By Charlene Baldridge
Recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award and playing currently through Oct. 4, “Blueprints to Freedom: An Ode to Bayard Rustin,” presents many playgoers a bit of 1963 civil-rights history they may not have learned in America’s grade schools because it hadn’t happened yet.
That having been stated, the work by Michael Benjamin Washington, who also plays the title role, is so fascinating a chunk of time and so timely in its content that it might be ripped from today’s headlines. Rights may have been won in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, but racism is far from dead. Moreover, for a long one-act play without interval (the co-world premiere with Kansas City Repertory Theatre was developed during the La Jolla Playhouse’s DNA New Work Series), Washington’s five characters are powerful and endearing, despite a change of directors and a truly last-minute replacement of one of the actors.
Lucie Tiberghein replaced the original director, Phylicia Rashad, who helmed the workshop production. Beloved San Diego actor Antonio T.J. Johnson, now forever a hero, stepped in at the 11th hour for the previously announced Jonathan Peck in the major role of A. Philip Randolph, who selected Rustin to bring about the march.
Rustin (1912-1987) was an out gay man in a world far from ready for such a thing. In 1936 he declared himself a Quaker and in 1937, while attending City College of New York, became an organizer for the Youth Communist League, an organization he repudiated four years later. Both of these facts later prevented him from being fully accepted by civil-rights leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whom he persuaded to embrace Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violent protest, and with whom he had a falling out in 1960.
As deputy director and chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, Rustin is given a budget. The first hire visible to us is Miriam Caldwell (Mandi Masden), a young black woman with ideas that complement Rustin’s. As co-collaborators and kindred spirits, they develop a wondrous, close relationship based on camaraderie and mutual respect. Possessed of the gravitas required, plus random gleams of like respect and good humor, Ro Boddie plays King.
As Rustin’s ex-lover, Davis Platt Jr., actor Mat Hostetler is gentle yet strong. These scenes, as Platt tries to persuade Rustin to move west with him and chuck the entire politically charged march, are among the play’s most affecting. They underscore the dilemma of a man who knows he has a mission, is no longer certain of God’s support, has deep self-doubts, and who surrenders personal happiness for a cause.
My only complaint is that the journey of the play feels a bit bumpy and overpacked. As with any history there is a lot to process while sitting in the dark; however, Washington’s narrative, the poetry of his language and the breadth of his characters make any mental sweat expended worth one’s while. The big visual reward — when Rustin’s dark office, filled with spirits of the ancestors saved by the Underground Railroad, opens up on the National Mall — is breathtaking, thanks to scenic designer Neil Patel’s amazing set, aided by John Narun’s stirring projection design, which includes shots of the actual march. Beth Goldenberg is costume designer; Lap Chi Chu, lighting designer; and Joe Huppert, the sound designer. Charles G. LaPointe is wig designer. The dramaturg is Gabriel Greene.
Congratulations to all involved on the development of this important work.
—Charlene Baldridge has been writing about the arts since 1979. You can follow her blog at charlenebaldridge.com or reach her at [email protected].
