Skip to main content

[Update: Show Sold Out] Walltown Children's Theatre Performs MLK Tribute Jan. 15 at Duke

"Waiting for Martin" is an original play created to gather children and parents to focus on King's influence on America.

The Walltown Children's Theatre will perform "Waiting for Martin" Jan. 15 at Duke.

The Walltown Children's Theatre will present the original play "Waiting For Martin" as part of Duke University's Martin Luther King Jr. celebration.

The event will be held at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 15, in Reynolds Theater in the Bryan Student Center. It is free and open to the public.

To reserve seats, call Walltown Children's Theatre at (919) 286-4545. Free parking for the event will be available in the Bryan Center parking garage off Science Drive. Directions are available online.

The play portrays three teenagers living beneath railroad tracks in rural Alabama during the civil rights era. The oldest of the three, Solomon, tells the other two that King will come to their town because "like someone in the Bible, he always comes when people are having problems." With that setting, the play explores King and the context in which he lived and died.

"The play is not so much meant to be a documentary of the life of Martin Luther King, but to give a feeling of the country and some of the people at that particular time," said Walltown Theater director Joseph Henderson, who wrote the play. The play aims to convey to an audience of children and their families "how much hope people put in King."

Henderson said he remembers the hope that King brought to his home in East Durham in the 1960s. "When Dr. King had a victory, it was like watching my father get excited about someone hitting a homerun in the World Series," he said. "It was like he had scored a victory through Dr. King."

In the hour-long play, the cast of five teenagers and two adults is joined by the Voices of Carter Community School choir and the Retired and Inspired Singing Seniors.

The Walltown Children's Theatre was established in 2000 by Henderson and Cynthia Penn to offer performance opportunities to young people, including those who would not otherwise have them. The Retired and Inspired Singing Seniors is a choir based at the Lyon Park Senior Center. Voices of Carter is the middle school choir of Carter Community School in the Walltown neighborhood. All three organizations are members of the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership, which aims to improve the quality of life in the 12 neighborhoods closest to Duke.

The play is part of Duke's 18th annual King commemoration Jan. 12-22. Other events, which are also free and open to the public, include:

-- A presentation "America Exposed" by Danté James, producer of the Emmy-winning series "Slavery and the Making of America," 7-9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 12, in the Richard White Auditorium on East Campus.

-- A keynote address by Andrew Young, a confidant of King and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, during a service in Duke Chapel at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 14.

-- A series of "Freedom School" discussions on contemporary social issues, led by Duke professors and students as well as invited speakers, from 11 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday, Jan. 15, in the Bryan Center. The discussions are inspired by the Freedom Schools organized during the civil rights movement.

-- A presentation "The Struggle Makes You Stronger: Lessons Dr. King Taught Me" by performer and comedian Nancy Giles at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 15, in Reynolds Auditorium.

-- The Million Meals Service Event to package dried foods for distribution to people facing starvation. The volunteer project takes place at North Carolina Central University from 2-10 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 17, and is co-sponsored by North Carolina Central University, Duke, Stop Hunger Now and the Durham Rotary Club.

For details and an updated calendar of events, call (919) 684-8030 or visit the 2007 commemoration website.