanta Creative Genius Awards and a local San Francisco Emmy Award. He received a proclamation, Walter Dallas Day from Atlanta’s Mayor Maynard Jackson, and his off-Broadway production of Moms garnered an Obie Award for its star, Clarice Taylor, and resulted in two national tours. Dallas received the 2016 Special Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement for Excellence in Black Theatre from New York’s prestigious AUDELCO Committee.

In Philadelphia, Dallas created the School of Theatre for the University of the Arts and served as artistic director of the award-winning Freedom Theatre. He broke box office history with his production of Porgy and Bess for the Philadelphia Opera Company and was recently declared one of “Philadelphia’s 100 History Makers of the 20th Century.”

Dallas was lead writer for the international multi-award winning documentary, Standing in the Shadows of Motown, whose soundtrack won four Grammy Awards. He is also a professional photographer, and his work focusing on West African children can be seen in the National Geographic’s Online Gallery.

About the REP

The Resident Ensemble Players (REP) is a professional theatre company located at the University of Delaware. The REP’s mission is to engage audiences throughout the tri-state region with frequent productions of outstanding classic, modern and contemporary plays performed in a wide variety of styles that celebrate and demonstrate the range and breadth of each resident actor in this ensemble of nationally respected stage actors who have been trained in the same way.

The REP is committed to create future audiences for live theatre by offering its productions at low prices that enable and encourage the attendance of everyone in the region, regardless of income.