For Black History Month, theater groups offer outstanding productions

February – national Black History Month – brings many opportunities to deepen one’s understanding of African American history and culture. Two of Knoxville’s premier offerings are the River & Rail Theatre Company’s production of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Katori Hall’s “The Mountaintop,” and “Trouble in Mind” by Alice Childress, presented by the Clarence Brown Theatre.

“The Mountaintop” imagines a conversation between the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a maid at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The two spend the last evening of his life together discussing his life, his past, his legacy and the future of America. It is the story of King the man – not the myth – and a love letter to his humanity. In 2010, the work won the Olivier Award for Best New Play.

The production stars Jamal Sterling – an actor, director, voiceover artist, educator and acting coach based out of Dallas, Texas – as King. Co-starring as Camae the maid is Jaquai Wade Pearson, a certified theatre teacher also based out of Dallas and active as a comedienne in the Los Angeles area.

Rico Bruce Wade, associate artist with the Flint Repertory Theatre and teacher at Wayne State University and Michigan Actors Studio, directs the production. He is also currently appearing in “Trouble in Mind.”

Playwright Childress was the first African American woman to have her work professionally produced on the New York stage, and “Trouble in Mind” was nominated for four Tony Awards. A dramatic comedy, it is the story of a leading actress who, in rehearsals for a groundbreaking, racially integrated 1957 Broadway production, must choose between the role of a lifetime or compromising her values.

It stars Shinnerrie Jackson, who earned her MFA at UT. She can be seen in “30 Rock” and Whit Stillman’s “Damsels in Distress,” as well as numerous theatre productions including “Ain’t I A Woman” – a one-woman show about the heroines of African American history.

These productions are particularly timely, given the College Board’s recent decision to strip its A.P. curriculum of much Black History content. Kenneth Herring, managing director of River & Rail Theatre who is also involved in the CBT production, says that the problem has always been that the story of African Americans’ suffering as well as their contributions to America has never been told properly in the first place.

“We’ve been here before. We’ve always struggled to appropriately and lovingly accept the contributions that Black Americans have made to our culture.” The tendency, says Herring, has been to downplay continued post-Civil War strife, and to enfold African Americans into general American history, rather than considering the very different circumstances and complexities with which they’ve had to contend. “If we can tell the story of how ‘everything was good after slavery,’ then we never have to talk about the socio-economic disparities that exist today.”

All the more reason to get out and see a play. Both would be even better.

“Trouble in Mind” runs Feb. 8-26 at The Clarence Brown Theatre on the UT campus. Tickets and showtimes: clarencebrowntheatre.com/plays/trouble-in-mind or call the box office, 974-5161.

“The Mountaintop” runs Feb. 16-March 5 at the Old City Performing Arts Center,111 State St. Tickets and showtimes: tinyurl.com/57e3meya.

In addition, there will be a free performance of “The Mountaintop” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 20 at the University of Tennessee Student Union Auditorium, 1502 Cumberland Ave., Room 180.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knoxville theaters two outstanding Black History Month productions